The Bearcats improved to 18-4 and 6-3 in the Big East with a 65-59 win over Seton Hall. It was Mick Cronin's 200th win as a head coach. Congratulations to Coach Cronin. 

The game was ugly. We know Cincinnati is not going to win pretty. We allowed ourselves to believe they would when Cincinnati blitzed Seton Hall with a 20-0 run spanning the last 2 minutes of the first half and the first 5 minutes of the second. The 48-28 lead would turn over to the second unit, who played terribly. They were sloppy and allowed Seton Hall to get the lead under 20. From there, SH was able to put together a run. The Pirates went on a 20-4 run to get the lead down to 4. 

UC made 1 field goal the last 11:34. It was the right one. Sean Kilpatrick hit a corner 3 with 2 minutes to go to put Cincinnati ahead by 7. The Pirates had a 3 rattle out and that was all the challenge they could muster. It was a game effort from the Pirates. Seton Hall looked very lethargic coming out of the locker room to start the second half. Kevin Willard called 3 timeouts in 5 minutes. Luckily for us, unfortunately for them, the deficit was much too large and the Pirates don't have the fire power to climb out of a hole like that. 

The offense is an issue. UC attempted 27 free throws, although that was a bit deceiving because 8 were in the last minute and 6 were in the last 30 seconds when the game was over. Driving is a huge part of the offense. During the first 5 minutes, things were moving against the Seton Hall zone. Guys kicked the ball around for 3s, they got to the line a couple times. Then the standing around and shoot jump shots offense reared it's ugly head. The percentages don't lie, this isn't a jump shooting team. 3 pointers definitely are a part of the offense, but not when you stand around for 20 seconds. 

Let's embrace the facts. This team is going to win ugly. Every game is going to be ugly. Unless something amazing happens, they aren't going to score 70 points. If I ever pick them to score 70 again, yell at me. Yell nice things at me, but yell at me. College basketball can be a glorious game to watch. Indiana and Michigan State last Sunday was great. It can also be a thing you slog through. I hate to break this to all of you, but Cincinnati is a slog team. Lots of fouls will be called. Lots of shots will be missed. What is this offense will be said many times. None of it matters as long as Cincinnati wins. And they are winning. 

Let's shout out a couple of the stars of the game quickly. Sean Kilpatrick had a game high 21. It was on 8-19 shooting. Not his most efficient game. He had a team high 7 rebounds. Cashmere Wright had 17 points on 4-13, but he was 7-7 from the free throw line. He had 1 steal. That ties him with Darnell Burton for second most all time. He is 5 behind the leader. That should come sometime this month. JaQuon Parker had 9 on the strength of 6-8 at the foul line. 

18-4, 6-3 looks pretty sweet to me. Time to finish off the 2 game road trip with a win at Providence. Go Bearcats. 

Box score via SI

CINCINNATI(18-4)

	MIN	REB (O/D)	AST	FG-A	FT-A	3P-A	PF	ST	TO	BLK	PTS
Kilpatrick *	0	7 (2/5)	0	8-19	0-1	5-16	2	2	2	0	21
Wright *	0	3 (1/2)	3	4-13	7-7	2-8	1	1	1	0	17
Parker *	0	2 (1/1)	2	1-5	6-8	1-2	2	1	1	0	9
Mbodj *	0	6 (3/3)	2	2-5	3-3	0-0	5	0	0	4	7
Jackson *	0	4 (1/3)	3	1-1	1-3	0-0	1	2	2	2	3
Gaines	0	1 (0/1)	0	1-2	0-0	0-0	3	0	2	0	2
Nyarsuk	0	2 (1/1)	0	0-0	2-3	0-0	0	0	0	0	2
Rubles	0	6 (0/6)	2	0-1	2-2	0-0	3	1	1	0	2
Sanders	0	1 (0/1)	0	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	1	0	2
Guyn	0	1 (0/1)	0	0-1	0-0	0-1	1	0	1	0	0
Thomas	0	1 (0/1)	0	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	0	34 (9/25)	12	18-49	21-27	8-27	18	7	11	6	65
				36.7%	77.8%	29.6%
* Starters

