Memorable Bearcats: Pete Mickeal

After the post about the 2000 Bearcats win over DePaul, it made me think about that team. One of my favorite players was Pete Mickeal. I could end up doing a Memorable Bearcats post about everyone on that team, and maybe I will, but Mickeal was a star on that team. In fact, he was an Honorable Mention All American. Pete was a big part of those Cincinnati teams in 1998-1999 and 1999-2000. Let's see how big a part.

Pete Mickeal was a junior college transfer from Indian Hills Community College. He was the Ju-co player of the year for his 2 seasons there, and led the team to back to back championships. Pete came right into the starting line up, starting all 33 games his junior year, and 31 his senior year. He missed the DePaul game due to suspension and I don't believe started the game after that, but he was always there for UC. And he was really always there, seeing 33.8 minutes of action and 31.3 minutes of action his two seasons. He played 84% , and 76% of the minutes for UC his career. If it weren't for blowouts, he would have played every minute of every game. Kenyon Martin was the star of those UC teams, but Mickeal was the glue that held everything together.

Mickeal was a great offensive weapon at UC, even though he was known mostly for his tenacious defense. He would guard the best player on the opposing team every time out. And most of the time, he shut them down. He averaged 1.5 and 1.4 steals a season. Mickeal's offensive rating his junior year at UC was a superb 120, which was 41st nationally and 2nd in the conference. His numbers dipped a little the next year, but he still had 111.9 rating, which was 7th in C-USA. Pete averaged 14.9 points his junior season, and 13.5 his senior year. That seems like a big dip, and it is, but remember that UC had Martin, Johnson, Logan, Satterfield, Tate and even Ryan Fletcher. UC was deep. Mickeal was still second in scoring on that club, and he would have lead UC in scoring this season. His 14.5 points did lead the team. Pete also rebounded very well. He averaged 7.2 and 6.3 at UC. The hit is a board a game, but UC had 4 players average 4 boards, and 5 who averaged 3. Pete averaged nearly 2 assists a game at UC. He also was a pretty good foul shooter, shooting 70% and 72%.

Pete's best scoring games came his junior season. He put up a career high 28 twice. The first time was against Louisville in a 13 point win, where Pete had 28 on 10-15, 7-9 free throws and had 9 rebounds. His best game as a Bearcat was his other 28 point outing, in the C-USA conference tournament against South Florida. Pete was 13-15, 2-2 at the stripe, 9 rebounds, 5 offensive, 5 assists and 3 steals. Mickeal had another monster game against Charlotte, with 23 points on 8-12 shooting, 7-9 at the line, with a career high 15 rebounds. Against UNLV he had 23 on 8-12, going 7-10 at the line. He had 22 on another 8-12, 6-7 fts win against Memphis where he played 39 minutes. It was a 25 point blowout, don't know if that was smart. Pete put up 22-12 against Tulane, and 20-9-5 steals against Houston. Mickeal also had double doubles in wins against Rhode Island (15-10), Oklahoma (17-10), and Louisville (18-10). UC won every game when Pete Mickeal scored 15 points, which he did 15 times. The problem is that he would disappear in losses. He scored 6 in 35 minutes in a loss to St Louis, 8 on 4 shots in the second round loss to Temple, 9 on 3-8 in a loss to DePaul, 9 in foul trouble in the Crosstown Shootout loss to Xavier, and 9 on 2-8 shooting against Charlotte.

