Memorable Bearcat Games: Xavier 83 Cincinnati 79

Yesterday's post about Lance Stephenson got me to thinking about this past season. While this wasn't the greatest year for Cincinnati basketball, there sure as hell were some entertaining contests. One in particular was exceptionally great. That game was the Crosstown Shootout. Now I know what some of you are thinking.Why that game happened in December, how you can you wax nostalgic about that? I thought this series was about football games? I thought this was about wins? No to all of those. It's about memorable games, and sometimes the most memorable are the losses. The old poker saying is that you can't remember the hands you win, but you remember with absolute clarity the hands you lost. This is kinda like that too. Plus, like 4 people read what I wrote in December, so this is new to you.

The Crosstown Shootout didn't have as much luster as normally, partially due to a Sunday night start time on a weird station, ESPNU. That didn't stop the teams from putting on an instant classic. I know it was an instant classic, because when it replayed on ESPNU, it said instant classic. Xavier got off to a solid start, jumping out to a 12-5 lead. The Muskies blocked 4 of the first 8 UC shots, 1 by Jamel McLean and Kenny Frease and 2 by Jason Love. As Charles and Kenny say on Inside the NBA, it was a block party and the Bearcats were invited. Xavier scored point 12 at the 14:35 mark, and that's when Cincinnati's defense shut down the Muskies. The Muskies didn't score until the 7 minute mark, 2 free throws by Dante Jackson, and didn't get a field goal until the 6:52 mark. Cincinnati went on a 14 point run during that span, getting buckets by Larry Davis, Deonta Vaughn, a pair of threes by Darnell Wilks, an assist by Wilks to Yancy Gates, and a Lance Stephenson lay up. Xavier closed the half on a 20-7 run of their own, and lead 31-26. Terrell Holloway scored 11 points in that span for the Muskies, getting to the line and drilling threes. The fireworks came in the middle of the half. At the 7 minute mark, Jordan Crawford and Rashad Bishop got into a war of words, both receiving technical fouls. The chippyness helped the Musketeers, as you can see from when they started scoring again. Things got even more high strung with 3:30 to go in the half. Lance Stephenson was driving in for a lay up, when Jason Love gave him a hard foul. It was called intentional. The benches cleared going into the media timeout. Terrell Holloway pushed Ibrahima Thomas away, leading to this

Cooler heads would prevail after, but the tension was underlying the rest of the game.

The second half started where the first half ended, with Xavier in charge. The teams traded buckets, but Xavier held on to their lead, with Cincinnati chipping the lead to 4 a couple of times. The Muskies got a Jason Love lay up, a Frease free throw and a Crawford triple to push the lead to 10. The Bearcats slowly chipped away at the disadvantage, at the under 12, the score was 45-39. A pair for Mark Lyon freebies pushed the lead to 7, 51-44, before Lance Stephenson took over. Stephenson scored a lay up, a three pointer from Vaughn, and pulled down a rebound, drove down court and calmly sank a jumper to tie. Cashmere Wright gave UC the lead on a lay up, followed by a Vaughn lay up for a 4 point lead with 5:44 to go. Cincinnati would go on a cold streak the next 3 minutes, allowing Xavier to go on a 6 point run to take the lead by 2. Rashad Bishop tied the score seconds before Holloway would drive for the Xavier lead. Yancy Gates hit 2 free throws with a minute left to tie. Holloway gave X the lead with 26 seconds left on a jumper. Stephenson hit a jumper for UC with 15 seconds left to tie. Holloway drained the clock, but missed a last second runner. Dante Jackson pulled down the rebound, threw up a shot that fell, and celebrated. But, it was after the buzzer and we went to overtime.

Cincinnati took the early overtime lead by 4. Gates hit a shot, and Lance Stephenson crossed Holloway over badly and hit a step back j. Here's proof.


Nasty wasn't it? Lyons got Xavier back into the game with a jumper and a pair of free throws. Gates and Frease exchanged scores before UC took a 3 point lead on a free throw by Bishop and another silly move by Stephenson. Lance shook the defender, spun, and hit an up and under lay up. Watch.



The video kinda sucks, but the move is still sweet. Deonta Vaughn pulled down a rebound and drove for a lay up, giving UC a 5 point lead with 55 seconds left. Holloway took over. He drew a foul on Vaughn and made both shots. Rashad Bishop had the ball stolen by Love, leading to Holloway getting fouled by Gates going to the rim. Holloway hit both again. Xavier had to foul, and they fouled my best friend Dion Dixon. Dixon calmly nailed both to push the lead back to 3. For some reason unknown to anyone, and completely illogical, Mick Cronin tapped Jaquan Parker off the bench. Parker didn't play any of the second half, or any of the overtime. He had Holloway blow by him earlier in the game and was benched. 19 seconds to go, Holloway has the ball. Of course he drives to the rim. Of course he makes a lay up. Of course he's fouled by Parker. Of course he ties the score. Of course he does. UC had a chance to win. Stephenson missed a step back three, and Dixon missed on a put back. That sent us to double overtime.

