Sunday, March 12, 2000
UC players sense improvement in practice
BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As if they weren't certain they would be without Kenyon Martin for the remainder of the college basketball season, the Cincinnati Bearcats were without Kenyon Martin when practice began Saturday morning.
He arrived an hour later, after receiving treatment on the leg he fractured in Thursday's Conference USA tournament game against St. Louis.
Once inside the Shoemaker Center arena, Martin encountered a team that insists it is ready to cope with his absence.
“They were good today,” coach Bob Huggins said. “Granted, Kenyon was a big part of what we do, but those other guys are good players.”
The process of making more extensive use of those players began with their first post-Martin practice session. The emphasis was on more determined screening by the big men, spreading the court to take advantage of the quickness and ballhandling ability of UC's perimeter players and using more motion offense and fewer set plays.
Practice for the Bearcats, who will learn today their opponent in the NCAA Tournament, began with defensive work — as always — with Huggins calling for guards to work harder at denying penetration because Martin no longer is in the lane to block or change shots. Freshman Donald Little also is an effective shot-blocker but does not create the same fear factor at this point.
“We improved so much in one day,” said forward Pete Mickeal. “It was kind of unbelievable. We've still got a chance to win this thing. People are all saying we'll lose in the second round again, but we'll prove everybody wrong.
“Our goal is not the second round. It's to get to the Final Four and win it all.”
The offensive changes will place a greater emphasis on the contributions of freshman guards DerMarr Johnson and Kenny Satterfield.
Satterfield already controls the ball, but he'll not have Martin to bail out any misdirected possessions. He is excellent at running fastbreaks and would aid the Bearcats if he were to push the ball more often. Johnson, UC's 6-foot-9 shooting guard, had refocused his game around 3-point shooting to complement Martin's inside play. He is among the best in college basketball at finishing drives and fastbreaks, though, and figures to employ those skills more often.
During the season, Johnson averaged nine shots and never attempted more than 14. That figures to change.
“It's what I've been doing all my life. Coming here, I made an adjustment to just being an outside shooter, basically, and feeding off of what Kenyon did,” Johnson said. “Now, I've got to create off the dribble more.
“I think we've got to run more. It won't be so easy to just get the ball into the post to Kenyon, run a set play and score.”
Johnson said he did not respond well enough to Martin's absence to help the Bearcats avoid defeat in the Saint Louis game. But, he said, a week of practice will make a difference.
“Depending on what seed we are, we won't have to play a really tough team,” he said. “We'll look at the first round as a round that we have to go out and win.”
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