TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – After Jarron Cumberland went off for a career-high 34 points Tuesday night to lead the University of Cincinnati Bearcats to an 82-74 victory over South Florida, UC coach Mick Cronin paid him a huge compliment.
"Jarron is starting to play with his mind," Cronin said. "I watched Steve Logan for three years. I worked him out every day for three years. I watched him develop to be that type of guy, a guy that can make shots. (Cumberland) is a bigger version. That would my comparison, to Steve Logan."
Logan was a pudgy 5-10 guard from Cleveland who was recruited by Cronin when he was an assistant coach under Bob Huggins. He played at UC from 1999 to 2002 and scored 1,985 points, which ranks third in school history behind Oscar Robertson's 2,973 and Sean Kilpatrick's 2,145. He was a consensus All-American during his senior year when he averaged 22 points.
Like Logan, Cumberland has an uncanny knack for drawing fouls and is an excellent free throw shooter. He's made 25 of 28 from the line over his last two games.
"He's driving the ball because he knows they're either going to foul him most of the time or he's going to score," Cronin said. "His mental game is much better."
Cumberland, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound junior guard from Wilmington (Ohio) High School, has made 82.4 percent of his free throws this season, which ranks fifth in the American Athletic Conference. He also ranks fifth in the American in scoring with 17.8 points per game, and is second in three-point shooting at 42.9 percent behind UC point guard Justin Jenifer (43.5 percent).
With 1,027 career points, Cumberland has a chance to finish among the top 10 scorers in UC history. If he averages his current 18 points the rest of this season for at least 15 more games, he'll finish his junior year with 1,294 points. Kilpatrick, the number two scorer in UC history, had 1,444 points after his junior year. He scored 701 as a senior.
Mike Noszka saw these scoring outbursts from Cumberland plenty of times when he coached him at Wilmington, where Cumberland averaged 29.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, 3.6 steals and 3.2 assists as a senior and led his team to the Ohio Division I state semifinals.
During his four years at Wilmington, Cumberland scored a school record 2,382 points and set a school record with 52 points against Washington Court House. He was a first-team all-state selection as both a junior and a senior and was a finalist for the Mr. Ohio Basketball his senior year.
"He's still doing all the things he did in high school, he's just doing it against better competition," Noszka said. "His body's gotten better. Most kids have to put on weight and strength (in college), but he's trimmed down and still put on muscle and strength. His body has really improved and that's helped his quickness and his lateral movement."
Noszka remembers watching Cumberland play in open gym at Wilmington when he was in the eighth grade.
"Our open gyms were very, very competitive," Noszka said. "We had kids that were playing Division I basketball at the time. This kid's in the eighth grade and he just attacked the competition."
Wilmington won only nine games the year before Cumberland arrived. The Hurricane improved to 17 during Cumberland's freshman year and went 51-4 during his final two years. The Bearcats are 76-14 during his two-plus years at UC.
"His teams have always won at every level," Noszka said. "That would include when he played football."
Cumberland displayed his commitment to winning early on during his high school career when he broke his foot during the middle of January.
"He not only comes back by the end of the season," Noszka said, "he scores 41 points against Cincinnati Taft in the sectional finals to win that game for us.
"The thing I always told college scouts about him is that this kid is an outstanding passer. That's the thing that has always gone unnoticed. I remember when we played (Dayton) Wayne his junior year. They were number one in the state and they won the state that year. We were winning in the fourth quarter, so Wayne tried to go to a 1-3-1 trap. Now when you have 6-7, 6-8 kids out there trying to trap you, it can be difficult on high school kids. Jarron was catching the ball in the backcourt and he was whizzing passes past kids' ears for layups to our post kids."
When the time came to pick a college, Cumberland chose UC over Purdue, a decision that Noszka said has served his former player well. It's worked out pretty well for the Bearcats, too.
''I'll never forget what (Purdue coach) Matt Painter said to me," Noszka said. "A lot of times guys get upset when a kid chooses another school, but Matt Painter made the comment to me that he thought Mick Cronin would be great for Jarron. That made me feel very secure as his high school coach that he was going to the right school.
"More than anything I thought Mick's approach to his players was going to be very good for Jarron, just the way Mick can deal with a young man coming in, being demanding of him, pushing him the way Jarron maybe needed to be pushed."
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.
