Thursday, March 16, 2000UC: Less fanfare, more focus
Anonymous Bearcats go about business
BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati EnquirerNASHVILLE — Footsteps along the solid marble floor echo throughout the hotel lobby. There is no commotion here. The Cincinnati Bearcats are staying upstairs, but that no longer is the cause for hysteria it was one week ago.
UC was college basketball's No.1 team then, featuring the nation's No.1 player. Autograph seekers — professionals and amateurs — greeted the team bus each time it stopped. The Bearcats came to resemble a traveling rock show.
Since Naismith Trophy winner Kenyon Martin broke his leg last Thursday, however, they've come to be widely viewed as a bunch of has-beens. You half-expect to see Ryan Fletcher or Jermaine Tate talking about the good old days on an episode of “Behind The Music.”
“If we were still No. 1, people would be showing up at the hotel,” said forward Pete Mickeal. “It would be a different scene.”
The Bearcats recognize how quickly the attitude toward them has changed. How could they not?
The selection committee for the NCAA Tournament de moted them from a certain No.1 seed to No.2 in the South Region, where they will open play Friday at the Gaylord Entertainment Center against UNC Wilmington (18-12).
The voters in the Associated Press poll dropped them from No. 1 to No. 7 in the final poll. The Bearcats' 28-3 record is better than any of the teams rated ahead of them, and they held the top spot in the polls for 12 weeks, but because Martin was injured in the final game before the vote was taken, the team's accom plishments this season were largely dismissed.
The fuss that seemed certain to develop wherever the Bearcats were shipped for the tournament — presumably Cleveland — has not developed here.
“I think that's good,” Mickeal said. “I think anything that allows us to concentrate on what we're trying to get accomplished is good. We're all getting focused. We're all on the same page.”
The blue-collar approach the Bearcats have been forced to adopt would not fit as well with a team being treated like royalty. They had a collective cause to pursue in what remained of the season the moment they learned they would be without Martin, and their abandonment can only serve to increase their fervor.
In the five days they've been back at practice, reworking both their offensive and defensive schemes, Huggins hasn't once walked away less than pleased with UC's effort and execution.
They may be riding a one-game losing streak, but the Bearcats haven't had a run of practices like that all season.
“All you can do is the best you can do,” Huggins said. “We've had, really, some pretty good practices.”
Whereas it once seemed as though there would not be enough time for UC to restructure itself to make a serious tournament run, the players have begun to feel eager to play.
Their last effort was a 10-point loss to Saint Louis in the Conference USA tournament, the last 37 minutes of which were played following Martin's injury.
“I'm ready to go. It's something like a redeem factor,” Logan said. “We're trying to redeem ourselves, because we know we played terrible without him. It was kind of like a shock. We're ready to just get out there and go, show people we're still for real.”
During the course of the season, there seemed to be few doubts, which is why the collectors kept showing up on the road with balls and books and pictures for the Bearcats to sign.
There were some remarkable autograph-hunting episodes. The most amazing occurred when UC scheduled a practice at the Milwaukee Bucks training center on the afternoon before the Bearcats were to work there, but they were met by a half-dozen people who somehow discovered the schedule.
Anticipating the Bearcats would continue to be hounded when the tournament began, the school brought along a couple of men to help with security. Mickeal said he has been pleased to sign whatever autographs were desired of him during the season. He has not yet had that problem here.
“When you've got that many fans all over the country,” Mickeal said, “you've got fans who want an autograph or a piece of whatever Cincinnati has.”
Right now, UC has solitude.
It's lonely for those who once were at the top.
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