SETON HALL(13-9)

	MIN	REB (O/D)	AST	FG-A	FT-A	3P-A	PF	ST	TO	BLK	PTS
Edwin *	0	5 (3/2)	1	5-15	4-5	2-7	4	1	2	0	16
Smyth *	0	3 (1/2)	2	1-6	0-0	1-6	3	1	1	0	3
Maayan *	0	4 (0/4)	3	1-3	0-0	0-1	4	1	3	0	2
Johnson *	0	3 (2/1)	0	0-3	1-2	0-0	1	0	0	1	1
Oliver *	0	2 (0/2)	1	0-6	0-0	0-2	3	0	2	0	0
Mobley	0	4 (1/3)	0	6-8	2-3	2-4	2	0	1	0	16
Teague	0	3 (2/1)	2	4-7	3-7	0-0	2	1	1	0	11
Cosby	0	2 (0/2)	2	3-5	1-1	0-0	1	0	3	0	7
Karlis	0	2 (1/1)	0	1-2	0-0	1-2	4	0	0	0	3
TOTAL	0	28 (10/18)	11	21-55	11-18	6-22	24	4	13	1	59
				38.2%	61.1%	27.3%
* Starters

Tomorrow at 11 am, that's right 11 am, Cincinnati travels to wherever Seton Hall is to take on the Seton Hall Pirates. The game will be televised on ESPNU. ESPNU has had 11 am games all season long. Unfortunately for all of us, UC drew the short straw. This isn't so bad for the east coast, but for you west coasters, waking up at 8 to watch Cincinnati basketball isn't the worst way to start your day. 

This is the second game of business week that Cincinnati has to take down. If you break the last 10 games into 2 game pods, the next two are at Seton Hall and at Providence. Those are the only 2 game pods you fully expect Cincinnati to sweep. Pitt and Nova at home is another that we should expect them to sweep, but I don't think there would be a lot of shock if they lost either one of those games. 

This is a very important game for another reason. Seton Hall is awful. Losing to them wouldn't be a loss to knock UC out of the NCAA tournament, unless it started a full on collapse, but it would be a loss that killed the seeding. Not only in the Big East tournament, but the NCAA tournament. 4 of Seton Hall's 6 conference losses have come by double digits. Cincinnati isn't a team that normally will blow someone out. This is the type of game that Cincinnati should dominate from tip to buzzer. 

Stats are BIG EAST PLAY ONLY 

Record: 17-4, 5-3 

Road/Neutral: 7-1

RPI (from Real Time RPI): 23

Rank: 23/24

Vs Seton Hall: 7-6

At Seton Hall: 0-3

In Big East Play: 3-4

Last Meeting: 62-57 February 18, 2012

Mick Cronin Win Total: 199

Minutes

• Sean Kilpatrick 35.3
• JaQuon Parker 31.9
• Cashmere Wright 28.8
• Titus Rubles 24.1
• Cheikh Mbodj 21.6

Scoring

• Sean Kilpatrick 17.5
• Cashmere Wright 14.3
• JaQuon Parker 9
• Titus Rubles 6.6
• Cheikh Mbodj 5.7

Field Goal %

• David Nyarsuk 53.8
• Cheikh Mbodj 50
• Cashmere Wright 41
• Sean Kilpatrick 39.4
• Justin Jackson 39.1

Free Throw % (Minimum 15 attempts)

• Cashmere Wright 82.1
• Sean Kilpatrick 78
• Justin Jackson 69
• Titus Rubles 68.4
• Cheikh Mbodj 67

3 Pointers Made (3 point %)

• Sean Kilpatrick 22 (34%)
• Cashmere Wright 13 (30.2%)
• JaQuon Parker 9 (33.3%)
• Jermaine Sanders 5 (29.4%)
• Titus Rubles 3 (20%)

Rebounding

• Titus Rubles 6
• JaQuon Parker 4.7
• Cheikh Mbodj 4.5
• Justin Jackson 4.4
• Sean Kilpatrick 4.4

