By Dave Goldstein
Enquirer contributor

TORONTO - Before the Cincinnati Bearcats were a perennial top-10 team, before Bob Huggins' troops began hearing their names called at almost every NBA draft, a quiet contributor named Corie Blount helped a squad of underdogs from UC make a shocking run to the 1992 Final Four.

Following an Elite Eight appearance a year later, Blount was picked 25th overall by the Chicago Bulls in 1993 and became the first Bearcat to be selected in the first round of the NBA draft since Jim Ard in 1970.

Now in his 10th NBA season, Blount is back with the Bulls and the league is flooded with Bearcats. It wasn't always this way.

"I tell guys all the time - when I went to Cincinnati, I didn't even know where Cincinnati was. I didn't know that they even had a basketball team," the California native said. "To be honest, the only reason I even signed there was because of Erik Martin and Terry Nelson. They had already committed and they basically said that if we all went to the same school we could turn the program around."

Now Blount is focused on turning around the fortunes of the Bulls. In his first two seasons in the league, Blount helped the Bulls win 102 games, but he was dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers and since has played for four other teams. The Bulls team he returned to this season as a free agent won fewer than 17 games in each of the past four seasons, yet it provided a perfect fit for Blount.

With 7-footers Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry entering their second seasons in the NBA instead of their sophomore ones in college, the Bulls needed veteran players who could contribute on the court while also helping to develop the younger players. Blount has been up to the task. He has averaged four rebounds in 16 minutes a game but provides much more.

"(Blount) helps us all the time," Chandler said. "He'll take us aside and talk to us when we make mistakes out there. He just tries to motivate us and remind us that this is a process and we're only in our second year."

Blount said his words carry extra credibility because of the successful teams on which he has played. He appeared in the playoffs in five of his first nine NBA seasons and played with the likes of Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Allen Iverson, Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan.

Blount remembers how close he was to not making it.

"I wasn't even looking at or dreaming of the NBA when I was younger," Blount said. "... But the more you play, the more you learn - I wasn't an All-American and I never became an all-star, but I have learned this NBA game. I took a gamble and luckily ended up being successful."