Recap: Cincinnati
Jan. 4, 2009
There may have been some crossed signals on the part of the Cincinnati Bearcats on Sunday.
After MU knocked down 15 of 25 three-pointers and Jerel McNeal 7 of 7 in a 84-50 rout at the Bradley Center, Cincinnati guard Deonta Vaughn raised some eyebrows in the media room afterward by saying the Bearcats' game plan was to force them to shoot from long range.
"We came in the game wanting them to shoot the threes," said Vaughn. "We wanted them to do things they don't normally do. We know they like to drive the ball a lot and get in the paint at least 25 times a game.
"But we wanted them to shoot threes. We figured we'll let them shoot them, just contest them, and in the second half they wouldn't hit as much. But they came down and still hit more threes than we thought they'd make."
In theory, that's not a bad idea. MU has been streaky from beyond the arc this season, and its strength is definitely getting into the lane and either finishing or getting to the free-throw line. But it wasn't doing either early on against Cincinnati's big bodies, so why not actually get out and contest a few of those threes?
As it turned out, most of the Golden Eagles' looks from long range were ridiculously wide-open -- especially early in the second half when MU put the game way out of reach thanks to 3 threes from Lazar Hayward.
When asked about Vaughn's comments, Bearcats coach Mick Cronin disputed them.
"No. That's ridiculous," he said. "We make people take tough twos and then challenge threes. Challenge would be the operative word. Especially when we open the second half and let Lazar Hayward stand there and shoot 3 threes. He's the one guy that doesn't have the quickness, and we're supposed to crowd him."
-- Lost in the shooting display put on by MU was the defensive job the Golden Eagles -- primarily Dominic James -- did on Vaughn, an all-Big East guard who entered averaging a team-high 15.2 points per game.
James frustrated Vaughn into the first scoreless performance of his career, as he finished 0 for 8 from the field and 0 for 6 from three-point range in 37 minutes.
"Dominic...he gets a lot of credit for the maturity that he's shown thus far offensively, and rightfully so. He's deserving of that," said coach Buzz Williams. "But what he's been doing defensively, nobody's talking near enough about. I said before the game I think Vaughn is one of the top three or four guards in the league, and I never count our guards in that mix.
"But when you can hold a guy to an 0-fer, that speaks volumes. And when you're holding a guy to an 0-fer, and then you're running your club on the other end, that's a hard, hard, most difficult thing to do. He's got to guard the best player, and then he's got to initiate offense and make sure that on every possession on both ends he's the focal point.
"He's been great."
Added McNeal: "Nic just set the tone right away. He did an unbelievable job pressuring him up the court. Didn't give him any easy looks, and made him work for every shot that he got.
Vaughn did finish with a collegiate-high 10 assists, showing he was the only Bearcats player to not have completely checked out by halftime.
-- MU looked like it was in trouble early on, as Cincinnati's big bodies -- Yancy Gates and Mike Williams in particular -- clogged driving lanes and led to numerous second-shot opportunities for the Bearcats, who actually led, 14-12, midway through the first half.
But then Gates picked up his second foul and went to the bench, MU began heating up from long range, and it was over.
Even still, the Bearcats did out-rebound the Golden Eagles, 32-31, with 15 of those coming on the offensive end, and eight of those coming in the first half when things were still relatively close.
"Entering the game they had rebounded 41% of their missed field-goal attempts, which is the highest number of any team that I've ever studied," said Williams. "Then in the second half, they got one offensive rebound in the first 13 minutes 34 seconds. Then I took the core guys out and they got six more.
"But I thought that was probably the difference in the game -- not allowing them second shots in the second half. And then when you make shots the way we did, that probably trends toward everything looking better and your negative things not being revealed quite as much."
-- In that same vein, MU dodged a big bullet when Gates was sent to the bench with his second because Lazar Hayward had been out since the 14:38 mark after picking up two fouls.
Having to defend both Gates and Williams without Hayward for an extended period would have been an awfully tough task for the Golden Eagles.
He wound up opening the second half by knocking down three quick threes to help put away the Bearcats, and finished with 16 points, but his 20-minute stint served as something of a warning to he and the rest of his teammates.
"I say this in the right way, not in a condescending way: I don't care how Lazar plays in the second half," said Williams. "Because we're going to lose games when he only plays 4 minutes and 12 seconds in the first half. We cannot absorb a blow to one of our four core guys. That's what happened at Tennessee.
"We can't absorb when Jerel fouls out. We can't absorb when Lazar gets his second slightly before the second media time out. He played five minutes, and we can't afford to do that. I'm happy he made some shots, but I'm displeased because he needs to play the minutes that he plays because it puts our team in such a bind.
"That's why we always talk about defending without fouling."
-- McNeal's 7-for-7 performance from three-point range broke the previous MU record of 5-for-5 efforts by David Diggs (2001), Brian Wardle (2000), Anthony Pieper (1997) and Aaron Hutchins (1996).
"He's already hard to guard," said Williams of McNeal. "But when he gets in a groove he becomes really hard to guard. And I think the thing that helps him is he had six assists, which is a high number for him."
McNeal said afterward he had no idea during the game he hadn't missed from long range.
"Nope. I didn't pay attention to it at all," he said. "I just knew I had made quite a few after a while. After my first and second one, I began losing count."
-- With the game well in hand, Williams was able to experiment with some lineups in the second half, and with a little more than eight minutes to go had only two starters on the floor at the same time along with three reserves -- a truly uncommon sight this season.
Off the bench, Jimmy Butler wound up playing 23 minutes due in large part to Hayward's foul trouble in the first half, Pat Hazel and Chris Otule each played 13, Maurice Acker 12, David Cubillan nine and Joe Fulce five.
Hazel took part in what I'd call the play of the game in the first half. MU dissected Cincinnati's zone by getting the ball to the free-throw line, where Wesley Matthews dropped a perfect bounce pass to a cutting Hazel, who threw down a thunderous, two-handed baseline jam in the mug of Dion Dixon.
He finished with four points, three rebounds, a steal and one big block on Vaughn.
"I think Pat has definitely created a niche," Williams said. "He's a 6-6 5-man, but he's learned to have his hands ready and just catch it. Pat doesn't play because of his skill set; Pat has to play because of his activity set. He's played with great energy and great activity."
-- The 34-point margin of victory was the biggest for MU in a conference game since it won by 35 at South Florida, 71-36, on Jan. 30, 1997.
-- MU is now 2-0 in the Big East for the first time.
"It feels real good," McNeal said. "We can actually breathe for a second. But one of the main things about our team, we take a win or a loss like Coach Buzz says and we have until midnight to enjoy it. Then we move on to the next game. This is not going to be any different."
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