The senior campaign for Pete Mickeal was also incredibly solid. He started off well, but had a few no shows sprinkled in as well, 8 points against Gonzaga, 4 against Oklahoma, but things held steady until mid February. He hit a little slump from the field, bottoming out with a 2-11 5 point outing against Louisville, which saw him pulled from the game. He went 2-7, 4-10, 0-9, 3-4, and 4-9 leading up to it. Whatever was the problem didn't matter, as Pete bounced back. Pete had 5 20 point games that year, and 15 games where he scored 15 points. Unfortunately, UC lost 2 of them. But going 28-2 when you score 15 points is pretty good. Pete's best game was the Humanitarian Bowl make up game at Boise State. He had 23 on 9-12, with 14 rebounds and 3 steals. The 14 was a season high, and the 23 tied his season high. That game came against Marquette, where he had 8 rebounds and shot 7-10, 7-9 at the line. Pete had 21 on 6-9, 9-10, and 5 steals against St Louis, 21-5-4 assists against North Carolina and 20 against Charlotte. Pete had 18-10-3 blocks in a win over Southern Miss. He had 16-11 in the loss to Tulsa in the NCAA Tournament. He also had double doubles in wins over South Florida (16-10) and St Louis (13-10). He had 12 rebounds in a game against Mississippi Valley State, and a very solid 16-8-5 assists-3 blocks-2 steals game against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Pete is still playing today. He was drafted by Dallas, but never played, signed by New York, but never played, and went on to the ABA. He won the MVP in 2002, with 35 points a game. He moved over to Europe ever since. He most recently played with Barcelona, where he had 12-5 in Euro League play, and 10.2-3.8-1.2 assists in the Spanish League. His team recently won the championship. You can read it in his blog here. He plays with NBA draft pick and Spanish phenom Ricky Rubio.

Pete Mickeal was a very solid player in junior college, a very solid player at UC, and is still a very solid player in Spain. Pete Mickeal was one of the best players in probably the best time to be a Bearcat basketball fan, besides never making it out of the second round, but that doesn't count because we are talking about the regular season because that's the only thing that matters, see look at our C-USA banners!!! Anyway, Pete Mickeal was a hell of a player and one of my favorites and that's why he's a Memorable Bearcat.

Memorable Bearcat Games: Cincinnati 64 DePaul 62

Today's Memorable Bearcat Game comes from the year 2000. As you can suspect, that makes it a good one already. The subject of today's game is the Kenyon Martin lead comeback against DePaul.

Cincinnati came into the game at 26-2, 14-0 in C-USA. DePaul was 18-9, fighting for an NCAA tournament bid. The teams played a couple weeks earlier in Cincinnati, with the Bearcats thrashing the Blue Demons by 23. The Bearcats were without Pete Mickeal, who was suspended by Huggins. Mickeal was benched during the previous game against Louisville, didn't see action in this one, but he came back to play out the string relatively well. This may sound a bit crazy now, but the Bearcats walked into a hornets nest in Chicago this night. The Blue Demons needed this game for their NCAA lives, something that seems strange when you look at how bad of shape that program has been the past few seasons.

The Bearcats missed Mickeal early. Pete guarded, nay, hounded Quentin Richardson into a 3-13 night in the first meeting, but with him out, DePaul rained threes early. The Blue Demons hit 5 in the first 8 minutes, charging out into the lead. Richardson was loving the change, drilling 3 triples and having 11 points at the half. DePaul shot 56% going into intermission, and held a 36-29 lead. There were 18,253 fans filling the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, a then record. Needless to say, they were all pretty excited at the way things turned out in the first half. You might be saying to yourself, Bearcats Blog, want to get a little more specific with the first half? That's a great, great question and I appreciate the fact that you asked it. The answer is no. Let's move on to the second half.

DePaul jumped right back on the Bearcats to start the second frame. The Bearcats helped by playing pretty terribly and fouling a whole lot. The Bearcats had 6 fouls the first 7 minutes, including 3 on one possession. They put DePaul in the bonus with 12 minutes to go. The Blue Demons demanded it though, as they hit 5 of their first 6 shots out of the break. Rashon Burno, DePaul's point guard, was supposed to be guarded by Kenny Satterfield, but Kenny left him to double on Richardson. Burno thanked him for the open shot by draining a 3, pushing the margin to 46-31. Burno had 7 in the game. The Demons got the lead to 16 when Lance Williams scored inside. UC got a basket that neither the Enquirer, CNNSI, nor ESPN cared to mention, when Richardson drilled his last 3 of the game to push the lead to 51-34. Cincinnati faced it's largest deficit of the season. Kenny Satterfield would have none of it. He scored 5 points, and I'm just going to assume that he assisted Steve Logan for a 3 to cut the lead to 51-44. Cincinnati also remembered to play defense, getting 7 stops. Cincinnati had 10 steals in the game, 4 blocks, forced 17 DePaul turnovers, but the Demons shot a piss poor 6-15 at the free throw line. NBA players Richardson and Bobby Simmons were both 1-5, and 70%, and 75% foul shooters respectively.

