TicketsMick Cronin called it "World War III."
In a game where earning two points felt like breaching the beach at Normandy, yeah, that's about right.
What does it say to emerge from that war victorious having shifted into a different gear in the final minutes? What does it say to do so having beat a ranked team for the fifth straight game? What does is say to find a way to win against an FSU team that beat Duke and North Carolina twice and was 8-3 in games decided by four points or less? What does it say to not flinch as the pressure mounted and game momentum flipped from one side to the other?
It says what Cronin later said on 700 WLW: "We didn't come here to win two games."
UC looked like a team built to win many more.
On to Boston. On to Ohio State.
Let's eat...
--- Here's your East Regional ticket information. The game will be played at approx. 9:45 p.m. Thursday at the TD Bank Center.
--- The constant reminders came all weekend about the weakness of this Bearcats team: They are the worst free-throw shooting team in the tournament. Yet, there they were, winning the game at the free throw line.
After opening the game 3 of 6 from the stripe, they hit 16 of 17 and the final nine in a row in the last two minutes for the win. In that game of Bloodsport defense, they needed every one of them. And it wasn't just one guy, it was everybody:
Gates: 4-5
SK: 4-4
Dion: 4-4
Park: 5-6
--- The turnover stat was going to be the difference in the game. It was the biggest advantage area UC owned. Mick said before the game, he placed the magic number on turnovers UC needed to force at 17. How many did FSU end up with? Seventeen.
More important that the 17 turnovers or even the turnover margin (UC committed 15 turnovers) was the points off of those turnovers. The Cats won that statistic 19-6. Ballgame.
--- As I mentioned in the open, UC has now beat the last five ranked teams faced.
No. 12 Florida State, 62-56
No. 2 Syracuse, 71-68
No. 14 Georgetown, 72-70
No. 7 Marquette, 72-61
No. 17 Louisville, 60-56
(The Cardinals were just outside of both bolls the week of the Big East tournament)
--- For all of your interview needs:
Here's Mick Cronin with Tommy G. And then Yancy Gates calling out President Obama for picking against the Bearcats in his bracket.
--- Really hard not to reflect on the six years of the rebuild after this. My first thought after the game was how this makes it official: Mick Cronin streak of improving his team every single year continues.
It certainly seemed out of reach about a month ago, but here we are.
UC (26-10) matched its win total from last season and has gone one round further in the NCAA tournament.
2007: 11-19 (2-14) no postseason
2008: 13-19 (8-10) lost in first round CBI
2009: 18-14 (8-10)
2010: 19-16 (7-11) lost in second round NIT
2011: 26-9 (11-7) lost in second round NCAA
2012: 26-10 (12-6) Sweet 16
After the game with Dan Hoard on 700WLW, Cronin said this: "I want to be the Jim Boeheim of Cincinnati."
A great coach with no intentions of going anywhere. I have to assume by now this program's fan base understands how lucky they are to have this guy.
--- Yancy Gates continues to grasp his senior year with both hands. Sure, he only scored 10 points with 5 rebounds last night, but he buried two monster free throws plus and three-point play in the final six minutes.
His last six games: 15.2 points, 7.5 rebounds per game.
--- With five more steals last night Cashmere Wright moved his UC single-season steals mark to 74. His KenPom.com steal percentage (4.1) ranks as the 35th best in the country.
--- He was joined defensively by Dion Dixon, who Cronin said played his one of this best games with UC considering the toughness and defense he showed. He had 15 points, 3 steals and a big block in the final seconds.
--- Announcers for the OSU-UC game will be Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery. Onions!
--- Ohio is the first state ever to send four teams to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Somewhere, Cleveland State is wondering what could have been.
Proud Bobcats alum sheds single tear and can only imagine what it was like to be Clark Kellogg and try to call a game while that was going on -- great reaction from him.
D.J. Cooper. Wow. By the way, what the Baylor and Tennessee coaches did after his big game beating Georgetown his freshman year was illegal and tampering. Plus, it was just plain sleazy.
--- Consider that seven of the Sweet 16 teams are located within 200 miles of Cincinnati (UC, XU, OSU, OU, IU, UK, UL) Just great college basketball around here and a few rivalries that need to be kicked up in the regular season.
Speaking of..........
--- Let the games begin as we spend the next four days talking about OSU's reluctance to play UC in basketball. As Cronin has said many times, he'd love to play the Buckeyes regularly but it goes unrequited.
