Tweet me!Things that shouldn't happen if you're going to beat the #3 team in the nation.
* You shouldn't allow them to make 50 percent or better of their shots (threes included).
* You shouldn't have more fouls than the opposing team.
* You shouldn't shoot 26 percent from the arc and just 50 percent from the line.
* You shouldn't have six more turnovers than the opposition.
* The reason you have over 10,000 watching your game (11,045) shouldn't be because of those following the opposition.
* And, your senior guard shouldn't go 0-6 from the three-point line and score just four points.
Unfortunately, it was “all of the above” for UC at Fifth Third Arena Sunday. The Bearcats hung with third-ranked Syracuse for most of the game, but then faltered in the final ten minutes.
Sound familiar?
Sadly, it is.
The Bearcats have hung with some pretty decent teams, but only in one game (Connecticut) did they have the intestinal fortitude to follow through and FINISH the win. In many of the other losses, UC was right in the game, but couldn't put anything together down the stretch and/or played carelessly
(Gonzaga, Xavier, Pitt, Seton Hall, St. John's and Louisville).
The difference in teams that win those games and those that don't are leaders on the floor. This team has loads of talent, but no one that you would call a leader. Your only seniors are Deonta Vaughn and Steve Toyloy.
Toyloy gets a pass because rarely do junior college transfers come in and play that role. Vaughn on the other hand, is as close to a leader as UC has. The downside is either he's not effective at it, or it just doesn't fit his personality.
Don't get me wrong; Deonta Vaughn has been one of the most productive Bearcats ever. However, he doesn't fit as someone that will take a team on his shoulders and get them on the same page.
Vaughn isn't necessarily vocal, but you don't always have to be loud to lead. Going back a few years, I could put Leonard Stokes in that category along with Jason Maxiell. Others from the past were more demonstrative like Eric Hicks, Steve Logan and Kenyon Martin.
Not only does this team not have talent like that, they don't have the skills to “rally” UC to victory. From what I see, the Bearcats have gifted youngsters, but it almost looks like they don't always mesh with Vaughn.
Perhaps that explains Vaughn's drop in numbers. This was supposed to be the year where Deonta would move to “the two guard” and be freed up to score more. Instead, Vaughn's scoring average is around the 12 points per game range, the lowest of his four seasons (14.5 as a freshman, 17.3 as a sophomore, 15.3 as a junior).
Sunday against Sycamore marked the eighth time that Vaughn was held below double digits. In one game, he laid a goose egg (and UC still managed to beat the Miami Redhawks). Twice, against Big East competition now, Vaughn has been held to four (at St. John's and Sunday against the Orange).
This last effort saw him shoot 2-10 while missing all six of this three-point attempts.
“I got good looks at the basket on my shot attempts,” said Vaughn. “I think I just short-armed them some and was leaning back some expecting them to close out more. They didn't and I ended up missing the shots. They went in and out or hit the front end. All of my shots were good looking shots, I just was thinking too much.”
While it doesn't appear logical, sometimes “thinking” in sports is a bad thing. In UC's predicament, that thinking could extend to their postseason chances. At 14-9, UC can play their way into the NCAA tournament, or remain in “cruise control” and hope for the “Miss Congeniality” award,
a/k/a the NIT.
“We're not too much worried about that right now,” said Vaughn when asked about UC's tourney chances. “We just know that we've got some winnable games still ahead of us and the Big East tournament coming up. It's a good team we were up against, we let it slip away from us in the last ten minutes of the second half. We've just got to keep playing (and) don't worry about what other people are saying about us.”
If they can tune all of that out, that's good. On the other hand, it's pretty tough to avoid the fact that UC scored just five points in the last twelve minutes. And, it's pretty tough to ignore that this team has a difficult time closing out games. If the NCAA shortened games to 30 minutes, UC might be nearing 20 wins. Instead, they're in jeopardy of not even winning the same amount of games they did last season with pretty much the same personnel.
“Very proud of our guys effort,” said Cronin despite the 17-point loss. “We stopped them from getting baskets for 30 minutes. We did a great job of not giving them easy baskets for 30 minutes.”
Again though, the agreed upon rules call for 40-minute ballgames.
Still, Mick Cronin believes the Bearcats can yet make a run (despite their lack of success in closing out games).
His reasoning?
“We don't play Syracuse,” Cronin replied. “The last three days, we've become a much better team. We're focused on the right things—trying to get each other good shots. Our focus was right where it needed to be today. If we play the way we did today, we'll be in good shape.”
???????? (I believe that would be our collective reaction after those comments)
Cronin went so far as to say he was “encouraged”.
“With eight minutes to play, it's a one-point game against the best team in the country (in Cronin's opinion),” he said. “We understand that we're in the situation we're in because we gave three games away or we'd be 17-6.”
That sounds like it came directly out of the coaching manual in terms of trying to keep your team “positive”.
Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. The one thing evident though is UC's not in the same category as the upper portion of the Big East.
“There are those that help you win and those that don't,” said Cronin in comparing UC's talent with the Jim Boeheim's Orange. “These guys are obviously helping Coach Boeheim win a lot of games which makes them better players. They have better players. It's very obvious when you watch them play.”
So, the Bearcats have trips to UConn, South Florida and West Virginia on the horizon, with home dates against Marquette, DePaul and Villanova. Then, it's the Big East tournament.
Do you see four wins there (to equal last season's mark)? Do you see “winnable” games?
Do you like Deonta Vaughn referring to “winnable games”?
When I hear that, I translate it as maybe they'll beat South Florida and DePaul. That doesn't strike me as great leadership. A true leader believes he has a fighting chance in all of the games. Every game should be a winnable game and should be played as such.
Until Vaughn and his co-horts adopt that mentality, they're going to hover around .500.
Those who hover around .500 tend to find themselves at home in mid-March watching the teams that play with more heart and guts than this team has showed.
It's all about how you choose to be remembered
