With about a minute to play Sunday, Tony Bobbitt left UC's second-round NCAA Tournament game with Illinois. He acknowledged a few teammates. As he walked past Bob Huggins, the coach extended his hand. Bobbitt slapped it and started to find his seat. Huggins wouldn't let go.

There are moments that define a team, a coach and a program. The Bearcats had a few Sunday, during their 68-92 thumping at the hands of the Illini. For better or worse, UC is known as a bicep-wielding team that has underachieved in the NCAA Tournament. Few schools have squandered high seeds like Cincinnati.

That defines them.

So does this:

PHOTO GALLERY

Photos from UC game

Huggins wouldn't let go of Bobbitt's hand. In the midst of an embarrassing, lopsided loss - UC never got closer than 12 points during the last 30 minutes of the game - the combustible coach had the presence of mind to show some much-appreciated humanity. He pulled Bobbitt back to him and spoke in his ear.

"You don't have one father," Huggins said to Bobbitt. "You have two."

Bobbitt might remember this game for awhile. UC came in rolling and - if you believe the Illinois players and coach - talking like champions. Bobbitt had won the Bearcats' last two games with last-second shots. On Thursday, his 3-pointer sunk East Tennessee State. It was also, he said, the seventh anniversary of his mother's death.

Bobbitt had risen from a big-talking, overly excitable second or third option off the bench last year, to the team leader this winter. He had grown as much as a person as a player. More, maybe. And now it was done.

He'll remember the handshake, though. And those words. Who'd ever forget those words? Huggins' former players come back when they're done. That, too, defines UC basketball.

The game was a mess, from UC's perspective. The Bearcats led 6-5 and then they were down 49-25 with two minutes left in the first half. Illinois' three starting guards attacked as advertised. If Dee Brown wasn't picking Field Williams' pocket and then undressing him for a layup, Deron Williams was wriggling around screens, catching perfect passes and drilling threes. Brown, Williams and Luther Head combined for 51 points, 24 assists and two turnovers. Coach Bruce Weber explained, "We had some guys that were magic." He didn't mean Johnson. Did he?

It was ridiculous.

"They were uncontested shots," Bobbitt said.

Maybe. But they got that way because the Illini wasted no time dribbling the ball. They moved it like it was radioactive. We haven't seen a team pass like this since the San Francisco 49ers won their last Super Bowl.

Neither could UC handle Illinois' defensive speed. Huggins used everyone but the mascot to bring the ball up. Nobody was up to it. The game revealed spectacularly a routine UC weakness: the lack of a dynamic point guard.

"Guard play hurt us all year," he said. "We tried to make Nick (Williams) a point guard. Chadd (Moore) had a bad back." Huggins said he "never intended'' to have Armein Kirkland or James White play there.

The result Sunday was a game that got out of hand quickly and stayed there.

It had nothing to do with anyone talking smack. If you believed the Illinois people, trash floats like canaries from the Bearcats' mouths. Probably, UC invented trash talking. "We thought it was a joke," Dee Brown said.

"They were saying they were ready to play Duke," Deron Williams said.

"If you're kicking somebody's butt, that's one thing," Bruce Weber decided. "But they did it before they even beat East Tennessee."

Yeah, well, OK. Whatever.

Fact was, the Bearcats got it handed to them at both ends. Illinois had better players. Talking had nothing to do with it. Except one time, at the end. Then, talking meant everything.

You don't have one father. You have two.

"Probably the best thing (Huggins) ever told me," Tony Bobbitt said.

Probably?

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E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com