Assists

• Cashmere Wright 23
• Titus Rubles 20
• JaQuon Parker 15
• Sean Kilpatrick 13
• Justin Jackson 6

Turnovers

• JaQuon Parker 21
• Sean Kilpatrick 14
• Titus Rubles 13
• Cashmere Wright 12
• Justin Jackson 9

Steals

• Cashmere Wright 9
• Sean Kilpatrick 5
• Titus Rubles 4
• JaQuon Parker 4
• Jermaine Sanders 3

Blocks

• Cheikh Mbodj 18
• Justin Jackson 11
• David Nyarsuk 8
• Sean Kilpatrick 4
• Titus Rubles 3

Record: 13-8, 2-6

RPI: 93

Home: 9-2

Record vs Ranked Teams: 0-3

Minutes

• Fuquan Edwin 34.1
• Aaron Cosby 34.1
• Gene Teague 29
• Kyle Smyth 25.7
• Haralds Karlis 22.1

Points

• Fuquan Edwin 14.1
• Aaron Cosby 13
• Gene Teague 10.9
• Brian Oliver 9.3
• Brandon Mobley 8.1

Field Goal %

• Gene Teague 55.1
• Brandon Mobley 53.8
• Brian Oliver 42.9
• Tom Maayan 42.1
• Haralds Karlis 40

Free Throw %

• Aaron Cosby 79.2
• Fuquan Edwin 75.8
• Haralds Karlis 75
• Gene Teague 52.4
• No one else has 15 attempts

3 Pointers Made (3 Pt %)

• Aaron Cosby 17 (35.4%)
• Fuquan Edwin 10 (31.3%)
• Brian Oliver 8 (57.1%)
• Brandon Mobley 7 (53.8%)
• Kyle Smyth 6 (24%)

Rebounding 

• Gene Teague 7.7
• Fuquan Edwin 6.1
• Brian Oliver 4.3
• Brandon Mobley 4.1
• Kyle Smyth 3.2

Assists

• Aaron Cosby 32
• Tom Maayan 20
• Kyle Smyth 17
• Fuquan Edwin 16
• Gene Teague 15

Turnovers

• Gene Teague 33
• Tom Maayan 26
• Aaron Cosby 22
• Fuquan Edwin 20
• Brandon Mobley 14

Steals

• Fuquan Edwin 19
• Tom Maayan 6
• Gene Teague 4
• Kyle Smyth 4
• Aaron Cosby / Haralds Karlis / Brian Oliver 3

Blocks

• Fuquan Edwin 4
• Gene Teague 4
• Brandon Mobley 4

Paw Points

Fuquan Edwin is second in the Big East in steals this season with 52. That's 12th in the country. He led the nation in steals last year. His 19 steals lead the conference. He's a dangerous man around the ball. 

Cashmere Wright needs 1 steal to tie and 2 steals to pass Darnell Burton for most steals all time in Cincinnati history. 

Seton Hall plays about the same pace as Marquette. Look for that type of flow. 

The Pirates are near the bottom of the standings for a very good reason. They are bad on offense with 0.95 points per possession. They are HORRENDOUS on defense. They are giving up 1.09 points per possession. That's tied with Notre Dame for the worst in the league. Notre Dame is slightly worse, but Seton Hall is terrible. If Cincinnati can't fix the offensive woes against them, we might be in trouble. 

There are going to be a ton of 3 pointers attempted. Cincinnati leads the league with 177 attempts. Seton Hall is 3rd with 160 attempts. Seton Hall leads the conference with 56 made 3 pointers. Cincinnati is second with 54. 

Seton Hall only gives up 15 looks from 3 a game. That's because their 2 point defense is terrible.  When Seton Hall does give up a 3 point attempt, opponents are making 36%. That makes one reason that those are open looks.  

They also foul a lot. SH's opponent free throw rate is the 4th highest in the league.  That works out very well for Cincinnati since the Bearcats get to the foul line a lot in their wins. 

Seton Hall is honoring the 1992-93 Big East championship team. Terry Dehere in the house. 

