Ugly Game, Pretty Results

A couple of weeks ago Mick Cronin said that to win in the Big East you have to win ugly. Thursday night at St John's was the ever popular "pig with lipstick". Meet the pig: an 11 point deficit at half time, only 1 for 11 three pointers in the first half for UC, Rashad Bishop getting ejected early in the second half and a combined 53 foul shots. It wasn't pretty but it was a 71-60 win when the smoke cleared. Here is the ESPNU recap of the first half before the second half got started.

As we said earlier, Rashad Bishop and St John's D.J. Kennedy were ejected early in the second half. No punches were thrown, no pushing, just some jawing. Apparently that was enough.

After Bishop was gone the team began to turn things around. Deonta Vaughn was definitely the team leader down the stretch. He had 20 of his 23 points in the second half. Trailing by 11 with just over 13 minutes to go UC outscored St Johns 31-9 from that point. Deonta Vaughn was a major part of that run.

On the road trip the Cats won 2 out of 3. Now it's back to practice and some time off. The next game is at home next Wednesday when Georgetown pays a visit to Fifth Third Arena.

Miss St: Learning Experience

Thursday nights victory over Mississippi State was a "quality win". After a tough game last Saturday when the Bearcats stumbled out of the gate they played terrific basketball in the first half and were able to sustain a 2nd half charge by the Bulldogs and win the game.

UC jumped on Mississippi State early and often building a comfortable lead in the first half. Then in the second half the Bulldogs mounted a comeback. It was definitely a tale of two halves for UC.

The second half comeback by Mississippi State was an area of concern, but it depends if you are a glass half full or glass half empty person. Glass half empty, yes they blew a large lead. Glass half full, the young guys didn't loose their composure and they weathered the storm and built the lead back into a nice win. Who kept the team from falling apart?

With an SEC team leaving town does not mean it gets any easier. As Coach Cronin said there are no easy games and Eastern Kentucky is a formidable opponent. What is he looking for out of the next two games before Christmas?

Saturday night the Cats square off against Eastern Kentucky at Fifth third arena.

Win Helps Hangover

Monday night the Bearcats were back on the court at Fifth Third Arena trying to "move on" after the loss to Xavier over the weekend. The opponent was a Big South team in Charleston Southern.

Last week before the Xavier game head coach Mick Cronin said that he scheduled the game Monday for his team to "get Xavier out of their system" before their gameThursday against Mississippi State.  Did the 74-55 win accomplish the goal?

The only down side in Mondays win was the crowd, or lack their of.   Less than 6,00o were on hand.  Thursday UC hosts the Big East/SEC Challenge at  the US Bank Arena downtown as part of a doubleheader with Louisville.  A big crowd is needed so events like it will return in the future.  This year it's Mississippi and Mississippi St, who knows in the future other SEC teams like LSU, Florida and Kentucky could be playing downtown in this event, but not without success this year.

Bearcat Sports Page.com will have interviews about Mississippi State leading up to Thursdays game.