Down 7 with 10 minutes left, it looked as if the Bearcats had used everything to get back into the game. The lead ballooned up to 10, 60-50, with 3:46 to go. That's when Bob Huggins told his team one thing, "Get the ball to Kenyon." I'm sure there were other words in there, and Bob didn't just say that, drop his clipboard, get a soda and adjust his tie. Sure enough, Satterfield took the ball upcourt, passed to Martin who was guarded by Williams, and watching as Martin hit a turnaround off glass. Burno, who was a midget, couldn't deal with the UC pressure and threw the ball away to DerMarr Johnson. After some quick passes, Johnson missed from the top of the key, but Satterfield pulled home the rebound. UC pulled back out, getting the ball to Satterfield on the left wing. Martin called for the ball on the block, got it, and hit another turnaround on Williams. DePaul looked rattled. They couldn't get into their offense. A deflection by Johnson gave the Demons the ball out of bounds with 3 seconds on the shot clock, but they couldn't do anything off the inbound, and committed another turnover on a shot clock violation. The crowd remembered they were allowed to make noise as UC brought the ball up court. Satterfield waved away a Jermaine Tate screen attempt, looking to get the ball to Martin. He did. Martin this time took Williams left, dropping a little pump fake jumper from the bottom of the circle in his face. That made the score 60-56 with 2 minutes left. Cincinnati threw on a very sloppy press that was broken. Burno hit Richardson high off the left wing, and Q saw an open Paul McPherson under the basket. By the time McPherson went up with his left hand, Martin crashed the rim from the top of the key blocking the shot. Maybe the pass was short armed a little, but it was a pure hustle play by Martin on an amazing block. That started a UC break, as Satterfield raced up court and dropped off for Johnson driving from the right baseline. Johnson was fouled on his dunk attempt, and drilled both, making it 60-58. DePaul called timeout, but looked discombobulated on offense, getting 3 guys in the paint. The man taking the shot was Bobby Simmons. This happened.

UC took about 15 seconds off the clock running their offense, but there was no doubt where the ball was going. This time, it was Logan who fed Martin on the right block. Martin took a dribble, then dropped another turnaround jumper in Williams' face to tie with 1:11 left. UC went back to the trapping defense. Martin and Johnson ended up with a trap on McPherson, but they left room in the middle. McPherson stepped through, finding Williams all alone under the basket for a dunk. Cincinnati took a timeout, but the Bearcats were stunned when DePaul went zone. With no easy entry to Martin, they worked the ball around the perimeter. Martin worked his way over to the left wing. He got the ball with 5 on the shot clock. Kenyon went baseline on Williams, blowing right by him. Simmons came to help at the basket, but was too late, as Martin banked home the tying shot.

DePaul had 22 seconds, 20 after a timeout. DePaul tried some kind of weird play where Burno brought the ball up, Simmons and Williams stood side by side at the free throw line, probably going to screen for each other I dunno, they just stood there, while Richardson screened for McPherson behind that in the paint, and came up top while McPherson went to the wing. Whatever the weird play was, it allowed Tate to jump into the passing lane, where Burno threw an ill, ill, ill advised pass Richardson's direction. Tate handed to Martin, who took the ball up the court, and dropped off for Johnson. In a play a little similar to the Northern Iowa play the beat Kansas, Johnson looked like he was going to pass, the defense went away from him, and he drilled an open 17 footer with 2.6 left. DePaul got the ball into Richardson, who flew up court. He lost a behind the back dribble for just a half of a second, but that was too long, as the buzzer sounded before he drilled a 35 footer.