The Pirates are an ok rebounding team. They are middle of the road. Cincinnati is dominant on the defensive glass, getting 70.2% of the defensive rebounds. Cincinnati is also one of the 4 best offensive rebounding teams in the league at 36.4%. 

A reason Seton Hall's offense is so bad is because they turn the ball over. A lot. A whole, whole lot. They are turning it over on 26.1% of their possessions during Big East play. 4 trips down the court and 1 is ending with a turnover. That is by far the highest turnover rate in the league. 

Seton Hall makes up for that by forcing the least amount of turnovers in the league. When adjusted for pace, they are worst than Notre Dame. Hell, they've only forced 2 more turnovers than Notre Dame. 19 of those are Edwin steals. This is a brutal defense. 

The Bearcats are blocking shots on 11.3% of possessions in Big East play. Right now, this team is tied with the Kenyon Bearcats of 2000 in shots blocked per game. 

Seton Hall is the worst shot blocking team in the league. They are blocking shots on 3.6% of possessions. 

Neither team is big on steals. Cincinnati gets them at a league worst 6.6% clip, SH at a 8.1% rate. 

Random Prediction

Shaq Thomas scores a basket. Maybe 2. Maybe even 3. 

Prediction

Cincinnati 73 Seton Hall 58

Fresh off win number 17, it's clear that the Cincinnati Bearcats have found their mold for Big East play. The style this teams has to play to win is work your ass off on defense and get to the free throw line on offense. Defense is a staple for every team. No shit. This team has to play a much tougher brand of defense because their offense isn't good enough to make up for giving up easy buckets. I don't know how much clearer this could be than from what we saw last night. Cincinnati didn't guard the way they normally do. This team doesn't give up a ton of open 3 looks. Rutgers got 10 attempts. They made 6 of them. Rutgers is a bad team. Bad teams need 3 pointers to beat you. Once Cincinnati closed off the 3 point line, Rutgers was lost. They couldn't get the ball inside because of the shot blocking. They couldn't get a look outside because of the tremendous defense. It was a clinic. The box score says that Rutgers tried 7 three pointers in the second half. 4 of them were in the last 45 seconds. That makes the number a little deceiving. 

As for the offense, it's not pretty, it's not terribly exciting, but this team needs free throws to score. Take a look at the number of attempts in wins. 

• 35
• 32
• 31
• 29
• 29

Take a look at the number in losses. 

• 11
• 11
• 10

We have some good players who can create shots. We saw that at times last night. The problem is that when teams start locking down on Cashmere Wright, Sean Kilpatrick and JaQuon Parker to take away the 3 point shot, the burden of offense moves on to guys who need help to score. If those guys can't give it to them, UC is in trouble.

All you need to do is look at the box score from last night to hammer this home. Cashmere Wright and Parker were both 1-6. In the second half, they both got to the line to get a majority of their points. They made 7 of the 17 free throws. The 17 free throws led to nearly half of the 40 second half points. Stylistically it is going to make the games ugly. It's going to keep the games close. Style points don't win you games. If they did, USF would have more than 1 win because all of Victor Rudd's dunks. Defend and draw fouls. That's the motto. 

If Cincinnati's defense is going to defend the 2 point shot like they did last night, teams are in trouble. Rutgers made 10-31, 32%. 7 of those 21 misses were blocked. We haven't seen the bigs lock down the paint that much, hell, maybe all season. Rutgers has no post threat, but man it is easy to wish that we could see a complete shutdown inside the arc like this on Saturday. 

A large part of the defense was provided by Justin Jackson. Justin has had some good games this season, but this was his best. He was back in the starting lineup and the man looked like he had something to prove. The book on Jackson is that if he's active on defense, he's going to be active on offense. He was like a bat out of hell on the defensive end. He had 6 blocks, by far a season high. He intimidated Rutgers. His fire and energy rubbed off on everyone else. Mbodj has blocked a lot of shots this season. He seemed a little more fired up after blocking them last night. Jackson also had a steal.

That rubbed off on his offensive game. JJ was 3-8, 1-2 at the foul line, for 7 points. He scored the first 3. 2 of his missed shots were on a wild follow and a poorly timed alley oop. He wasn't taking bad shots. He had 4 offensive rebounds. Jackson had 3 assists. He threw an alley oop to Kelvin Gaines. He had a big kick out for a 3. 

