Friday, March 10, 2000

Bearcats will try to regroup

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Huggins will look for new combinations

BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jermaine Tate can't bear to watch the end of the game. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        MEMPHIS, Tenn. — As Kenyon Martin sat surrounded by physicians and coach Bob Huggins some 60 feet away, assistant coach Mick Cronin tried to talk to the remaining Cincinnati Bearcats about continuing to focus on winning their game Thursday against Saint Louis.

        “Not one guy was listening,” Cronin said. “They were looking at me respectfully, but ...”

        Their minds were elsewhere: on how much Martin meant to them as a friend and leader and what he contributed to their team, and on all the work they had done to reach the No.1 ranking that now seemed fruitless.

        Martin was down with a leg injury just minutes into the game, and it was apparent to nearly everyone at The Pyramid it would end his season.

        When the day began, the Bearcats were seven days away from beginning the NCAA Tournament as clear-cut favorites to win the national championship. And Martin was the principal reason.

        “It's not really about being the best player in the country. It's about the type of person he is, the type of guy he is in the locker room,” UC forward Pete Mickeal said. “We lost our inspiration, the guy that keeps everybody going. So we lose that.”

        Perhaps not. Martin insists he will attend every practice session, every meeting.

        “This team can still win it, and I'm going to be there with them,” Martin said. “We can still play six games. I'll be there with them through whatever happens.”

        Although you'd have a difficult time convincing them, it's possible the Bearcats were better off to lose the Saint Louis game than to continue in the C-USA tournament.

        There is so much to accomplish in terms of reworking the Bearcats between now and the start of the tournament, they may get more accomplished by practicing at their own place than by conjuring different approaches in pre-game walk-throughs and testing them in the semifinals and finals.

        “Everybody wants to win the tournament,” guard Steve Logan said. “I can't tell which is better, but we'd have liked to win.”

        There's not much to tell about what kind of team the Bearcats can be without Martin from their effort against Saint Louis in Thursday's quarterfinal.

        UC will need time to adjust to his absence. The Bearcats had become lax on offense because Martin had grown into such a brilliantly dependable scorer, with an average of better than 24 points after Feb. 1. They did not run as much as possible. They did not execute their patterns as crisply because they expected Martin would bail them out with another turnaround jumper.

        “Hopefully, this makes guys more focused, where everybody comes in and does work every day,” Mickeal said. “All the playing is over with. We've got to really get serious.”

        The Bearcats still have four players — Mickeal, and guards Kenny Satterfield, Steve Logan and DerMarr Johnson — who have scored 23 points in a game. Big men Ryan Fletcher and Jermaine Tate have reached double figures on occasion.

        So there are options, but Huggins will have to redirect the offense.

        With his inside game and slashes to the goal, Mickeal proved he could be the focus of a top 10-level offense last season. Satterfield's penetration skills are valuable, but he'll have to expect more big men to close on him when he arrives in the lane now that Martin is not inside to discourage them from leaving the baseline.

        “We're still a good basketball team,” Huggins said. “We've still got good players. Our good players have got to go play. Kenyon woudn't want anything other than for our players to go play and win.”

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