It was a great, great win for Cincinnati. It was the game that got Kenyon the player of the year award. It made UC one of the favorites for March. It gave the fan base a sense of destiny for this team. Martin had 33-9-2 blocks, but he had one in the highlight package ESPN showed and 2 during the game. Whatever. Johnson was the only other Bearcat in double digits with 10. Satterfield had 7-9 rebounds-4 assists, playing nearly the whole game. After those 3, BJ Grove was UC's next leading scorer with 6. DePaul had Richardson with 17-11, Williams with 14, and McPherson and Simmons (8 rebounds) with 8.

Just remembering this game makes me remember this season and the love I had for this team. This, and the 01-02 teams will always be my favorite UC squads. Things didn't turn out for either one of them, but they were incredibly fun to watch. The 00 team had it's season derailed, but it had a UC legend give amazing performances like this. The Kenyon Martin game, the comeback, whatever you want to call it, this was a Memorable Bearcat Game.

Bearcats Breakdown: Dion Dixon

I sense your surprise. Why isn't the next logical person from Bearcats Breakdown Yancy Gates? I'll tell you why. It's because Saturday, I found out that my best friend Dion Dixon was on twitter. He's @DDixon3. He can't have any idea that this Cincinnati Bearcats blog shows him so much love, so I think all of you out there with twitter should tweet him and let him know. You should also follow the blog on twitter. That plug was shameful. What's not shameful was the performance of Dion Dixon this season. Let's take a look at how #3 performed in his sophomore year.

Scoring

Dion Dixon averaged 4.8 points a game this season. That's 2.5 points lower than his freshman year average of 7.2. That can be racked up to the fact he played 6 less minutes per game this season. He was banged up a little, but also fell out of favor in the rotation. Last season, he didn't have a game where he didn't play 10 minutes, this year, he had 9, not including 2 that he missed. He was on the court 54% of UC possessions, to 36%. Dixon's use of possessions grew slightly. Dion's effectiveness didn't translate, as his offensive rating plummeted from 104.3 to 97.1. His effective FG% fell from 45 to 39, and his true shooting % from 48 to 45. A huge part of that was his horrible 3 point shooting. After being bad, 36-118, 30%, his freshman year, he was 14-65, 21% this season. Dixon was 54-154, 35% overall, and missing that many shots really killed the percentage. He was 76-204, 36% his freshman year. One thing that got much better was his foul shooting. Dixon shot 39-52, 75%, up from 66.7%. His free throw rate, the rate at which he got to the line, stayed the same. Dixon got nearly 50% of his points from inside the arch, an amazing number for a shooting guard.

Dixon had a few good offensive performances this season. He put up 15 on 6-11 shooting in 22 minutes against Lipscomb. He was the only offensive player to show up at UAB when he scored a team high 13. He had 13 two more times, in wins over Cal St Bakersfield and Texas Southern. Dixon came up big with 12 in the Vanderbilt win in Maui, and 12 in the loss to Marquette. Most of the time when Dion Dixon scored, UC won. The Texas Southern win featured his best shooting game, 5-7. He got to the line 6 times against Winthrop, making 5, his best of the season. His best 3 point shooting game would be the 3 of 4 against Marquette, but he was also 3 of 5 against CS Bakersfield. Dixon is probably remembered more for the shots he missed though. In double overtime of the Xavier game, Dixon bricked an open 3 that would have given UC the lead. In the first Louisville game, he squashed a UC rally by taking a horribly ill advised triple. Believe it or not, those were the only 2 threes he took in those games. The last one to come to mind, is the brick display he put on against Gonzaga, when he was 1-6 and seemed to be forcing shots all night.