I wrote in this space a few days ago that he was the most disappointing player on the team this season. I will gladly eat that crow. That trailing block was almost as good as the one he had against Craft in the Sweet 16. Take a look for yourself. 

Cheikh Mbodj seems to have figured things out offensively. Stand near the basket for alley oops, make layups, get rebounds. He followed up 9-6 against Syracuse with 10-5 last night. That is exactly what you need. UC doesn't need a big guy to score 20 points. They need them to make the opposing team respect them so it opens up the court for everyone else. Keep it going, Cheikh. 

Only 20 minutes for Cashmere Wright because of foul trouble. He played the first 5 minutes and roughly the last 15 minutes. Back to back poor shooting games. It seems to me that Cash is concentrating too much on the 3 ball. 5 of his 6 shots were from deep. I know he shoots a lot and he is very good, but variety is always nice. 3 assists to 3 turnovers. Not great. His 3 was pretty big though. It gave UC the final lead. 

Sean Kilpatrick followed a 1-5 first half with a 4-8 second half to lead all scorers with 19 points. He was 1-4 from 3 in the first, 2-4 in the second. SK is the type of guy that I really don't care how much he shoots. Not just because Cincinnati needs him to score. But because he's capable of dropping 3 in a row and taking over the game. He did that in the second half. He's a damn good basketball player. Killa had a 19-6-4-2 steal line. 3 turnovers as well, the only major flaw last night. Unless he's in foul trouble, he's not coming off the court. I respect that. 

JaQuon Parker had a pretty bland game. As mentioned earlier, he was 1-6 from the field. Just like Cash, he was 1-5 from 3. 3 pointers are not Parker's game. JaQuon did finish 4-6 at the foul line. That was good to see because I don't know why he's been so miserable from there this season. He's at a career low 56%. Yes, that is lower than the year he didn't make a shot and never played. 

After a couple of games of curbing the turnovers, Park had 3. It seems a large number are on travels. 

Cheikh Mbodj and Justin Jackson outscored JaQuon Parker and Cashmere Wright in a game Cincinnati won. Let that sink in. 

Titus Rubles didn't play a lot of minutes, but he had a pretty nice game. He was 1-1 from the field, 4-6 at the stripe for 6 points. He had 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal in 18 minutes. I'm all for playing whoever is the hot hand between Jackson and Rubles. I would love to see them play together more often, though. I think that could work. They can't be that bad defensively. They would certainly be better than the Gaines and Jackson line. 

5 minutes for Shaq Thomas. Hope you liked the mid-season run, my man. 

5 points from Ge'Lawn Guyn last night. He was 1-3 from the field, 0-2 from 3, 3-3 on FTs. He iced the game with a fast break layup and a foul. Guyn continues to defend his ass off, even if it doesn't up in steals or blocks. I thought he would get 6, 5 is close enough. Thanks for making me look smart. 

Someone posted on twitter last night that Chuck said pregame that UC had to score 70 points and shoot 25 free throws. Of course, I said "Why would anyone expect UC to score 70 points?" My prediction in the preview, 70 points. Own the good and bad predictions.  

Rutgers turned the ball over 21 times last night. A lot of it was because the Cincinnati defense. Some of it were careless, careless turnovers. At least twice Rutgers threw the ball away out of timeouts. Once they threw a bounce pass to the Rutgers bench. They had a couple of selfish plays that ended in turnovers that really changed the game. This was a game they are going to regret losing. The Bearcats were there for the taking. 

The shot Dane Miller took when the score was 36-31 Rutgers was one of the worst shots I've seen someone take this season. Cincinnati immediately scored.  I said on twitter that it would start a UC run. The Cats went on a 18-9 run to take the lead for good. Miller sat on the bench for 5 minutes. 

I like Jerome Seagears. He plays a little too out of control, but once he figures that out, he's going to be a  stud. It could be in the Big East, it could be in the Big 10. 

