Friday, February 18, 2000
UC NOTEBOOK
Seniors not too excited
BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It was “loyalty” that kept Cincinnati Bearcats coach Bob Huggins from benching some of his seniors in the second half of a 77-65 victory over Houston.
“We probably had some seniors today that I shouldn't have played,” Huggins said, “because they were less than enthusiastic about being out there.”
Center Kenyon Martin recorded his 11th double-double — and third in a row — and forward Jermaine Tate grabbed five rebounds and scored seven points. From forwards Pete Mickeal and Ryan Fletcher, UC got 2-of-17 shooting. They both were productive on the boards, with Mickeal getting eight rebounds and Fletcher 10. UC allowed a 46-28 halftime deficit to be closed twice to seven points.
Martin was upset with himself for missing 10 free throws, but Huggins was not concerned it would become a trend.
“Everybody's sitting here complaining,” Huggins said, “and the guy got 26 points, 17 rebounds and blocked five shots. That's a bad day. We should all be so lucky.”
Block this
While UC clinched the C-USA title, Martin ended the game with the league's blocked-shot title all but assured.
Martin led the league in blocks in each of the previous two seasons, but last year had an edge on Southern Mississippi's Carlos Booker of only 0.2 per game (2.3 to 2.1).
Booker is again Martin's closest challenger, but he's not close. Martin finished the Houston game with 96 blocks, an average of 3.8 per game. After getting two in a big win Wednesday night against Saint Louis — the result that gave the Bearcats their league championship — Booker has 63 blocks and a 2.7 average.
If Martin played in the remaining five games but did not block another shot, he would finish with an average of 3.2. To beat that, Booker would have to average 6.6 blocks in his five games.
Surprise leader
Steve Logan leads Conference USA in three major statistical categories.
Following the Houston game, Logan owned a commanding lead in free throw shooting (.849 to .823 for Saint Louis' Justin Love), assist/turnover ratio (2.89-to-1 compared to 2.11-to-1 for UNC Charlotte's Diego Guevara) and 3-point percentage (.459 to .451 for Marquette's Brian Wardle).
Logan, a 5-foot-10 guard who plays both backcourt spots for the Bearcats, has come off the bench the past five games.
Numbers game
With the win, UC tied the third-longest winning streak in school history. Their 16-game matches the 1958-59 and 1957-58 teams.
• UC's .418 shooting from the field was its third-poorest performance of the season.
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