Partially, I understand where the Buckeyes are coming from. They want to be a national brand. They want to use their major non-conference games playing the giants of the basketball world from other regions. It's better for recruiting and the image of the program.
That said, basketball is all about rivalries, especially geographic ones, and considering the level these two programs are currently at this would be great for the game of college basketball. Who knows, maybe this will spark future matchups. Just get ready to hear all about this topic.
--- The last time they played in the NCAA tournament was 50 years ago to cap off UC's back-to-back national championships.
--- Tweet of the Weekend, from UC football's own JK Schaffer:
RT @Schaff37: I wonder if OSU will try to pay $1,000,000 to get out of this game too?!
If you don't understand that, read this.
--- In December they brawled, in March they balled. Stewart Mandel of SI on ongoing evolution of the UC-XU story.
--- The folks at Adidas are losing their minds right now. Not only did the three teams using their new uniforms make it into the finals of their conference tournaments (Baylor and Louisville winning, with UC finishing second), all three are in the Sweet 16.
Maybe there is something to that lighter fit or maybe the infared really is sending opponents into temporary seizures.
--- Doc on the war that was UC-FSU.
--- As has been the case a lot lately, Scott at Bearcats Blog breaks out the Kenyon Martin gif.
--- Chad Brendel called it as physical of a game as he had ever witnessed and had all the on site analysis.
--- Brett McMurphy of CBS on the Bearcats big dreams.
--- Rush the Court with reaction from the UC win, pointing out UC's 54-50 lead with one minute remaining was the largest lead of the second half to that point. RTC also points out how loud and intense the fan bases were. Way to bring it, folks.
--- Mike Miller of Beyond the Arc with an East Region primer.
--- Dion Dixon talking about his big steal and other notes, quotes in Bill Koch's postgame blog.
--- Remember that down year for the Big East talk? Last week I brought up their recent performances in the tournament and my gut feeling being they have a great first weekend.
Well, four of their nine teams in The Dance advanced to the second weekend. Impressive.
--- Hardly even feels right to break out the randomness with so much great stuff to read and talk about, instead, I'll just leave you with this.
In a game where earning two points felt like breaching the beach at Normandy, yeah, that's about right.
What does it say to emerge from that war victorious having shifted into a different gear in the final minutes? What does it say to do so having beat a ranked team for the fifth straight game? What does is say to find a way to win against an FSU team that beat Duke and North Carolina twice and was 8-3 in games decided by four points or less? What does it say to not flinch as the pressure mounted and game momentum flipped from one side to the other?
It says what Cronin later said on 700 WLW: "We didn't come here to win two games."
UC looked like a team built to win many more.
On to Boston. On to Ohio State.
Let's eat...--- Here's your East Regional ticket information. The game will be played at approx. 9:45 p.m. Thursday at the TD Bank Center.
--- The constant reminders came all weekend about the weakness of this Bearcats team: They are the worst free-throw shooting team in the tournament. Yet, there they were, winning the game at the free throw line.
After opening the game 3 of 6 from the stripe, they hit 16 of 17 and the final nine in a row in the last two minutes for the win. In that game of Bloodsport defense, they needed every one of them. And it wasn't just one guy, it was everybody:
Gates: 4-5
SK: 4-4
Dion: 4-4
Park: 5-6
--- The turnover stat was going to be the difference in the game. It was the biggest advantage area UC owned. Mick said before the game, he placed the magic number on turnovers UC needed to force at 17. How many did FSU end up with? Seventeen.
More important that the 17 turnovers or even the turnover margin (UC committed 15 turnovers) was the points off of those turnovers. The Cats won that statistic 19-6. Ballgame.
--- As I mentioned in the open, UC has now beat the last five ranked teams faced.
No. 12 Florida State, 62-56
No. 2 Syracuse, 71-68
No. 14 Georgetown, 72-70
No. 7 Marquette, 72-61
No. 17 Louisville, 60-56
(The Cardinals were just outside of both bolls the week of the Big East tournament)
--- For all of your interview needs:
Here's Mick Cronin with Tommy G. And then Yancy Gates calling out President Obama for picking against the Bearcats in his bracket.
--- Really hard not to reflect on the six years of the rebuild after this. My first thought after the game was how this makes it official: Mick Cronin streak of improving his team every single year continues.
