Saturday, November 20, 1999
UC freshmen ready for first step
Careers start tonight vs. Youngstown
BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[johnson]](/bearcats/img/photos/1999/10/101799johnson_200x150.jpg)
Freshman DerMarr Johnson has been compared to Oscar Robertson.
(Jeff Swinger photo)
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At some point in the basketball season that begins tonight for the No. 1-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats, freshman guard DerMarr Johnson will probably reach a stage where he does not need to think about where to run, how to move, when to shoot, what to do.
It could come against Youngstown State (1-0) at 6 p.m. tonight at the Shoemaker Center. Most likely, it will happen some time in the future.
“I can't wait, because right now, I don't feel like it's me out there playing,” Johnson said. “I'm trying so hard not to make mistakes, and when you're trying not to make them, you think about them, and I guess you make them more.
“I knew there'd be an adjustment, but not this much of an adjustment.”
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YOUNGSTOWN ST. at UC
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• When: 6 p.m.
• Where: Shoemaker Center (13,176)
• Records: UC 0-0; Youngstown State 1-0
• TV: Channel 19
• Radio: WLW-AM 700
BY THE NUMBERS
• 19: Consecutive season openers won by the Bearcats
• 32: Consecutive games won by UC at the Shoemaker Center, fifth-longest in the nation.
• 78-87: UC assistant coach Dan Peters' record in six seasons as Youngstown State head coach.
• 1-0: Career record of his successor, John Robic, a former assistant at Massachusetts.
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The transition from high school to college basketball is a more significant leap than it may seem. The baskets still are 10 feet from the ground, but the plays are more complicated, the competition is more intense, the pressure is increased.
The difficulty compounds when a team tries to mix in several freshmen at once, and when that team faces the sort of expectations heaped upon UC because of its wealth of veteran players and the talent of its recruits.
UC was voted No.1 in the Associated Press poll because it has two seniors with All-America potential in forward Pete Mickeal and center Kenyon Martin, a capable group of veterans that includes point guard Steve Logan and big men Jermaine Tate and Ryan Fletcher, and the material to improve with Johnson and fellow McDonald's All-American Kenny Satterfield joining the roster.
With three freshmen in the Bearcats' primary rotation, though, anyone who expects them to be at their best in their first game must not expect the Bearcats to be very good late in the season.
“I'm as patient as I've ever been,” said coach Bob Huggins. “The freshmen are going to have to play. I've got to get them ready to play. They pay attention. It's not that. They've got to turn it up a couple levels, but it's not that they act like they know everything or don't want to hear it. They're coachable. They just don't play hard enough.
“Part of that's maybe they're thinking a lot. They're thinking and not reacting.”
Only the rarest of college players makes a smashing debut in the first game of his freshman season. The first time Michael Redd stepped on the court for Ohio State, he scored 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds against Kent. Dontonio Wingfield scored 30 when he opened for the Bearcats in 1993.
When Connecticut's Richard Hamilton visited Indiana for the first game of the 1996-97 season, he made only two of 11 shots and scored six points. In his final five games that season, he averaged 25 and finished the season averaging 15.9 points per game.
“It all depends on the player. Some guys get better than others quicker,” Huggins said. “Some of them never get it.”
Each of the freshmen claims defense at this level has been more difficult to grasp than offense. That's no surprise, since defense for the best players at the high school level is geared more to forcing steals and blocking shots than to denying position and helping teammates.
Freshman guard Leonard Stokes has not been part of the Bearcats long enough to learn a veteran's tricks, but he's got one custom-made for a rookie. When the coaches are introducing a new play or drill, he heads for the back of the line. He's not hiding. He's observing.
“I don't want to get up there and be the second person, and then I don't know it,” Stokes said. “And while I'm back there, I'll talk to Fletch or Kenyon or Pete, and they'll help me understand it.'
“I didn't think it would be this complicated. They throw something at you, and you've just got to know it. You've got to learn a lot, and you've got to learn it quick.”
Johnson, Satterfield and Stokes all have had moments when their talent for the game eclipsed their uncertainty about how to apply it.
Satterfield has demonstrated a rare ability to operate the fast break and a knack for penetrating the defense. Johnson reached double figures in scoring in both exhibitions even though he wasn't comfortable on the floor. Stokes has been the most consistent perimeter shooter of the three; perhaps the best on the roster.
But the closer the season has come, the more material there has been for the freshmen to cover and the more information they've had to process.
“Lately, it's been real difficult, because the season's about to start,” Satterfield said. “(Huggins is) really trying to get us through it, and it's taking some time, so he's pushing us hard.”
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![[johnson]](/bearcats/img/photos/1999/10/101799johnson_550x413.jpg)