Cincinnati jumped out to another lead to start overtime. Cash hit a free throw, followed by a Vaughn lay up. Holloway scored for Xavier, but Gates scored on a lay up to push the lead back to 3. Xavier would tie the score thanks to sloppy play by UC. Crawford hit a free throw, followed by a Gates travel. On the Xavier possession, Love made a lay up for the tie. Stephenson would get called for a charge, but X couldn't take the lead. UC held the ball the next minute, but were unable to score. Vaughn missed a lay up, foreshadow, and Steve Toyloy bricked a couple of huge free throws. Holloway drove down the lane and dropped off a pass that Love converted for the Xavier lead. Lance Stephenson played really hard and smart in this game, but he made a silly move with about 25 seconds left. Instead of circling back out and making a strong move with the ball, he passed to Dixon. Dixon threw up a horribly ill advised three that was a brick leaving his hand. He fouled Dante Jackson, who made 1 of 2. Vaughn took the inbound pass and decided to go for the lay up to cut the Muskie lead to 1. Great plan, but terrible execution, as he blew a wide open lay up. Love got the rebound, his 19th of the game, and iced things with a free throw. Desperate threes by UC missed, and that lead to this vomit inducing photo.

Ok, I couldn't find the real picture, but Mick looking like he's taking a dump will do. This was a wild game. Stephenson and Yancy Gates dominated for UC. Stephenson had 22 on 9-19 shooting, with 6 rebounds. Gates had 18 and 6. Vaughn was the other Bearcat in double digits with 13, but he was 6-19. He did have 9 rebounds. Holloway had a career high 26 for Xavier, while Crawford put up 16 on 5-16 shooting.

This wasn't the prettiest Crosstown Shootout, despite the pretty moves by Stephenson. X shot 41%, and UC 37%, but this was the game that brought the intensity back out. This was a blood and guts Crosstown Shootout. We had pull aparts, hard fouls, trash talking, big shots, clutch moments, and breakout performances. Unfortunately, it was a UC loss. But, it was one hell of a game, and that's why it's a Memorable Bearcat game.

Oh Say Did UC?

The day of the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati de facto Big East championship game, some Big East bloggers came up with names for fake UC blogs. One of them, was Oh Say Can UC. In this post where I link stories from around the world about UC, I'm going to take that name and tweak it. Will I come up with a better name soon? Maybe. 


Today was a slow news day, so every sports site came out with their All American teams. Mardy Gilyard landed on a bunch of these lists. The AP had him second team. The Sporting News had Mardy on the 2nd team and linebacker Andre Revels on the 3rd team. Rivals had Mardy 2nd team WR and kick returner. Jeff Linkenbach was 3rd team at offensive line. SI had Mardy 1st team as All Purpose.

Jeff Quinn had a Sugar Bowl press conference today. Some highlights (from Lance McAlister's twitter) Picture courtesy of the AP.

• All scholarships offered will be honored...nobody has reneged that i'm aware of
• message doesn't change...just comes from different voice
•  I stand before you as the next man in.....this is the senior's football team..we need them to step up and lead, be mature...i trust them
• nd came looking for bk...he wasn't searching out other places
• we gave brian the menu and he had a feel for what he wanted to do...that sheet is the work of me and the off coaches

In that same vain, Brian Bennett at ESPN conducted an interview with Quinn. Here is part 1. And part 2.
Cory Giger wrote an article about the Big 10 expanding. His suggestion: Cincinnati. Nippert Stadium is really small by Big 10 standards. They would probably have to build a new stadium, or play at PBS or something. I'm not really sure how that would work. 
Rounding around to basketball, the Bearcats ranked 25 in the AP poll and fell out of the ESPN/USA Today top 25, but were the top team receiving votes. 
The great, great, great Rush the Court blog was at the Crosstown Shootout Sunday. Along with their excellent game coverage, there was this fantastic article by John Stevens about his experience. I recommend this highly.
Also, the very, very good Pat Forde wrote about the game on ESPN.com, calling it one of America's great rivalries. 
There was a very handsome man who wrote about the Shootout as well. 
That's all for today. Look for the UAB breakdown tomorrow, and then a write up on Wednesday night/Thursday. Thanks for reading. 

