Leonard Stokes doesn't need to see the statistics to know he's not playing well on the road.

        They are impossible to ignore.

        The University of Cincinnati junior is averaging just 8.7 points away from Shoemaker Center, seven points fewer than at home.

        He is shooting .382 from the field and .167 from 3-point range on the road, compared to .552 from the field and .387 from 3-point range at home.

        Stokes has averaged 5.7 points in UC's last three away games (Marquette, South Florida, Saint Louis) and scored in double figures only once (at Houston) in the past nine road games.

        “I've just got to step up,” Stokes said Monday. “This is what I came to school for. The coaches always tell me I'm too good of a player (that) if one thing is not working to just shut down because I can do so much.”

        He remains the Bearcats' No.2 scorer (12.2 ppg), but the team needs him to help senior Steve Logan (21.5 ppg) more than he has been, especially with difficult road games this week at Charlotte Wednesday night and at No.19 Wake Forest Saturday.

        Stokes scored just six points on 2-of-9 shooting in Saturday's 74-60 loss at Marquette, which caused Cincinnati to drop to No.6 from No.4 in the new Associated Press poll Monday. He has not made a 3-pointer in the past four games.

        “I don't think it's indigenous just to the road,” UC coach Bob Huggins said of Stokes' struggles. “He hasn't shot the ball well.”

        Since his career-high 36 points against DePaul, Stokes has averaged 7.6 points and shot .375 from the field. He went through a five-game slump when he scored in single digits earlier in the season.

        Whenever Stokes struggles, coaches and teammates say the problems are more mental than physical. Stokes is a talented, versatile player who is capable of helping UC win by rebounding and defending, as well as scoring.

        “He has to understand that whatever he's doing is not working,” assistant coach Keith LeGree said.

        The Bearcats were off Sunday and held a players-only team meeting before Monday's practice.

        Senior Immanuel McElroy said the upperclassmen called the get-together in the locker room, and one of the primary messages was: “We've got to stay together as a family and we'll be fine.”

        “That was a tough loss,” McElroy said of UC's second defeat of the season and first since Nov.16. “We've got to get our focus back. Everybody was making comments. It was positive. We've got to help Logan. He can't do everything. (Other players) have got to score a little bit, too, to be a championship team. I know I've got to step up.”

        ESQUIRE ARTICLE:

        Esquire magazine rips Conference USA and takes pointed shots at Huggins, Memphis coach John Calipari and Louisville coach Rick Pitino in an article written by Charles Pierce for the March issue, scheduled to hit newsstands Friday.

        The article is entitled “Con Men,” and its headline also reads: “If you doubt that college basketball is every bit the professional sport that the NBA is, meet the three biggest stars of Conference USA.” Huggins, Pitino and Calipari are pictured.

        Although Pierce is hardest on Calipari, calling him “a sleek little hustler,” Pierce says Huggins is the “grand old man of the league, with his zero-percent graduation rate and his gift for recruiting the likes of Ruben Patterson (who, to be fair, didn't get nailed on the sex rap until after he left), Art Long, who punched out a police horse, and Dontonio Wingfield, who once trashed his mother's kitchen when she wouldn't let him borrow the car.”

        To be accurate: Long was acquitted of assaulting the horse, and 15 of the 31 Huggins players who finished their collegiate careers at UC have earned degrees. When UC had zero ratings, they were under the NCAA's annual statistics, but those exclude transfers and only include players who entered as freshmen and graduated in six years.

        Huggins said he has neither read the article, nor was anyone at UC contacted about it.

        “It is well documented my commitment to basketball and doing what's right,” he said Monday night. “It is unfortunate that people want to continue to dredge up the past instead of talking about what's happening today.”

Stokes loses way on road

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Coming up this week
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Punishment rarely meted out
Roundup: Ohio girls
Roundup: Kentucky boys
Roundup: Kentucky girls
Enquirer polls: BOYS BASKETBALL
Enquirer polls: GIRLS BASKETBALL
Ohio boys AP POLL
Indiana Boys AP Poll
Indiana girls AP poll
State poll: Kentucky girls
State poll: Kentucky boys
Schedule: Boys Basketball
Schedule: Girls Basketball