Rebounding

Dion Dixon was not a great rebounder this season, averaging 2 a game. He averaged 0.8 offensive boards, 5.9% of UC's offensive rebounds, and 1.18 defensive boards, 8.4%. All of those are down a percentage from last year. Some of that has to do with minutes yes, but some of it has to do with Dixon not being tenacious going to the glass. Did you know in his freshman season, there were 6 games total where he had 0 offensive rebounds. This year, he had offensive rebounds in only 16 games. Most of those came in a 2 week span. He had 8 games last season with 0 defensive rebounds, and 11 this year. He had 8 games with 0 rebounds this season, and he had 0 games with 0 rebounds his freshman year. I'm sure some of this had to be because he played out on the wing more, but rebounds are about wanting the ball, and I don't think Dixon wanted it as much.

Dixon's best rebounding games game in Maui. He pulled down 10 rebounds against Vanderbilt, 7 defensive. That ties a career high, and is a career high. It seemed every one of his offensive rebounds were huge in that game. Dixon had 5 boards against Maryland, 4 offensive, a season high. Dion pulled down 5 in the victory over Notre Dame. He had 4 twice, against Weber State, and against Miami. Interesting to note all of those were UC victories. When Dion Dixon rebounded, UC won.

Assists

Dion Dixon had 36 assists this season, down from 44. He had 1.01 a game. But, the percent of Cincinnati assists he had was up to 13%. Mainly because Cincinnati was a horrible passing team. He had 4 assists against UConn and CS Baker, showing when Dion Dixon passed the ball, UC won.

Other

Dixon had 16 steals this season, matching his output from his freshman year. He had 2 steals in games against UConn, Prairie View, Winthrop and Marquette. Dixon blocked 2 shots, against Vandy and UAB. Dixon turned the ball over 30 times, accounting for 17% of the UC turnovers. His assist to turnover ratio was 1.2. Dixon had a couple of games where it seemed all he did was turn the ball over, Providence, and Seton Hall.
Don't know how this slipped my mind, but Dion Dixon  had the most memorable UC turnover of the season. With the score tied, Dixon pulled a Charles Williams on a late inbound against West Virginia, setting the stage for Da'Sean Butler's ice cold three. Dixon shouldn't have been in the game in my book (book coming soon), and it really killed me that he committed the big gaff.

Overview
Dion Dixon didn't have the greatest of sophomore seasons. It could be seen as a slight regression, or it could be seen as him not improving. Either way, that's not great. Dixon fell victim to the log jam at guard. He couldn't get minutes over Cash, Vaughn or Lance, and once Ibrahima Thomas stepped in, Rashad Bishop played at the 3 giving UC a big line up. Jaquan Parker taking a big step at the end of the year also hurt Dixon. Like Larry Davis, Dixon's shooting stroke really hurt his production. Unlike Davis, Dixon wasn't a great shooter and he got worse. I believe that he will turn things around. I think his junior year is going to be the breakout one for Dion Dixon. I have to believe that though, because he's my best friend.

Friday Random Stuff

Today's Friday Random Thing is a highlight of one of Bearcats Blog's favorite shows, Community. If you didn't see the epicness that was last night's show, you are missing out.

Oh Say Did UC?

The time for Cincinnati Bearcats links has come. This might not be your favorite bit, but it should be because it's very informative and fun for everyone.

Brian Bennett at ESPN has written a spring recap of every Big East team, or is going to, and yesterday he hit on Cincinnati. His biggest questions circle around the defense, especially the secondary.

Bennett also wrote a piece about the Big East's star being ready to shine, shine, shine. I know he said burn bright, but you can't write burn bright three times.

The Bleacher report did a slide show about the upcoming Big East football season. They put a familiar face as one of the 3 Big East Heisman candidates.

The great Ivan Maisel wrote a huge spring football recap, and at the very bottom, he mentioned Cincinnati. He said UC looked to have what it takes for a three peat. I like those words.

Mark Schlabach put up a post spring top 25. Top 5, Alabama, Boise St, Ohio St, Texas and Virginia Tech. Pittsburgh was the highest rated Big East team at 13. Cincinnati was 18. Spoiler alert.