Xavier 83 Cincinnati 79

In what was one of the most intense, hardly contested Crosstown Shootouts ever, the Xavier Musketeers had what it took down the stretch to beat the Cincinnati Bearcats in double overtime. This was definitely one of the best Shootouts since the Huggins era. Unfortunately, the Cats couldn't come up victorious and lost to Xavier for the 3rd year in a row. As always, there were some plusses, and there were some minuses. Do I smell a list? Yes, yes I do.

+ Lance Stephenson. #33 took this game over when the Bearcats trailed by 10 in the second half, and put in a career high 22. He was by the best player on the court tonight, with all due respect to Terrell Holloway. Lance scored 7 straight to give UC the lead after being down 6. The crossover lay up to tie the score was amazing. Lance then hit a jumper after another killer crossover to make it 65-61 in OT. And in his last display of awesome, he hit a reverse lay up, driving from the left baseline to under the basket. I wasn't a fan of the shot in OT, but he shook Holloway and it was a decent shot.
- Lance Stephenson. Barking at Chris Mack is stupid. Lance says he didn't remember that, but I tend to believe the coach. Also, and more importantly, Lance should not have given up the ball to Dion Dixon in OT 2. The ball had to be in his or Deonta Vaughn's hands, and he gave up it to Dixon. Dixon didn't take a horrible shot, but he sucks at shooting 3s.
+ Defense. Xavier made only 5-18 from 3 point land, and that was quite a statement. Xavier only shot 41% for the game. Jordan Crawford was 5-16 and clearly frustrated. Jason Love made the big lay up, but was only 3-9. 3 point ace Brad Redford didn't get off a shot. The 8 and a half minute lockdown on X was brilliant. The Cats forced Xavier deep into the shot clock while making up the difference in the second half.
- Offense. The shooting was putrid. 32-85 fgs, 5-23 from 3, 10-22 fts. That's horrible no matter how you slice it.
+ Mick Cronin. Mick made adjustments to the offense and it paid off in the second half. The team drove more to the basket. Larry Davis drove to the rim 3 times in the first half twice leading to points. He was the only one to get the message then, but the rest of the team came along the second half. It was a nice adjustment, and one that almost lead to victory.
- Mick Cronin. What in the bloody hell was Jaquon Parker doing in the game at the end of overtime? Ice cold off the bench, and you stick him on Holloway? It was a stupid foul, but not one that I put on Parker fully. He should never have been in that position. Earlier in the game, Holloway blew past Parker. I don't understand that substitution at all. Dion Dixon and I both had the same look after the foul. Mick took the blame for this loss, and he deserved it.
+ The pull aparts. Sportsmanship, schasmortzmanship. Nothing got the blood pumping like seeing all the Bearcats coming to support Lance Stephenson after Jason Love put him down with the intentional foul. It was nice to see the team sticking up for each other. Ibrahima Thomas was pushed by Terrell Holloway while walking back to the bench, that's why he was so pissed. Overall, it was good to see the players fired up.
-UC after the pull apart. The Bearcats became more concerned with talking shit than playing basketball. Xavier out bullied UC and worked it to their advantage.
The rest of these are negatives, since I can't think of any positives. Do I smell bullet points?

• Deonta Vaughn, where have you gone? 6-19 from the field, and blowing the lay up down 3. Vaughn missed at least 2 more lay ups. Not the strongest game from 5. 9 boards is nice, but we need you to score
• Yancy Gates stop taking jump shots. Start rebounding more. Jason Love pushed you around
• I would single out someone for not guarding Terrell Holloway, but since no one did, I can't
• Yancy Gates 2-6, Cashmere Wright 2-4, Lance Stephenson 2-4, Steve Toyloy 0-2. Practice free throws all week men.
• Xavier got 11 offensive rebounds off 35 misses. 
• 5 point lead with 55 seconds left. Got to finish. Mark Lyons and Holloway both penetrated to tie the score. Can't blow these. 
• Seriously, why the fuck was Parker on Holloway? That is up there with Charles Williams losing the ball off his shoe in the pantheon of UC blowing it to X moments. 

I would be remiss if I didn't give credit to where credit is due. Xavier knew how important this game was, and they played like it. Terrell Holloway went for 26, and was 11-11 at the stripe. Every one of those turned out to be important. He played strong defense on Lance in overtime and the second ot. Jason Love hit the glass hard with 19 rebounds. Chris Mack has a good team. Congratulations Xavier.

