UC still alive despite tough road losses

Despite some painstaking losses that make some wonder why they even root for the them, the University of Cincinnati men’s basketball team has some qualities that could help them down the stretch run.

With 11 games remaining, plus the Big East Tournament, UC sits at 13-6 with a 4-3 conference record. If this team has taught us anything, it’s that it wins games it’s supposed to lose.

The problem though is the Bearcats also lose games they are supposed to win.

It’s really hard to tell which UC team will show up night in and night out. This can be blamed on any number of things.

Head coach Mick Cronin deserves some of the blame, for sure. How he couldn’t have his team prepared for games against Seton Hall and St. John’s is beyond me.

The Cats shot 52 percent from the field against Seton Hall, a percentage high enough to win the game. They outrebounded the Pirates that day 34-22.

What cost the Bearcats were turnovers. UC turned the ball over 18 times compared to only seven times Seton Hall coughed up the ball.

Turnovers aren’t the coach’s fault though; He doesn’t tell Lance Stephenson to go out and give the ball to the other team six times during the course of the game.

It also didn’t help that Seton Hall’s Jeremy Hazell lit up the Cats for 33 points.

But what is so frustrating is when Seton Hall has only one conference win and that win is against UC. I don’t see UConn or Georgetown lying down and dying in front of Seton Hall like the Bearcats did.

One game with a lot of turnovers can easily be forgotten and should have been when four days later the team traveled to St. John’s.

I thought they would do all right. I figured Cronin could find a way to split with Seton Hall and St. John’s on the road and come home without too much damage done.

I thought “Born Ready” would dominate at Madison Square Garden like all the best players do, right?

Wrong.

Instead, Stephenson buckled like a bad knee under the pressure and scored only seven points.

Come on Stephenson, seven points against the Lakers next year will earn you a seat at the end of the bench — if you’re lucky.

His six turnovers didn’t help much either.

This game wasn’t all on Stephenson. Cronin should once again take some of the blame for UC not beating one of the weaker teams in the conference.

Similar to the Seton Hall game, Cronin doesn’t deserve all the blame.

After all, he didn’t miss all 12 three-point shots his team took. He wasn’t 1 of 7 from the field like Deonta Vaughn, or 0 of 5 like Dion Dixon. He didn’t turn the ball over 21 times and he didn’t call for the inbounds play where Rashad Bishop chucked it past half court with 14 seconds remaining in the game.

Let’s face it — this team makes rookie mistakes that, at times, leave me wondering how they’ve won any games.

But then there are those times when I think UC could hang with any team in the country.

They have a big man in Yancy Gates who continues to improve every game and they are deep on the bench. The Bearcats are one of only two teams in the Big East to not have a player averaging more than 30 minutes per game.

It may not seem very important right now, but the last few seasons UC has not had the deep bench and it cost them during the final games of the season.

Stephenson and Vaughn drive this team but when they’re not on, UC has a very tough time winning.

As hard as it may be to believe after the Seton Hall and St. John’s debacles, Cincinnati’s two stars are showing signs of becoming better playing with each other.

They still have plenty of work to be done if they want to make the NCAA Tournament, but I like this team going forward.

I get the feeling once tournament time rolls around they won’t be one and done in an embarrassing loss to DePaul like last year’s horrendous finish to the season.