Sunday, December 05, 1999
A win isn't a win when you are No. 1
BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CLEVELAND — For the first 23 minutes, there was nothing to complain about but DerMarr Johnson's headband. Nothing personal, but the plain white make-'do rag, with its ubiquitous Evil Empire Swoosh, is an unfortunate fashion statement. The top scorer on the nation's top team could use a little color around his skull.
After 23 minutes, Cincinnati led 25th-ranked Gonzaga by 18. If the Bearcats broke a sweat, it was only after coach Bob Huggins blow-torched them late in the first half, for a bit of mindless Showtime that resulted in a turnover. Not that it mattered much. For a half and a little more, UC coasted against a team that reached the Elite Eight last year, and brought back seven of its top 10 players.
Huggins may not think his team fits the No.1 mold — “Our attitudes right now suck,” he suggested afterward — but there was evidence to the contrary.
Kenyon Martin didn't allow Gonzaga a sniff of the lane in the first half. Martin blocked four shots in the first half, with the sort of ferocity that would send lesser players home to mama.
Ryan Fletcher came off the bench to drill three jumpers in a row, only to be yanked by Huggins for failing to play post defense. Fletcher remains Huggins' favorite scream target; he's also a nice offensive weapon off the bench.
On three straight trips down the floor, three different Bearcats dropped three-point field goals on the Bulldogs: Pete Mickeal, Kenny Satterfield and Steve Logan. Satterfield, who had 19 assists and one turnover in UC's last two games in Hawaii, is already developing into the ring-leader of UC's talent circus.
Satterfield's care with the ball has freed Logan to do what Logan does best: Shoot. Logan took eight shots and made six, including four 3-pointers. Meanwhile Johnson, he of the bland headband — headbland? — was missing all five of his field-goal tries.
"I'm embarrassed'
And UC still led by 20 close to halftime. And really, though Gonzaga got to within five in the second half, the Bulldogs could have played this game until next Thursday and not won.
“They're so balanced, so athletic. They play so hard,” Bulldogs coach Mark Few said of the Bearcats. “You got the skill meter, the effort meter and the athletic meter all covered. That's a pretty nice situation.”
Naturally, Huggins was miserable.
“I'm embarrassed,” he said. “I've never had a team play that lackadaisical.”
It could be that Huggins knows just how talented this team is. (It's his most talented team at UC, by miles.) It may be that he knows that it could win 26 or 27 in its sleep. (“If that's all we want to be,” Huggins said.) It could be that fretting about his team is one of his traits.
“We displayed such a lack of mental toughness, it's discouraging,” Huggins decided.
Better now then March
Probably, it's all of the above. What the coach is thinking now is, the great teams do not take large portions of games off. Even if they can get away with it. Because in March, there are no second chances for letting the effort slip. Only first regrets.
The mission for Huggins, then, is to convince his players of that. He has as many good players as anybody. When they play with a purpose, as they did for 23 minutes Saturday, they are scary good. When they don't, they're a second-round Madness loss waiting to happen. Again.
“We always come out in the second half lackadaisical,” Logan said. “Coach stresses putting the foot on them.”
“If I could read what's in those little pea brains, I could make a lot of money,” said Huggins, as only Huggins can. “I don't want to win games because we're talented. I want to win because we play well.”
A win isn't always a win. Not when you're No. 1.
Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454. Fair Game, a collection of his columns, is available at local bookstores.
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