The Enquirer/Ernest Coleman

That sucked

(AP)
I hate losing to Xavier. More tomorrow.

Know Your Opponent: Xavier Musketeers edition

It's Crosstown Shootout time. No words needed. But, here are some anyway. This is going to be a battle. Xavier really needs this game to avoid tanking to every good team they've played. The Bearcats need this one because it's fucking Xavier. You can throw the records out the window when the ball goes up tonight. My prediction and the stats, after the jump.

Crosstown Shootout Countdown. #2

The thought occurred to me that the countdown should end the day before the game. But, it should be noted that the last entry will get the blood boiling and you will be so filled with Xavier hatred, that you will probably punch your monitor. As long as you don't break it, things should be good. In case you missed it, so far our scorn has been directed at Tyrone Hill, David West and Gary Lumpkin. This edition of Xavier hate is a little unfair. I was all ready to write about one person, but there was another man I forgot who I wanted to be on this list.
Person # 1 is Justin Doellman. Just look at the stupid way he spells his name. Doellman deserves your hate because there was no player who seemed like a bigger douche than him. He is the type of person who pops the collars on his polo shirts. His pink polo shirts. Hell, he probably wears two and pops both collars. JD even has annoying initials, exactly like the main character of Scrubs. Zach Braff and Justin Doellman would probably be best friends if they ever met each other.
Person # 2 is Kevin Frey. Unlike Justin(I'm not typing that last name again, not even for a label), he sported a buzz cut. The buzz cut made him look like the asshole we all know he was. There is plenty of reason to hate Frey. What popped in your head when you read his name? Was it him running around the Gardens in his retarded gray Xavier jersey after they beat Kenyon Martin and the top ranked Bearcats? If not, you must not have remembered his name. That's the lasting image of Frey for me, and other Cat fans alike. The best Frey moment was when Xavier played Duquesne and someone hit him in the face and he had to leave the game and get stitches. Thankfully, there is a picture of it. I hope he gets hit by a bus.

Crosstown Shootout Countdown. #3

We are but 2 days away from this years edition of the Crosstown Shootout. With no more pesky games left with other local rivals, all we have to concentrate on now is Xavier. Xavier lost of one of Bob Huggins' old squads on Tuesday, and I think it's agreed we would all like to see that happen again Sunday night. But that won't be easy. The next man up on the Xavier hate list, following Tyrone Hill and David West, is one of the backcourt players that ruined my childhood. It seemed this man played at Xavier forever, and his only job was to make me hate him, and his stupid sounding name. The next man up is Gary Lumpkin.

Crosstown Shootout Countdown. #4

Continuing the countdown to the Crosstown Shootout, we reach the Xavier player that I hated the 4th most. Yes, hated. The hate for Xavier has mainly gone away as I have gotten older. Sad I know, but these 5 have a special hate box in my heart that still hasn't gone away. Yesterdays hated Xavier player was Tyrone Hill. This is the last generation of the Xavier players that I hate. This man was known for his bald head, and ridiculous X tattoo. He was also the National Player of the Year. I would type my David West memories, but those 4 Shootouts were blocked out of my mind, minus the 20 point blowout at the Cintas Center. That memory is fresh. The #4 most hated Xavier player is David West

Crosstown Shootout Countdown. #5

We are just 5 days away from the Crosstown Shootout with Xavier. As we approach the game Sunday night, I thought it would be nice to get your hate levels nice and high. My Shootout memories go back to the early 90s, so sorry old timers. I have been told that I cried after the dramatic loss in 1990. Bob Huggins was not the only one upset with the officials. The first Shootout I really remember was the 92 game highlighted by the Nick Van Exel half court shot. While there haven't been a whole lot of highlights in the UC wins, there has been something worth noting in the loss. That is, that Xavier players are douche bags. X marks the spot for douche. As a lead up to the Shootout, here is a countdown of the 5 Xavier players I hated the most.
#5. Tyrone Hill. It should be noted that when you google Tyrone Hill, Tyrone Hill ugly pops up.

Welcome

I'm sick and tired of there not being a Cincinnati blog. There should be one, and dammit, now there is. Will it be informative? Probably not. Will it have lots of wisecracks and shenanigans? Of course. Will it be the best UC Bearcats blog out there? By default, WIN. That's right, you get the best, and on Crosstown Shootout week. The big game is Sunday at 5 and expect a breakdown of my favorite games the next couple days. There will be absolutely zero from my grade school days, mainly because Lenny fucking Brown ruined them. Let's also not forget that Pete Gillen is an asshole. In closing, get ready for some blogging about the UC Bearcats.