TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – It's not often that a college basketball team apologizes to its fans after posting a 19-point victory, but that's what the University of Cincinnati Bearcats did Saturday after posting a sloppy, at times uninspired, 77-56 win over South Carolina State before 11,623 fans at Fifth Third Arena.
"We had a lot of game slippage today," said junior center Nysier Brooks, who led the Bearcats with a career-high 17 points and eight rebounds. "It was kind of embarrassing. I apologize to our fans because they came out to see us play a good game. Yeah, it's 20 points, but it wasn't a pretty 20. It was sloppy."
The Bearcats got off to a slow start offensively, recovered to take a 35-16 halftime lead, then outscored the Bulldogs by only two in the second half. Several times their lead was reduced to 12 points. There was never a feeling that the win was in jeopardy, but it certainly was hard to watch at times.
UC (11-2) allowed the Bulldogs (2-13) to shoot 48.1 percent from the field in the second half after they had made only five of 25 shots in the first half. At the same time, the Bearcats decided to settle for three-point shots, missing their first eight after intermission.
Cumberland scored 12 points for UC, nine in the second half. Justin Jenifer added 11, and Trevor Moore scored 10 for the Bearcats. Janai Raynor Powell led South Carolina St. with 15.
UC shot 41.3 percent from the field and made nine of 30 shots from three-point range. The Bearcats out-rebounded the Bulldogs 46-28 with 16 offensive rebounds, and outscored them 21-2 in second-chance points while committing only seven turnovers, none in the second half.
The decision to apologize was made by the players as group, but UC coach Mick Cronin planted the seed at halftime.
"I told them at halftime it's a shame that you've got people that took their time and paid their money to come to the game today," Cronin said. "You're cheating them with your lack of intensity."
Despite the lackluster play, especially in the second half, Cronin never called timeout to lambast his players for their effort. He was so calm on the bench he almost resembled former UCLA coach John Wooden, who was known for sitting placidly on the bench during games holding a rolled-up program.
"I do this every now and again," Cronin said. "Sometimes I sit down and say you guys have got to learn how to play hard on your own. You've got to learn how to execute on your own and you've got to think for yourself. If I come out breathing fire and we win by a ridiculous number I don't know what that does for our team.
So now I'll be breathing fire the next time we practice and guys will be ready."
Playing against such an overmatched opponent gave Cronin a chance to find playing time for some of his players who don't normally get on the court that much. Moore responded with a season-high in points in nearly 23 minutes, his high for the season.
"He's got to quit worrying when he misses shots," Cronin said. "When Steph Curry shoots 42 percent, he's the best shooter in the world from three, but he missed 48 (percent). But you would never know it when you look at Curry's body language. When Trevor Moore misses one, it's like somebody stole his dog out of his backyard that he's had since was a little kid. I've seen his body language change. I've got to get that changed in him because he can really help us. He misses shots just off of mental pressure. He's just over-stressed."
Freshman forward Mamoudou Diarra also received more playing time than he usually gets. He scored eight points with five rebounds in 12 minutes, which tied his season high.
Having completed the non-league portion of their schedule, the Bearcats will open defense of their American Athletic Conference championship on Jan. 2 at home against Tulane. They're poised on the cusp of the Top 25 with only two losses – to Ohio State at home and Mississippi State on the road.
While that may surprise a lot of their fans after UC lost Gary Clark, Kyle Washington and Jacob Evans from last year's 31-5 team, they definitely have not surprised themselves.
"When you lose guys that we lost last year, yeah, it's a big drop-off," Moore said. "But within ourselves we had meetings and we just told each other we're going to be better than we were last year. Yeah, they were good last year but we can do better. They made a name for themselves. Why can't we make a name for ourselves with this year's team?"
Cronin declared himself pleased with what he's seen from his team so far.
"The guys have seen both ends of the spectrum," he said. "Obviously, you want to build your resume first. Second, you want to try to develop and get more cohesive. Third, your players need to learn what it takes to be a good team and how we're going to win. Today was a great example. If you don't snuff a team out with great energy and toughness, defense and rebounding, you're not going to score 90-something points.
"We've grown, no doubt about it. But we've still got to get better. If you would have said we're going to be 11-2 and coming into today No. 23 in the Kem Pom (rankings) I'd have probably taken it."
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.