Sunday, January 09, 2000
No limits how good UC can be
BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The UC Bearcats will rule college basketball again Monday, but that's a formality. Nine days into January and 82 days until the Final Four, the Bearcats aren't playing for poll position. They're playing against themselves. They're chasing their own expectations.
If they play well, they win. That's the way it is this winter. They're that good.
They're good enough they can be as good as they want, and at least as good as Stanford or Arizona or Michigan State. Or UConn, which just lost at home to Notre Dame and last week played, um, Sacred Heart. How can you respect a program that plays Sacred Heart?
“There ain't no limit,” decided Pete Mickeal, after Cincinnati's 67-48 cruise past Marquette. “We know we're good. We can be great.”
I asked Mickeal what happens when things start bumping, as they inevitably do with the Bearcats. They lose a couple, Bob Huggins loses some of his glue, players start looking over their shoulders after a mistake. It happens.
“Ain't gonna happen,” Mickeal said.
What?
“Unless me and Kenyon (Martin) break both our legs, ain't gonna happen.”
Not this year, Mickeal says. He may have a point.
Just another day
The game Saturday looked more like a workout than a conference game. It was another day for Huggins to get his freshmen feeling like sophomores, another day for Steve Logan and Kenny Satterfield to discover the reward of making nice and playing well together. Another day for Martin and Mickeal to continue putting their stamp on the best team in Huggins' 11 years in Clifton.
Because of his two senior starters, Huggins has yelled less and coached more. He doesn't have to coach attitude; he can teach basketball. Mickeal and Martin rule the locker room. Mickeal is respected completely and, really, who's going to lip-off to Kenyon Martin?
The Bearcats are good enough that Huggins figures his biggest problem now is finding playing time for people.
“We've got seven or eight guys that are pretty good, and they all want to play,” he said. “They're not defiant. They sulk a little bit. That's our biggest problem.”
It's hell, having too much talent.
They're already fine-tuning. More minutes for Donald Little, more for Leonard Stokes. The Bearcats are like Miss America, checking in the mirror for a stray eyelash.
The differences between them and the others chasing No. 1 are apparent. Stanford doesn't have UC's speed or depth, Michigan State doesn't have Mateen Cleaves, and who knows how the Spartans will mix when they do?
Huggins knows what he has. It's why he got on his players early in the year, for not finishing games. It's also why he has cooled his act a bit lately.
On Saturday, Huggins didn't yell much, except at Ryan Fletcher, and you figured that was by habit. “Kinder and gentler, right?” he asked afterward.
Maybe. Word was that athletic director Bob Goin has discussed with Huggins the need for the coach to turn up the heat on his team late in the year, rather than all year. Huggins denied that.
"Everybody's just clicking'
Believe what you want. Since the Xavier loss, the coach's blood pressure has not been as loud as his neckties. He has allowed Martin and Mickeal to set the attitude tone.
“Everybody's just clicking,” Mickeal said. “You can talk to people this year. We all conversate. It's like a chain. We're all pulling for the same thing. There are no bad seeds. Not one. That's what you need to do it all.”
They're not perfect. Something could happen. An injury. Too many Kenyon Martin fouls, too early in a March game. UC could go brain-dead against another zone, the way it did against Xavier. The conversatin' could get rough.
But the Bearcats do have that look. It's like Mickeal said: They're good. They can be great. It's also a nice way of saying the Bearcats are good enough they can only screw this up. We'll see.
Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454.
Bearcats lay claim to No. 1
Struggling Johnson gets to watch, learn
Bearcats know No. 1 means nothing until March
No limits how good UC can be
Arizona 68, Stanford 65
DAUGHERTY ARCHIVE
