TicketsThe women's basketball team endured its struggles this Big East season. The latest 13-game losing streak provided a growing pain with many teachable moments.
Perhaps, that makes what happened last night all the more special.
On Senior Night, with No. 22/24 Marquette in town, two seniors made sure it was a game they'd never forget. Shelly Bellman went for 12 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists and buried a 3-pointer from the corner to give UC its final lead with 1:25 remaining. Shareese Ulis set a career high with six 3-pointers as the Bearcats held off Marquette for their first win since Jan. 5.
It's hard to imagine how gratifying that win must be, particularly for the seniors.
Say what you will about winning and losing, nights like Monday for those women are what college athletics are all about.
Let's eat...
--- There's media availability with Mick Cronin and some players this afternoon at 3 p.m. We'll get an update on Rashad Bishop's injury and likely talk more about being so close to the tournament.
If you have any questions you'd like answered, just shoot me an email (pauldehnerjr@gmail.com) or tweet (@pauldehnerjr) and I'll do my best to deliver.
--- Bill Koch talked with Joey Brackets and wrote about UC's tournament chances. The magic number continues to be 10 wins, as it has been all year. UC needs to win one to avoid sweating on Selection Sunday. Period.
If they don't get one more, they may very well still get in, but there will be reason for nervousness, depending on what happens at MSG.
--- Marquette is 6-2 at home this year with a loss against red hot St. John's and UConn the only blemishes.
They can straight fill it up. They lead the Big East in scoring during conference play at 74.1 points a game. Of course, they're 14th in the league in points allowed at 70.1.
The tempo they play at would be somewhere between Providence and Villanova as far as those that try to outscore you every night. The Cats handled Providence easily -- until the final six minutes -- but in general UC's trend against the top scoring teams in the league was they were unable to make enough buckets to keep up.
Villanova, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh rounded out the top 5 in Big East scoring during conference play. UC played them all on the road and couldn't hold any below 66 points.
These types of teams will get their points. The question is if UC will hit enough shots to keep up as they did against Providence. The Golden Eagles defense allows more opportunities to do so than the previous three, but another 4 of 17 night from behind the arc would spell doom for the Cats.
--- The emergence of two sophomores has been a key to Marquette's three-game win streak. This from Todd Rosiak at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
--- UC is 0-7 when trailing at the half and 22-0 when leading at the half this year.
--- Tommy G put together this feature on one of the nicest athletes I've met at UC, senior Ibrahima Thomas.
--- The Big East has eight 20-win teams entering the last week of the regular season. Since 1982-83, the first year of the Big East's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship, 128 of 132 Big East teams with 20 or more wins have reached the NCAA tournament (97 percent).
--- Good thing Villanova isn't anywhere near the bubble. They are giving an encore performance to last year's late-season collapse. If the BE tournament started today they would be the 11th seed. Yikes.
--- Mike DeCourcy with another great story, this time about how teams that win on the road in the regular season win in the NCAA tournament. The same being said for teams that don't win on the road in the regular season.
"Over the past five years, 19 of the 20 Final Four teams had a winning road record. The exception: 2010 Duke, which went 5-5. Among that group, 14 were at least four games over the break-even mark in road games, and eight won at least 80 percent.
"Consider the teams that struggled on the road. Over that same five-year period, there have been 15 top-40 RPI teams that were three or more games under .500 in road games. Only one advanced to the Sweet 16, and their overall tournament record was 8-15."
As for UC, they are 4-4 on the road in the Big East and 7-4 on the road overall. That doesn't include what was considered a neutral site win vs. Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.
A game like Wednesday at Marquette will be as great a test of that theory as any this year.
--- Andy Glockner writes the Bubble Watch with some discussion of UC in the Big East section. He almost contradicts himself talking about how incredbily weak the bubble is and that anyone who is anyone will be in, but later says UC still has work to do.
--- John Calipari said he uses the media like a wet rag. In these trying times of journalism, it's at least nice to know we serve some purpose.
--- Didn't get around to this yesterday, but Lance Stephenson saw his first NBA action of the year this past weekend for Indiana. He didn't hav a field goal, but made two free throws for his first NBA points.
Most surprising from this blog post by Conrad Brunner of Pacers.com, was Frank Vogel said he sees Stephenson being an "X-factor" this year.
--- Former Bearcat Brian Garman with the save yesterday for the Milwaukee Brewers.
On to some randomness...
--- Zach Galifianakis hosted SNL last year and was fantastic. He's coming back for a second session on March 12.
--- Since today is the first day of the best month of the year, I figured I'd post a video that shows the way I feel about the next 31 days.