Myles Mack is a pretty good shooter. Not a great ballhandler. 

Jermaine Sanders had 2 boards in 6 minutes. He took a 3. Thought it was off. You all thought I was going to say thought it was in. No, that one looked bad. 

We've heard rumblings that Mick wants to play Kelvin Gaines more. Those rumblings were fact when Gaines came into the game before the first media timeout. He played 10 minutes. He had 2 points and 2 rebounds. He didn't block a shot, but he had a steal. All in all, a solid 10. Although it's hard to play him with Jackson and Guyn on the court too. There is no scoring there. 

David Nyarsuk is the odd man out. He played 2 minutes. He called for a pass when he was wide open under the basket. He somehow seemed surprised the ball came. People came to defend him and he walked. He didn't play another second. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up offensive rebounding. UC pulled in 43.3% of their misses according to BBState. They only had 5 second chance points though. 

The turnovers were hard to watch. 17 of them. 

14 assists on 18 field goals. That's a positive on which to end. 

Don't forget, UC plays at 11 am Saturday. Bring on Seton Hall. Go Bearcats. 

Photos via Cincinnati.com

Cincinnati used a big second half to rally past Rutgers tonight, 62-54. Rutgers held the lead from the opening minutes until the 11 minute mark of the second half. The Scarlet Knights couldn't hold the lead because, to be quite frank, they are a bad basketball team. I tweeted after Rutgers took a 10 point lead that it was fortunate that Cincinnati was playing so badly against this team. A good one would have probably defeated them. This is why style points do not matter. Winning this game was very important. The margin, that didn't matter. A loss to a team like this wouldn't be good for the resume and it wouldn't be good for the Big East standings. 

The Bearcats won with their defense. People love good offense. Like good offense, good defense gets players fired up to defend. Look no further than Justin Jackson. He blocked a season high 6 shots. He disrupted more than that. He was credited with a steal. Jackson played with the heart and hustle that we saw from him last season. It was reflected in the box score with 7 points and 7 rebounds to go with the 6 blocks. He had 3 assists. His offense is spurred on by his confidence. When he's playing great defense, he's very confident. He made a spectacular trailing block that was almost as beautiful as the one he had against Ohio State. A huge game from JJ. He also did a lot of this. 

The Bearcats leading scorer was Sean Kilpatrick, who had 19. He scored 14 in the second half. He had 6 boards, a team high 4 assists and 2 steals. Another solid game for Killa. The Bearcats second leading scorer was Cheikh Mbodj. Mbodj hit double digits for the second time this season with 10. He got it on 5-7 shooting. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. Back to back big offensive games for him. 

Rutgers turned the ball over 20 times. They hit 6-10 from 3 in the first half, but finished 2-7 in the second. The lack of 3 point shooting was part of the lock down defense Cincinnati played. Some of the Rutgers turnovers were unforced. Two of them came off inbound plays, which you wouldn't think would result in direct turnovers since they talk about those in the huddle. 

Like I said up top, a win like this was needed. 17-4, 5-3 in the Big East sure looks lovely even if the game on the court did not. 

Box score via SI

RUTGERS(12-8)

	MIN	REB (O/D)	AST	FG-A	FT-A	3P-A	PF	ST	TO	BLK	PTS
Seagears *	34	0 (0/0)	3	4-10	0-0	3-5	3	1	3	0	11
Miller *	24	1 (0/1)	2	2-8	0-1	0-1	1	0	3	0	4
Poole *	23	4 (0/4)	0	1-3	0-0	1-1	1	0	1	1	3
Jack *	18	4 (1/3)	0	1-3	0-0	0-0	3	0	2	1	2
Judge *	17	4 (1/3)	0	1-1	2-2	0-0	4	0	2	0	4
Carter	24	3 (0/3)	1	3-11	4-4	1-6	5	1	2	0	11
Mack	23	0 (0/0)	0	5-8	2-2	3-4	3	2	5	0	15
Randall	17	3 (1/2)	0	0-0	2-2	0-0	2	0	0	0	2
Johnson	12	1 (0/1)	1	1-3	0-0	0-0	3	2	2	0	2
Kone	8	1 (1/0)	1	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	2	0	0	0
TOTAL	0	21 (4/17)	8	18-48	10-11	8-17	25	8	20	2	54
				37.5%	90.9%	47.1%
* Starters

