Sunday, March 19, 2000

Boards key for UC vs. Tulsa

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Game plan gets assist from Fresno

BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Ryan Fletcher rebounds against UNC-Wilmington. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        NASHVILLE — The Cincinnati Bearcats gathered Friday evening to watch a videotape of a basketball game between Tulsa and Fresno State. This is not the sort of entertainment folks generally seek in this town, but it might turn out to be the most productive hour the Bearcats spent all week.

        Fresno's Bulldogs know something Tulsa's other opponents do not, and the Bearcats could use that knowledge to to help them advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996.

        Tulsa (30-4) and Cincinnati (29-3) will play a second-round game in the NCAA Tournament's South Regional at 2:15 p.m. today.

        Tulsa won 30 games this season and lost four, and three of those losses were to Fresno State. That suggests the absence of coincidence — Fresno State has Tulsa's number.

UC vs. TULSA

• When: 2:15p.m. today   • Where: Gaylord Entertainment Center, Nashville, Tenn.   • Records: UC 29-3; Tulsa 30-4   • TV: Ch.12, 7   • Radio: WCKY-AM (1360)         • BY THE NUMBERS   • 3-3: Tulsa's record against the NCAA field.   • 26: Years that have passed since UC and Tulsa last met.   • 1: Victories UC needs to break the school record.

        And UC coach Bob Huggins has the number of Bulldogs coach Jerry Tarkanian, one of his closest friends in coaching. Huggins, though, claims not to have called Tarkanian in preparing for the Golden Hurricane. “We can't really talk too much about that,” Huggins said, “because they're in the same league.”

        But if Fresno has the secret to beating the Golden Hurricane, there's little doubt it has found its way into UC hands. The question is whether the Bearcats are the sort of team to take advantage of those methods.

        • “Fresno really beat them off the dribble a lot,” said UC guard Steve Logan. "I think that was important. We've got to make them guard.”

        The problem in that regard is Fresno State shooting guard Courtney Alexander is the best one-on-one scorer in the nation. UC's DerMarr Johnson can create his own shot, but he does not specialize in dribbling hard into the lane and pulling up for jump shots.

        Fresno does not run a lot of structured offense and instead allows its most talented players to get their own shots; teams that rely on defending as a unit can be confounded by that approach, as the Bearcats sometimes were when playing Alabama-Birmingham.

        “If we did what they did with Courtney Alexander, let our guys do that, it'd be ugly,” Huggins said. “And I really don't want it to be ugly.”

        Alexander averaged 27.3 points in three games against Tulsa, but made only seven 3-pointers combined. Johnson gets more than a third of his points from long range.

        • “Fresno played some zone,” Huggins said, “but we're not a good zone team.”

        Employing zone defense takes away some of the tight execution Tulsa employs in its halfcourt offense, and it also enforces a slower pace than the Hurricane cares to play.

        It may not be in the Bearcats' interest to cut down the number of possessions, though, because wide-open games usually favor them. They haven't lost a game in which they have scored more than 70 points since the 1998 NCAA Tournament.

        • “Fresno looks very athletic, and I've always thought we were athletic,” said UC forward Pete Mickeal. “Once you throw athletes at them and really get at them hard, it seems like they turn the ball over a lot more. If we do everything hard on defense, it's going to create our offense.”

        The Bearcats have not been proficient at forcing turnovers and turning them into points, but Tulsa does give up the ball a lot for a 30-win team. UC's defense must be sound at all five positions, because there is no one player for Mickeal or center Jermaine Tate to cancel out. Tulsa has six players who are equally threatening.

        What UC can do that worked for Fresno is rebound the ball at the offensive end and score on put-backs. The Bearcats have a size advantage, with an average height in the starting lineup of 6-foot-7 compared to 6-4 for Tulsa. UC scored just nine points on offensive rebounds against UNC Wilmington, but probably will need more today.

        Although Fresno State turned over the ball 18 times in each of its three wins, that actually was a triumph. Tulsa averages 12 steals a game, which is one fewer turnover than the Bearcats average. Those are the most damaging mistakes, because the Hurricane can turn them into fast-break scores.

        “If you chart how some of their guys score, they don't get a whole lot out of their halfcourt offense. They get it out of their defense,” Huggins said.

        Tulsa thought its record and Top 25 ranking merited a much higher seed than No.7, and UC was bothered by the selection committee's decision to demote the Bearcats from a probable top Midwest Region seed to No.2 in the South.

        “As far as it being a slap in the face, when I first saw it, I kind of felt that way,” said Tulsa guard Tony Heard. “It went away quick, because when it comes down to it, you've got to come out and win games to advance. It doesn't matter what seed you are.”

        If that were true, there would have been a whole lot more No.7 seeds in the Final Four. A seventh seed has never gotten that far since the 64-team field was introduced in 1985.

        “Against Fresno, we just didn't do things down in the end we were supposed to do, and in close games like that, everything is magnified,” said Tulsa guard Eric Coley. “We have to play hard-nosed defense, do a lot of hustle plays. Right now, it's about urgency, because every game could be our last game.”

        Tournament game coverage at Cincinnati.com/madness
        Join the discussion in our College Sports forum

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