It certainly seemed out of reach about a month ago, but here we are.
UC (26-10) matched its win total from last season and has gone one round further in the NCAA tournament.
2007: 11-19 (2-14) no postseason
2008: 13-19 (8-10) lost in first round CBI
2009: 18-14 (8-10)
2010: 19-16 (7-11) lost in second round NIT
2011: 26-9 (11-7) lost in second round NCAA
2012: 26-10 (12-6) Sweet 16
After the game with Dan Hoard on 700WLW, Cronin said this: "I want to be the Jim Boeheim of Cincinnati."
A great coach with no intentions of going anywhere. I have to assume by now this program's fan base understands how lucky they are to have this guy.
--- Yancy Gates continues to grasp his senior year with both hands. Sure, he only scored 10 points with 5 rebounds last night, but he buried two monster free throws plus and three-point play in the final six minutes.
His last six games: 15.2 points, 7.5 rebounds per game.
--- With five more steals last night Cashmere Wright moved his UC single-season steals mark to 74. His KenPom.com steal percentage (4.1) ranks as the 35th best in the country.
--- He was joined defensively by Dion Dixon, who Cronin said played his one of this best games with UC considering the toughness and defense he showed. He had 15 points, 3 steals and a big block in the final seconds.
--- Announcers for the OSU-UC game will be Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery. Onions!
--- Ohio is the first state ever to send four teams to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Somewhere, Cleveland State is wondering what could have been.
Proud Bobcats alum sheds single tear and can only imagine what it was like to be Clark Kellogg and try to call a game while that was going on -- great reaction from him.
D.J. Cooper. Wow. By the way, what the Baylor and Tennessee coaches did after his big game beating Georgetown his freshman year was illegal and tampering. Plus, it was just plain sleazy.
--- Consider that seven of the Sweet 16 teams are located within 200 miles of Cincinnati (UC, XU, OSU, OU, IU, UK, UL) Just great college basketball around here and a few rivalries that need to be kicked up in the regular season.
Speaking of..........
--- Let the games begin as we spend the next four days talking about OSU's reluctance to play UC in basketball. As Cronin has said many times, he'd love to play the Buckeyes regularly but it goes unrequited.
Partially, I understand where the Buckeyes are coming from. They want to be a national brand. They want to use their major non-conference games playing the giants of the basketball world from other regions. It's better for recruiting and the image of the program.
That said, basketball is all about rivalries, especially geographic ones, and considering the level these two programs are currently at this would be great for the game of college basketball. Who knows, maybe this will spark future matchups. Just get ready to hear all about this topic.
--- The last time they played in the NCAA tournament was 50 years ago to cap off UC's back-to-back national championships.
--- Tweet of the Weekend, from UC football's own JK Schaffer:
RT @Schaff37: I wonder if OSU will try to pay $1,000,000 to get out of this game too?!
If you don't understand that, read this.
--- In December they brawled, in March they balled. Stewart Mandel of SI on ongoing evolution of the UC-XU story.
--- The folks at Adidas are losing their minds right now. Not only did the three teams using their new uniforms make it into the finals of their conference tournaments (Baylor and Louisville winning, with UC finishing second), all three are in the Sweet 16.
Maybe there is something to that lighter fit or maybe the infared really is sending opponents into temporary seizures.
--- Doc on the war that was UC-FSU.
--- As has been the case a lot lately, Scott at Bearcats Blog breaks out the Kenyon Martin gif.
--- Chad Brendel called it as physical of a game as he had ever witnessed and had all the on site analysis.
--- Brett McMurphy of CBS on the Bearcats big dreams.
--- Rush the Court with reaction from the UC win, pointing out UC's 54-50 lead with one minute remaining was the largest lead of the second half to that point. RTC also points out how loud and intense the fan bases were. Way to bring it, folks.
--- Mike Miller of Beyond the Arc with an East Region primer.
--- Dion Dixon talking about his big steal and other notes, quotes in Bill Koch's postgame blog.
--- Remember that down year for the Big East talk? Last week I brought up their recent performances in the tournament and my gut feeling being they have a great first weekend.
Well, four of their nine teams in The Dance advanced to the second weekend. Impressive.
--- Hardly even feels right to break out the randomness with so much great stuff to read and talk about, instead, I'll just leave you with this.