TicketsUCONN (13-14, 6-8) at No. 11/11 CINCINNATI (23-4, 12-2)
SERIES INFO: 26th meeting; UConn leads 13-12 overall; Cincinnati leads 6-3 at home and 3-1 in Storrs, Conn.
UConn leads 4-2 in Hartford, Conn., and 5-1 at neutral sites
LAST MEETING: Cincinnati won 65-57 on Feb. 3, 2018 at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn.
STREAK: Cincinnati - 4
COACHES: Mick Cronin is in his 12th season at Cincinnati (260-139); 15th season overall (329-163)
Kevin Ollie is in his sixth season at UConn (126-75); sixth season overall (126-75)
AP/USA TODAY RANKINGS (FEB. 19): Cincinnati (11/11); UConn (--/--)
RADIO: 700 WLW; Dan Hoard provides play-by-play with color analyst Terry Nelson
TV: ESPN; Adam Amin provides play-by-play with color analyst Seth Greenberg
JOIN THE CONVERSATION (TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM): @GoBearcatsMBB or GoBearcatsMBB
By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – Senior forward Gary Clark has played for University of Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin long enough to know what awaited him and his teammates Tuesday afternoon.
"Today will definitely be one of those tough practices," Clark said.
As it turned out, Clark was wrong this time. Practice wasn't as bad as he feared it might be. But after back-to-back losses to Houston and No. 19 then-No. 19 Wichita State following a 16-game winning streak, Cronin definitely had a message for his players as he began to prepare them to face Connecticut at 7 p.m. Thursday at BB&T Arena.
"We've got to be more committed to the things we need to do to win games," Cronin told reporters before practice. "Defense obviously is at the top of the list. There's a lot of uncomfortable things that go into winning a game and being a winning player. We have got to do a better job of that against the elite teams we play."
A few years ago, UConn would have qualified as one of those elite teams, but the Huskies will line up against UC with a 13-14 overall record, 6-8 in the American Athletic Conference, having lost five of their last seven games and two of their last three as they try to avoid their second straight losing season. No. 11 UC (23-4 overall, 12-2 in the league) is still clinging to a one-game lead in the race for the conference championship with four games to play in the regular season.
The Huskies have been hampered all season by injuries. With some of those players having returned, Cronin said they're a much better offensive team. Still, they struggled to beat 10-15 East Carolina by four on Sunday, allowing 80 points to a team that averages 67.9 per game. And they lost by 21 to Wichita State on Feb. 10.
UConn leads the series with UC, 13-12, but the Bearcats have won the last four games and six of the last seven, including a 65-57 win in Storrs, Conn., on Feb. 3. UC held the Huskies to 36.4 percent shooting in that game.
Cronin showed up at practice armed with some telling statistics to emphasize with his players the importance of regaining the defensive and rebounding edges that served them so well until they went to Houston last Thursday.
"When you look at the stats, they just jump right off the page in our wins vs. our losses," Cronin said. "We're plus eight on the glass in our wins; we're minus six in our losses. Defensively, we're giving up 47 percent from the field in our losses; 36 in our wins. Our assist-to-turnover ratio is almost two-to- one in our wins and it's very negative in our losses.
"We've scored 67 and a half points a game in our four losses. The only thing we need to do a better job of on offense is take care of the ball and rebound better. Shooting comes and goes. For us to be a great team, we've got to be a dominant defensive team. We can't just be average and we were average the last two games."
It's not like the Bearcats haven't heard that before, but sometimes the message needs to be reinforced.
"We have to watch film and figure out what we need to do to become the team that we were before," Clark said. "It's all about learning and getting better. We've still got a bunch of games to play and we've still got March. Right now we've got to focus on what we've got to do as a unit starting at practice today. It'll be a lot of that these next couple of days,."
The good news for the Bearcats is that the conference title is still theirs to lose. They'll be favored to win their next three games – at home vs. UConn and Tulsa, followed by a road game at Tulane before the rematch against Wichita State.
If they take care of business the way they're supposed to, they'll roll into Wichita on March 4 for the final game of the regular season, with no less than a one-game lead.
"We control our destiny right now," Clark said. "Everyone is still going to gun for us to try to get into the tournament. It's one of those things where we've just got to lock in and be a Bearcat. It's pressure but it's good pressure. We've got a bunch of guys that have been on the team for awhile and understand that in this back stretch every game matters and everyone's still trying to get their last punch."
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.