By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

There's no pretending anymore. Midway through the season, it's obvious the University of Cincinnati basketball team doesn't have a center. What it has are five players who at times exhibit tendencies that centers traditionally have displayed.

Chadd Moore beats Saint Louis' Anthony Drejaj to a loose ball Wednesday. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

"Unfortunately, I don't see anybody rising to the forefront," said assistant coach Andy Kennedy, who works with the UC big men. "We've given everyone equal opportunity."

Eugene Land, a 6-foot-7 Roger Bacon High School graduate, earned a surprise start against Saint Louis on Wednesday and offered a glimmer of hope with his eight rebounds, two blocked shots and solid defense for the Bearcats.

That seemed pretty impressive compared to what UC has been getting from the position, but even Land said those numbers weren't all that great.

"When I get double figures in at least two of those categories, that's when I'll know I'm back where I need to be," Land said Thursday.

But it's difficult to count on Land to play 24 minutes, as he did against Saint Louis, given the shaky status of his surgically repaired right knee.

Land said his knee was only mildly sore Thursday. He was able to participate in most of the Bearcats' three-hour practice session.

"I can do that every night as long as we don't play on back-to-back nights," he said.

Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins is counting on Land to start against Tulane on Saturday. But that doesn't mean the center problem has been solved.

"It's just one game," Huggins said of Land's performance. "There are some other guys who have had pretty good games.

"We just keep throwing them out there until somebody does something positive."

Four players - 6-8 Derek Hollman, 6-7 Kareem Johnson, 6-8 Rod Flowers and Land - have started at center this season.

In addition, 6-6 freshman Eric Hicks has emerged to play significant minutes in a reserve role.

Huggins needs a calculator when talking about his center position. He likes to take the paltry averages of the five who share the position, total them and hope they resemble a workable sum, especially in the rebounding department.

Combine the stats of the five players and you get a solid 9.9 points and 12.5 rebounds a game, but that's a little skewed because the minutes of the five players add up to 51.5, 11.5 more than the length of a regulation game.

"They all have little components where they're better at certain things than others," Kennedy said.

UC has been blessed over the years with talented players in the post, including Corie Blount, Bobby Brannen, Art Long , Kenyon Martin and Donald Little. All played good defense, were formidable rebounders and could force opponents to pay attention to them when the ball was thrown to the low post.

But this season, UC has had to adjust to the idea of not having such a player.

"We don't put a lot of demands on that position," Kennedy said. "Obviously, we want them to guard, don't give up easy shots at the rim, and rebound the ball. That's what we need them to do."

To compensate for the lack of offensive punch at center, Huggins has altered his offense. Instead of running plays through the center position, the Bearcats use forward Jason Maxiell and his turnaround jump shot as their low-post scoring threat.

"We've changed a lot of stuff," Huggins said. "We don't run a lot of stuff we used to run, because we don't have anybody to run it through."

It's a difficult situation for a coaching staff, which must patch together a workable front line on the fly during each game, never knowing where the production will come from, or if it even will be forthcoming on a particular night.

"I knew it would be bad," Huggins said. "I didn't know it would be this bad."

NOTES: Maxiell returned home to Carrollton, Texas, on Thursday to visit his critically ill grandmother. He's expected to return in time for Saturday's game against Tulane. ... Unclaimed student tickets for Saturday's Tulane game go on sale at 9 a.m. today at the Shoemaker Center ticket office.

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com