Tickets
By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI - No matter how much University of Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin wanted to downplay his 300th career victory, there was no way he was going to escape Fifth Third Arena on Saturday without some sort of recognition.
So it was that after the 18th-ranked Bearcats knocked off Tulsa, 80-60, UC Director of Athletics Mike Bohn handed the game ball to senior point guard Troy Caupain, who presented it to Cronin amid a nice round of applause from what was left of the sellout crowd of 13,386.
"It was nice," Cronin said. "I appreciate Mike Bohn for doing that."
Beyond that, Cronin didn't have much to say about his accomplishment, preferring instead to look ahead.
"I don't talk about stuff like that," he said. "I talk to my players about what we've got to do to make a run in March."
The Bearcats won their 24th straight home game while improving their overall record to 24-3, 13-1 in the American Athletic Conference and made dramatic improvement over their first game against the Golden Hurricane on Feb. 1 when they had to erase an 11-point deficit with 6:01 to play to post a 66-64 victory. Tulsa, which has lost six straight games, fell to 12-14, 6-8.
All five UC starters scored in double figures, led by Kyle Washington with 18 points. Jacob Evans scored 17, followed by Kevin Johnson with 15, Gary Clark with 14 and Troy Caupain with 11. Junior Etou scored 22 points to lead the Golden Hurricane. UC freshman guard Jarron Cumberland did not play due to a curfew violation.
The Bearcats led by six at halftime, but only because they shot 62.5 percent from the field. Their defense wasn't close to reaching Cronin's standard and he let his players know about it at halftime.
"In the second half the kids made a concerted effort to do a much better job of listening to Coach (Antwon) Jackson's excellent scouting report," Cronin said. "Once we were able to keep (Tulsa point guard Sterling) Taplin out of the lane and do a much better job of containing him I think the game changed. They didn't score a whole lot in the first 10 minutes of the second half."
The Bearcats put the game away during that span, outscoring the Golden Hurricane, 16-2, in the first six-and-a half minutes to take a 54-34 lead. By the 11:04 mark of the second half, they led by 27.
Cronin, 45, is 300-156 in 14 seasons as a head coach. He's 231-132 in 11 years at UC. He's come a long way from his first two seasons at UC when he went 11-19 and 13-19 while rebuilding a program that was in tatters due to the forced resignation of Bob Huggins. He has not had a losing season since. His teams have produced seven straight 20-win seasons, including three with 25 or more wins, and has led his teams to six straight NCAA Tournament appearances, with a seventh almost a lock this season.
The UC graduate rose through the coaching ranks the hard way. He did not play college basketball and has had to scratch and claw for everything he's gotten. It's that feisty determination that has endeared him to his players.
"Knowing him he's just gonna stay hungry," Evans said. "He probably wants to get 300 more. He always had that chip on his shoulder and I feel like we feed off of that, so he's gonna stay after us. He always wants to do better. He always wants to reach the top, so he's always just fighting for success."
Cronin didn't say anything to his players about his 300th win before the game. He thanked them after the game and asked them to sign the game ball, but that was about it.
"He'll probably say let's keep on winning and this is not really a big feat," Washington said, "but with how young he is and how driven he is, it's really nice to be there for him and win his 300th game for him. He's done so much for all of us, we just appreciate him at all times."
Beyond the milestone win, there were several welcome developments for the Bearcats in what was otherwise a routine blowout victory. Perhaps most importantly, Caupain showed signs of coming out of a shooting slump that had seen him make only five of 26 shots in his previous three games. He was 6-for-14 against Tulsa, made two of three from long range, and recorded eight assists with no turnovers in 34 minutes.
"That's our captain," Washington said. "He's embodied a lot about what Cincinnati's about his whole career and he leads by example. The bigger the situation, the bigger he plays. He's gonna show up when it matters the most."
The other encouraging sign came from Evans, who sometimes fades into the background. Against Tulsa, he was aggressive from the start, scoring 13 of his 17 points in the first half.
"I can't just float around on the offensive end always being passive," Evans said. "I've got to attack the goal and do everything that I'm capable of doing."
As for Cronin's game ball, it's not like he has a cherished spot reserved for it in his Anderson Township home.
"In my house, I don't have that type of stuff," Cronin said. "My daughter's pictures are all over the house. My staff, they'll use that stuff for recruiting. I'm bad at that. I should be better at that stuff."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years - 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer - before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January 2015.