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – After Jarron Cumberland went off for a career-high 34 points Tuesday night to lead the University of Cincinnati Bearcats to an 82-74 victory over South Florida, UC coach Mick Cronin paid him a huge compliment.
"Jarron is starting to play with his mind," Cronin said. "I watched Steve Logan for three years. I worked him out every day for three years. I watched him develop to be that type of guy, a guy that can make shots. (Cumberland) is a bigger version. That would my comparison, to Steve Logan."
Logan was a pudgy 5-10 guard from Cleveland who was recruited by Cronin when he was an assistant coach under Bob Huggins. He played at UC from 1999 to 2002 and scored 1,985 points, which ranks third in school history behind Oscar Robertson's 2,973 and Sean Kilpatrick's 2,145. He was a consensus All-American during his senior year when he averaged 22 points.
Like Logan, Cumberland has an uncanny knack for drawing fouls and is an excellent free throw shooter. He's made 25 of 28 from the line over his last two games.
"He's driving the ball because he knows they're either going to foul him most of the time or he's going to score," Cronin said. "His mental game is much better."
Cumberland, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound junior guard from Wilmington (Ohio) High School, has made 82.4 percent of his free throws this season, which ranks fifth in the American Athletic Conference. He also ranks fifth in the American in scoring with 17.8 points per game, and is second in three-point shooting at 42.9 percent behind UC point guard Justin Jenifer (43.5 percent).
With 1,027 career points, Cumberland has a chance to finish among the top 10 scorers in UC history. If he averages his current 18 points the rest of this season for at least 15 more games, he'll finish his junior year with 1,294 points. Kilpatrick, the number two scorer in UC history, had 1,444 points after his junior year. He scored 701 as a senior.
Mike Noszka saw these scoring outbursts from Cumberland plenty of times when he coached him at Wilmington, where Cumberland averaged 29.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, 3.6 steals and 3.2 assists as a senior and led his team to the Ohio Division I state semifinals.
During his four years at Wilmington, Cumberland scored a school record 2,382 points and set a school record with 52 points against Washington Court House. He was a first-team all-state selection as both a junior and a senior and was a finalist for the Mr. Ohio Basketball his senior year.
"He's still doing all the things he did in high school, he's just doing it against better competition," Noszka said. "His body's gotten better. Most kids have to put on weight and strength (in college), but he's trimmed down and still put on muscle and strength. His body has really improved and that's helped his quickness and his lateral movement."
Noszka remembers watching Cumberland play in open gym at Wilmington when he was in the eighth grade.
"Our open gyms were very, very competitive," Noszka said. "We had kids that were playing Division I basketball at the time. This kid's in the eighth grade and he just attacked the competition."
Wilmington won only nine games the year before Cumberland arrived. The Hurricane improved to 17 during Cumberland's freshman year and went 51-4 during his final two years. The Bearcats are 76-14 during his two-plus years at UC.
"His teams have always won at every level," Noszka said. "That would include when he played football."
Cumberland displayed his commitment to winning early on during his high school career when he broke his foot during the middle of January.
"He not only comes back by the end of the season," Noszka said, "he scores 41 points against Cincinnati Taft in the sectional finals to win that game for us.
"The thing I always told college scouts about him is that this kid is an outstanding passer. That's the thing that has always gone unnoticed. I remember when we played (Dayton) Wayne his junior year. They were number one in the state and they won the state that year. We were winning in the fourth quarter, so Wayne tried to go to a 1-3-1 trap. Now when you have 6-7, 6-8 kids out there trying to trap you, it can be difficult on high school kids. Jarron was catching the ball in the backcourt and he was whizzing passes past kids' ears for layups to our post kids."
When the time came to pick a college, Cumberland chose UC over Purdue, a decision that Noszka said has served his former player well. It's worked out pretty well for the Bearcats, too.
''I'll never forget what (Purdue coach) Matt Painter said to me," Noszka said. "A lot of times guys get upset when a kid chooses another school, but Matt Painter made the comment to me that he thought Mick Cronin would be great for Jarron. That made me feel very secure as his high school coach that he was going to the right school.
"More than anything I thought Mick's approach to his players was going to be very good for Jarron, just the way Mick can deal with a young man coming in, being demanding of him, pushing him the way Jarron maybe needed to be pushed."
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.