Monday, January 24, 2000BEARCATS NOTEBOOK
Poor conditioning costs Grove trip
Center B.J. Grove did not make the trip to Milwaukee with the Bearcats for Sunday's game against Marquette because he failed to meet team goals for his conditioning.
Grove, a 6-foot-11 freshman, practiced with the team Friday, its last session before departing. He did some extra shooting while his teammates watched videotape of Marquette.
He could be back in uniform when the Bearcats travel to Louisville for their game Thursday at Freedom Hall, if he makes the required progress.
Playing in nine of UC's 18 games, Grove has averaged 2.1 points and 1.9 rebounds and shot .583 from the floor. He did not play in the past four games, all of which remained close into the final 10 minutes.
He's No.1
The Bearcats went into the Marquette game knowing they would hold the No.1 ranking in the Associated Press poll if they were able to leave with a victory — especially with No.2 Arizona losing to Southern California late Saturday.That would mark their seventh week of the 1999-2000 season at the top of the Associated Press poll. That's as many weeks as senior forward Pete Mickeal spent with the No.1 team at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa — even though his teams won two NJCAA championships.
After 18 games of this, Mickeal's senior season, he had a 120-8 record in college basketball, a .938 winning percentage.
Numbers game
Mickeal has a chance to achieve a rare distinction by the end of the season. He has not played at UC for two full seasons, but he could reach the 1,000-point mark if the Bearcats can extend their stays in the Conference USA and NCAA tournaments. At 14.7 points per game, they would need to play 17 games for him to make it; they have 13 games remaining in the regular season. The only UC player to reach 1,000 points in two seasons was forward Herb Jones, who scored 1,097 in the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons.• Center Kenyon Martin holds a share of UC's single-game blocks record (10) and sets a new mark for career blocks — now 251 — each time he rejects a shot. Martin also has the single-season mark with 83, but at his present pace will break that record in UC's Feb. 5 road game at UAB.
• Martin is 37th on UC's career scoring list after passing the 1,000 point mark Wednesday's against Memphis. He could climb to 17th by continuing at his current scoring average.
• UC has held opponents under .400 shooting in each of the past four seasons, but this season's field goal defense of .364 is by far the best under coach Bob Huggins. The previous best was .382 last season.
• UC was plus-22 in turnovers in its past two games, committing just 16 and forcing 38.
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