CINCINNATI(17-4)

	MIN	REB (O/D)	AST	FG-A	FT-A	3P-A	PF	ST	TO	BLK	PTS
Kilpatrick *	39	6 (0/6)	4	5-13	6-8	3-8	2	2	3	0	19
Parker *	34	3 (1/2)	1	1-6	4-6	1-5	0	1	3	0	7
Jackson *	26	7 (4/3)	3	3-8	1-2	0-0	2	1	3	6	7
Mbodj *	24	5 (4/1)	1	5-7	0-0	0-0	4	0	1	2	10
Wright *	20	3 (1/2)	3	1-6	3-4	1-5	3	1	3	0	6
Rubles	18	4 (1/3)	2	1-1	4-6	0-0	1	1	1	0	6
Guyn	16	0 (0/0)	0	1-3	3-3	0-2	1	0	1	0	5
Gaines	10	2 (2/0)	0	1-2	0-0	0-0	2	1	1	0	2
Sanders	6	2 (0/2)	0	0-1	0-0	0-1	1	0	0	0	0
Thomas	5	0 (0/0)	0	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0
Nyarsuk	2	0 (0/0)	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	1	0	0
TOTAL	0	32 (13/19)	14	18-48	21-29	5-21	16	7	17	8	62
				37.5%	72.4%	23.8%
* Starters

Tonight at 7 on FSN Ohio, the Cincinnati Bearcats return to action after 9 long, long, long, long days off to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. This has been an unbelievably long break in the middle of the season. It's a scheduling quirk since UC played a Monday game, an afternoon Monday game at that, but it doesn't excuse such a long period with UC hoops. I can't wait to finally see our boys back on the floor. 

The Bearcats are welcomed back with a familiar opponent, Rutgers. Rutgers was the team that UC beat to snap their 2 game losing streak. The Cats dominated the first half by holding the Knights to 15 points. Rutgers scored 43 points in the second half, but they were never a threat. Cashmere Wright led Cincinnati with 23 points on 6-17 shooting, 9-10 at the foul line. JaQuon Parker had 11 and 8. Sean Kilpatrick scored 10 on just 3-12 shooting. Jermaine Sanders came off the bench for 9 points as well. That was the game where Cincinnati didn't turn the ball over the entire first half. 

I don't think I'm ruining the prediction part of this post by saying that I expect a repeat. These are the kinds of home games that you have to take care of if you are going to finish at the top of the league. I've picked Cincinnati do just that. As you also might know, I don't have high hopes for Rutgers. It's a good game back. A familiar opponent, a should win game, and hopefully a rowdy atmosphere. Let's do this. 

Stats are BIG EAST PLAY ONLY 

Record: 16-4, 4-3 

Home: 9-3

RPI (from Real Time RPI): 27

Rank: 23/24

Vs Rutgers: 13-4

In Cincinnati: 6-1

In Big East Play: 6-3

Last Meeting: 68-58 January 12

Minutes

• Sean Kilpatrick 34.8
• JaQuon Parker 31.6
• Cashmere Wright 30.3
• Titus Rubles 25
• Cheikh Mbodj 21.3

Scoring

• Sean Kilpatrick 17.6
• Cashmere Wright 15.7
• JaQuon Parker 9.3
• Titus Rubles 6.7
• Cheikh Mbodj 5.1

Field Goal %

• David Nyarsuk 53.8
• Cheikh Mbodj 50
• Cashmere Wright 43.1
• JaQuon Parker 41.1
• Justin Jackson 40

Free Throw % (Minimum 15 attempts)

1. Cashmere Wright 83.3
2. Sean Kilpatrick 78
3. Justin Jackson 72.7
4. Titus Rubles 68.8
5. Cheikh Mbodj 67

3 Pointers Made (3 point %)

1. Sean Kilpatrick 19 (34%)
2. Cashmere Wright 12 (31.6%)
3. JaQuon Parker 8 (36.4%)
4. Jermaine Sanders 5 (31.3%)
5. Titus Rubles 3 (20%)

