Cincy will get its swagger back in 2009

Remember the time when teams would come to Fifth Third Arena and be afraid to play the Bearcats.

Back when Kenyon Martin, DerMarr Johnson and my favorite, Pete Mickeal were playing, they would run teams out of The Shoe night after night.

High flying alley oops on the reg, crossovers on the reg and blowing teams out by 20 or more points on the reg.

UC needs that back, and this is the year for it to happen.

Since the “glory days,” the Cats haven’t just lost their signature Jordan uniforms, they’ve lost their swagger in the last several years during the rebuilding process.

The blame can’t be placed on anyone in particular. Although, the case could be made that former UC president Nancy Zimpher put an abrupt end to the success of the Bearcats’ basketball program when she fired Bob Huggins.

But all that is behind us now and the 2009 Bearcats have a chance to regain their swagger.

“The whole team has a whole different attitude this year,” said point guard Cashmere Wright. “We have an attitude toward winning and embarrassing people, not just winning.”

With the addition of Jaquan Parker and a healthy Wright, UC’s leading scorer Deonta Vaughn won’t have to worry about bringing the ball up court every possession like he did last year.

And Lance Stephenson (assuming he’s eligible) is a guy that can score the ball better
than Vaughn.

Stephenson is a player that probably would have gone straight to the NBA out of high school.

Instead, the league made a rule that all players had to be at least one year removed from high school before being drafted into the NBA. 

But even with the addition of the new exciting players at UC, I’m probably most looking forward to watching Yancy Gates in his second season in the Big East.

With a year of experience under his belt, Gates can start being the dominating big man in the Big East. Sort of like Hasheem Thabeet from UConn last year, but better.

What I like most about Gates is his ability to rebound. Last year, UC rebounded the ball, especially offensively, a lot better than the previous season.

Remember the year before when UC’s tallest player was Adam Hrycaniuk and he didn’t even lead the team in rebounds. John Willimason, at 6 foot 7, did.

Last year, UC had 457 offensive boards with Gates compared to 405 the year before when Williamson was the “big man.”

And Gates has the ability to be better than Thabeet. The 6-foot-9 center is a bigger presence than Thabeet, who is kind of lanky.

Both players weigh around 260 pounds, but Thabeet is more than six inches taller than Gates.

Having Gates down low for the Cats isn’t the only thing that impresses me about Mick Cronin’s 2009 team.

Their bench is deep for once. Let’s say the starters to begin the year, are: Wright, Vaughn, Stephenson, Gates and Steve Toyloy. (I would say Ibrahima Thomas instead of Toyloy, but he is ineligible until Dec.13.)

That leaves UC with either Thomas or Toyloy to come off the bench and Jaquan Parker to step in for Wright. Also Sean Kilpatrick will be available to give Stephenson or Vaughn a breather as a shooting guard.

They’ll also have Rashad Bishop, Larry Davis and Dion Dixon that will be available, just to name a few.

All of the possible choices will only make Cronin’s job easier.

The one thing I seem to hear every year about UC is that they have some good players, but they’re not deep so they won’t make it in the rough and tough Big East.

This year is a different story. With all of Cronin’s options, he’ll be able to rest his guys plenty to get them through the Big East.

I’m predicting a great year for the Cats (kiss of death). I won’t predict how they’ll do in the NCAA Tournament, but I will say that they’ll be there, which is a start.

The only thing that could make this run sweeter would be a win over Xavier at the Cintas Center, Sunday, Dec. 13 – the day Thomas becomes eligible. committing to Cincinnati.

Think UC will get there swagger back this season? E-mail Garrett at sabelhgt@mail.uc.edu