TicketsUCF (14-8, 5-5) at No. 6/6 CINCINNATI (21-2, 10-0)
SERIES INFO: 11th meeting; Cincinnati leads 9-1 overall; Cincinnati leads 3-0 at home;
Cincinnati leads 4-1 in Orlando; Cincinnati leads 2-0 at neutral sites
LAST MEETING: Cincinnati won 49-38 on Jan. 16, 2018 at CFE Arena
STREAK: Cincinnati - 1
COACHES: Mick Cronin is in his 12th season at Cincinnati (258-137); 15th season overall (327-161)
Johnny Dawkins is in his second season at UCF (38-20); 10th season overall (194-135)
AP/USA TODAY RANKINGS (FEB. 5): Cincinnati (6/6); UCF (--/--)
RADIO: 700 WLW; Dan Hoard provides play-by-play with color analyst Terry Nelson
TV: CBS Sports Network; Dave Ryan provides play-by-play with color analyst Steve Wolf. Allie LaForce reports
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By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – Those back-to-back losses to Xavier and Florida in early December might have seemed like a travesty to University of Cincinnati basketball fans.
But to UC coach Mick Cronin they were just what the doctor ordered. Not that he enjoyed losing to crosstown rival Xavier, but in retrospect, he said, the losses were instrumental in catapulting UC to its current 14-game winning streak. Until then, things might have come too easily for the 7-0 Bearcats.
"It's really important that at some point in the season you get a dose of reality," Cronin said. "It could be November, it could be December. One year we were undefeated and it didn't happen until we went to Villanova in conference play. It's better to get it early. Then your guys realize, OK, he's right, we're not as good as we need to be to beat quality opponents. That happened for us in one week and I give our guys credit. We got a lot better the next week and it's propelled us to be a better team."
UC, which hasn't lost since the Florida game on Dec. 9, rose to No. 6 in the Associated Press media poll Monday, its highest ranking since it was also ranked sixth on Jan. 24, 2004.
The Bearcats (21-2 overall, 10-0 in the American Athletic Conference) will face Central Florida (14-8, 5-5) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at BB&T Arena having won its last 38 home games, the longest home winning streak in the country.
UC knocked off the Knights, 49-38, in Orlando on Jan. 16 in its lowest scoring game of the season, shooting a season-low 35.2 percent from the field, due in large measure to the presence of Tacko Fall, UCF's 7-foot-6 center, who made it difficult for the UC players to attack the basket. But Fall is out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery, so this game should have a much different look.
"Defensively, we don't have to worry about him getting lobs, getting offensive rebounds and put-backs," said UC forward Gary Clark, who scored 17 points with 15 rebounds in the first game agains the Knights. "It's definitely a huge absence with him not being in the paint."
Without Fall to contend with, the Bearcats should have an easier time scoring inside. But UCF should also be more efficient on offense because B.J. Taylor, a pre-season all-conference guard, is rounding into form after missing 16 games with a foot injury. Taylor played in the Jan. 16 game, but it was his first game back. He scored only six points in 21 minutes. For the season, Taylor is averaging 15.0 points per game.
"They're a totally different team," Cronin said. "I can't tell you if that's good or bad for us.
They're harder to defend because of B.J. Taylor. They're not the same team defensively because Tacko is not standing in front of the rim. They run great schemes. But their defense wasn't just about him. They play really hard on the defensive end."
During their winning streak, the Bearcats have won by an average margin of 19.4 points per game. Only two opponents – Temple and Connecticut – have come within 10 points. UC needed a basket by Jacob Evans III with 0.4 seconds remaining to win by two at Temple on Jan. 4. The Bearcats outlasted UConn by eight over the weekend in Storrs.
After the losses earlier this season, Cronin said, the key wasn't to try something different, but to execute more effectively.
"When you lose is when you get their attention," Cronin said. "That's when the reality hits them because you're telling them the same things. But when you haven't lost yet it doesn't have the same effect. What happens when you're undefeated is you get the look of yeah, right, Coach. We like you, we believe you, but yeah, right. When you lose two in a row, you get the look, please help us, Coach, we don't want to get embarrassed. We'll listen. We don't want to lose two more this week.
"What happens is when you play better teams, it's harder to execute…We have to run our offense with speed and efficiency, precision and timing, and you're going to have to maybe run it three times within a possession to get a good look."
At Monday's practice, Clark displayed a gash under his front upper lip that he received at Connecticut on Saturday when a UConn player whacked him in the face. Last year, Clark had a tooth knocked out by an Amida Brimah elbow in the conference tournament. According to Cronin, Saturday's game was the fourth straight against UConn in which Clark has been hit in the head or the face.
"He almost had a tooth imbedded in his upper lip," Cronin said. "He didn't say a word, because that's big how he is. He just keeps playing. I didn't really notice it or I would have called for a play stoppage. If it happens one time, it's a coincidence, two it's bad luck, four in a row?"
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.