Bengals.com did a nice write up about Mike Windt, the Cincinnati long snapper who signed to the Bengals as a free agent.

Mardy Gilyard had a piece written about him Friday by St Louis Globe Democrat about how he was wearing the great Torry Holt's #81.

There is also a more recent piece by some St Louis paper after the weekend OTAs saying that Gilyard and Sam Bradford had a nice rapport.

Switching to football recruiting news, the Bearcats have offered junior Jamire Westbrook. It's his first offer. He's actually going into his junior year, and is 16. The whole thing is kinda creepy. Recruiting is seriously getting out of hand.

The Bearcats have also made an offer to Zach Mettenberger. Zach was released by Georgia after getting charged for sexual battery.  He was expected to fight for the Georgia starting job this season. He was the 14th ranked QB by Scout a couple years ago, he redshirted last season, and is said to be a stud. I'm iffy on going after guys dismissed from teams for big things like sexual battery. Maybe Zach has turned his life around after that dark incident. He also has an offer from Louisville, and other schools are said to be interested.

Switching gears completely, let's hit up some baseball. The Bearcats are tied for 7th in the Big East, with an 8-10 record as of yesterday when the News Record wrote this. 8 teams make the BET. The teams behind the Irish and Bearcats are 5-13. The Bearcats get a tough challenge this week, as the Big East leading Connecticut Huskies prance into town. Good luck to the Bearcats. Try to make a game if you can peeps. They are free or cheap if they aren't free. I've been to one in my life. I don't remember who UC played, or who won, but it was fun.

Speaking of fun, this interview with UC 1B/Pitcher Kevin Johnson is. He may not have dunked over Hakeem Olajuwon, but he was drafted by the Florida Marlins and chose to come back to UC.

Former UC pitched Dan Osterbrock threw a 7 inning no hitter his last outing. That's great news in of itself, but he was named the Twins Minor League Player of the Week, Midwest League Pitcher of the Week, and was promoted to High A. Congrats a ton to Dan.

Moving to hoops, Bill Koch wrote a pretty alright piece about Sean Kilpatrick. Sean has a lot of pressure to take the place of not only Lance Stephenson, but Deonta Vaughn. With his admitted flat three point shot, he'll fit right in with the rest of the returning bricklayers. I kid.

I don't know much about the Cincinnati Commandos, besides the fact they have former UC players, but they are undefeated. This is a nice refresher. They are QB'd by Ben Mauk.

Also on the team is Dominick Goodman, and this is an interview with him.

We'll end with a couple of Big East links. Our good friends at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician check to see if Doug Marrone losing 29 players since taking over at Syracuse has their program going in the right direction. And our best friends at Card Chronicle react about the news Samardo Samuels hiring an agent and turning pro.

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.

Bearcats Breakdown: Lance Stephenson

The Bearcats breakdown is back after a week off and we get right back into the breakdown with the third player who has left the UC program for good this season. That player is the Big East Rookie of the Year, Lance Stephenson. Stephenson made many of us go like this

when he decided to say he was staying at UC during the Big East Tournament, and then after the NIT he went pro and hired an agent. Still, we can't hold that against Lance. We all knew he was one and done. He was the best player UC had this season, and if he weren't on the court, who knows how UC would have done. The thing that sucks the most is when he finally put it all together in March, we kinda believed he would stay and he left. That made me feel a little dumb for believing him, and I'm guessing the same was true for you.  Let's look at his production this season.

Scoring

Lance Stephenson was the leading scorer this season for the Bearcats, putting home 12.3 points per game. Stephenson shot 44% overall, but a horrendous 21% from 3. He made 16 of 73 from distance. He was an average foul shooter at 66%. Stephenson used 26% of Cincinnati possessions, which was 11th in the Big East. His offensive rating was 99.2, which is disappointing from a player that controlled the ball so much. It was 75th in the conference. Lance's effective fg% was 46.1, and his true shooting % 49.3. Both were in the middle of the Big East. Stephenson got nearly 70% of his scoring from 2 point shots, which is quite a lot from someone who wasn't a big man. His shooting was a huge disappointment this season. I didn't expect him to be JJ Redick, but I didn't expect him to be my little sister out there either.

