TicketsCOPPIN STATE (0-2) at No. 12/13 CINCINNATI (2-0)
SERIES INFO: Fourth meeting; Cincinnati leads 3-0 overall; UC leads 2-0 at home and 1-0 at neutral sites
LAST MEETING: Cincinnati won 76-56 on Nov. 29, 2003 at Fifth Third Arena
STREAK: Cincinnati - 3
COACHES: Mick Cronin is in his 12th season at Cincinnati (239-135); 15th season overall (308-159)
Juan Dixon is in his first season at Coppin State (0-2); first season overall (0-2)
AP/USA TODAY RANKINGS (NOV.13): Cincinnati (12/13); Coppin State (--/--)
RADIO: 700 WLW; Dan Hoard provides play-by-play with color analyst Chuck Machock
TV: FOX Sports Ohio/ESPN3; Tom Gelehrter provides play-by-play with color analyst Terry Nelson
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TICKETS: Start at $20; Available on BB&T Arena Website; TicketMaster by calling 1-800-745-3000;
Sold at BB&T Arena box office beginning two hours prior to the start (depending on availability)
By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati Bearcats have a chance to make history Thursday night when they play Coppin State at BB&T Arena.
In the 116 years of UC basketball no team has ever scored 100 points in three consecutive games, a distinction the 2017-18 team can secure for itself if it scores 100 against the Eagles. Tipoff is 7 p.m.
Those who get excited about the results of early-season games against mid-major (or lower) opponents do so at their own risk and no one is suggesting that the Bearcats, who have averaged 104.5 points per game in their wins over Savannah State and Western Carolina, are going to average 100 for the entire season. Still, their early-season offensive production is worth noting, especially for a program that has been known primarily for its defense during the first 11 years of Mick Cronin's coaching tenure.
It's no accident that the 12th-ranked Bearcats (2-0) are scoring so many points at this early juncture of the season. When the shot clock was changed from 35 to 30 seconds in 2015-16, Cronin said, he changed his recruiting philosophy. The fruits of that change are now being fully realized, starting with last season when the Bearcats tied with SMU to lead the American Athletic Conference in scoring with 74.3 points per game.
"We've tried to make sure that every guard, every perimeter guy that we sign, is an offensive player," Cronin said, "and then we'll turn them into a defender. If you don't change with the times you're going to get left behind. Your perimeter players all have to be able to score. The days of a guard that's just a defensive stopper are gone.
"I don't see the game going backwards. It's headed in that direction and I think in the next 10 years it's going to be even more in that direction. The more the game is played with speed and pace you'd better be able to score points to win because it's going to be harder and harder to hold teams down."
Coppin State, UC's second Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opponent in its first three games, is 0-2, with losses to Oregon (70-54) and East Carolina (76-50). The Eagles are coached by former Maryland guard Juan Dixon, who was voted the Most Outstanding Player of the 2002 Final Four when he led the Terrapins to the national championship. He's the career scoring leader at Maryland with 2,269 points. The Eagles shoot 26.3 percent from the field and have allowed 73 points per game.
This is the third team in school history to open the season with back-to-back 100-point games. The last team to do it was Oscar Robertson's 1950-60 team that opened with a 107-62 win over Indiana State followed by a 102-61 win over Marshall.
And this is the first UC team since 2011-12 that has produced back-to-back 100-point games at any point in the season, the seventh in school history.
Ever since he took over as UC's head coach in 2006, Cronin has been maligned as a defensive coach who doesn't coach offense as well. And it's true that back in the early years of the program under Cronin, the Bearcats did struggle to score. That was at least partly a byproduct of the difficulty he and his staff had recruiting high-level players as they tried to rebuild the program from scratch in the wake of Bob Huggins' departure.
But this is a different program now, one with seven straight NCAA Tournaments to its credit, and Cronin has far more offensive firepower at his disposal.
"It's getting to be a long time ago now, but there was a time when we were just trying to get whoever we could and then figure out how to win," Cronin said. "Early in the Big East days it was you'd better not get pushed around or you've got no chance. It was just such a big, strong physical league, so we had to get to the point where we could at least get the rebound if we got a stop. And then we built out from there.
"Recruiting isn't easy and the more you win the more you can try to get the kind of guy you want instead of just taking the best guy you can get. And then when your program is in a stable place you can look for a certain type of guy."
Cronin is the first to admit that part of the Bearcats' early-season scoring outburst is the result of playing teams that can't handle UC's full-court pressure. The Bearcats have forced 39 turnovers in their first two games and scored 51 points off those turnovers. Against more formidable competition, they're not likely to get that kind of largesse from their opponents and will have to find ways to score in the half-court.
That's when senior forwards Gary Clark and Kyle Washington will become more important to the offense because of their ability to score around the basket.
For now, however much it means in the long run, if nothing else the high-scoring Bearcats are entertaining, even in blowout games. They certainly can't be accused of being offensively challenged as they have been so frequently in recent years, often by their own fans.
"I don't get upset about it," Cronin said, "but it's a factor in recruiting. And it's false. When you say that, it doesn't help my players with their pro career if the image is 'Oh, they're just a bunch of guys that play hard.' That's not fair."
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.