Stephenson's best scoring game was in the horrible humiliation against Georgetown. Stephenson had 23, which was half the UC offense, on 11-17 shooting. His second best was in the Crosstown Shootout against Xavier with 22. He crossed 20 one more time, adding points 20 and 21 in the last second in the victory over UConn. The free throws made him 7-7, which was his career best. Lance had 19 twice, the BET game against West Virginia and the win over Lipscomb. Stephenson had 18 against DePaul in the game he did this.

His best shooting game was the 5-7 performance against Louisville. That's remembered more for him going 5-5 to start with all 12 of his points coming in the first 4 minutes or so. Georgetown, Lipscomb and DePaul were his best shooting days of volume.

Stephenson's worst game was against Marquette. He scored 2 points in only 11 minutes. That game still pisses me off. The season could have been completely different if Mick didn't screw up with his stupid non subs. Lance was one of many Bearcats who didn't show up to play at South Florida, where he had 4 in 20 minutes. His return to New York was forgettable, when  he scored 7 in 36 minutes on 3-9 shooting.

Rebounding


Lance Stephenson was the second leading rebounder on Cincinnati, averaging 5.3 a game. Lance gobbled up 1.8 offensive rebounds, 7.2% of the UC o boards for the season, and 3.5 defensive boards, 14% of the UC total. His best rebounding game was against Texas Southern, where he had 11. He had 10 against DePaul for his only career double double. Lance grabbed 9 three times, two in wins over Rutgers in the BET, and Providence, and the loss to WVU. He had 8 twice, in the win over Miami, and the loss to Syracuse.

Assists


Stephenson was second on UC in assists, with 2.5 a game. That was good for 19% of UC's assists, placing him in the top 30 of the Big East. His career high was 7, in the game was Texas Southern. He had 5 three times, in the wins over Winthrop, Lipscomb, and the BET win over Rutgers. He had 4 four times, 2 wins, Maryland DePaul, 2 losses, Dayton and Pittsburgh. Clearly, Cincinnati played better when Lance Stephenson was distributing the ball. This is probably something that Mick Cronin didn't realize, or didn't care about, because Lance should have had the ball in his hands more. He turned the ball over a lot, which was probably why he didn't. His assist to turnover ratio was 1. That's pretty bad. Stephenson had 17.6% of UC's turnovers. Maybe Mick was right about him not having the ball.

Everything Else


Lance Stephenson was probably the best on ball defender UC had this season. In the biggest game of the year against WVU, he was on Da'Sean Butler. He was second on the team in steals, with 31. He had 6 blocks. Lance's memorable moments were the Crosstown Shootout, where he still shouldn't have passed the ball to Dion Dixon, and the Big East Tournament, where he carried UC to the third round. He passed well against Rutgers, he guarded well and made big shots against Louisville, and he was everything the second half against West Virginia.

Recap


I think it's clear to say that Lance Stephenson was the best Bearcat of the season. The offense was there all year, and the defense stepped up at the end of the year. He had his bad times, like the hissy fit and subsequent team quitting at UAB, but he also had good times, like beating UConn. Lance Stephenson is going to be remembered in a weird light at UC I believe. Some people will remember him like this

beating UConn, and some will remember him for this

the loss against WVU. It won't be for carrying UC though the season, but for coming up a little short when it mattered the most, and always leaving us wanting more. Lance Stephenson had high, high expectations, and they weren't really met for a lot of people. He didn't score 20 a game, hell, he didn't score 15 a game. He wasn't John Wall, he wasn't Avery Bradley, he wasn't the savior. He was just a very good basketball player, who through his ups and downs, symbolized the UC season. Thanks for choosing UC Lance.