Rebounding

• Titus Rubles 6.3
• JaQuon Parker 5
• Cheikh Mbodj 4.4
• Sean Kilpatrick 4.1
• Justin Jackson 4

Assists

• Cashmere Wright 20
• Titus Rubles 18
• JaQuon Parker 14
• Sean Kilpatrick 9
• Jermaine Sanders 5

Turnovers

• JaQuon Parker 18
• Titus Rubles 12
• Sean Kilpatrick 11
• Cashmere Wright 9
• Justin Jackson 6

Steals

• Cashmere Wright 8
• Sean Kilpatrick 3
• Jermaine Sanders 3
• Titus Rubles 3
• JaQuon Parker 3

Blocks

• Cheikh Mbodj 16
• David Nyarsuk 8
• Justin Jackson 5
• Sean Kilpatrick 4
• Titus Rubles 3

Record: 12-7, 3-5

Road/Neutral: 4-4

RPI: 58

Minutes

• Eli Carter 30.3
• Jerome Seagears 29.2
• Myles Mack 27.6
• Dane Miller 25.6
• Wally Judge 22.6

Points

1. Eli Carter 13.3
2. Myles Mack 10.3
3. Jerome Seagears 7.8
4. Wally Judge 7
5. Dane Miller 6

Field Goal %

• Austin Johnson 57.1
• Wally Judge 50.9
• Dane Miller 44.2
• Mike Poole 42.5
• Kadeem Jack 42.4

Free Throw %

1. Myles Mack 100 (17-17)
2. Eli Carter 88
3. Dane Miller 81.8
4. Jerome Seagears 77.8
5. Austin Johnson 50

3 Pointers Made (3 point %)

1. Eli Carter 13 (28.3%)
2. Myles Mack 12(34.3%)
3. Jerome Seagears 12 (42.9%)
4. Mike Poole 4 (40%)
5. Dane Miller 1 (12.5%)

Rebounding

• Kadeem Jack 6.5
• Dane Miller 5.9
• Wally Judge 3.8
• Eli Carter 3.1
• Austin Johnson 2.9

Assists

1. Jerome Seagears 23
2. Dane Miller 21
3. Myles Mack 20
4. Eli Carter 14
5. Mike Poole 10

Turnovers

1. Eli Carter 27
2. Dane Miller 18
3. Myles Mack 15
4. Wally Judge 12
5. Austin Johnson 12

Steals

1. Myles Mack 13
2. Mike Poole 8
3. Eli Carter 7
4. Wally Judge 5
5. Jerome Seagears 5

Blocks

1. Dane Miller 7
2. Kadeem Jack 6
3. Wally Judge 5
4. Mike Poole 3

Paw Points

Rutgers is 1-3 since Cincinnati beat them. Rutgers has lost 4 of their last 5 including Cincinnati. 

Cincinnati is 2-1 in that span. They've won 3 of 4. 

Rutgers has had one of the worst offenses and worst defenses in the league. They are averaging 0.95 points per possession and giving up 1.05. They are the 5th worst offense and the 5th worst defense. 

Rutgers is ok from the field at 41.6%, but they don't attempt a lot of 3s, 16 a game, and they don't get to the free throw line. They average less than 13 attempts. That's the lowest in the league by far. Notre Dame gets to the foul line at a better rate. 

On the flip side, Rutgers can't keep opponents off the foul line. UC attempted 32 free throw attempts in the first meeting. I don't know if the Cats will get a number that high again, but anything not in the 20s would be slightly disappointing. 

Rutgers is a decent rebounding team. They aren't as good as the Cats, though. UC dominated the boards in the first meeting. Especially the offensive glass where UC pulled in 44.7% of their misses. 

The Scarlet Knights turn the ball over on 21.8% of their possessions, 4th highest in the league. Cincinnati is more in the middle at 18.5%. UC only forced 9 in the first meeting. In fact, there were only 15 total turnovers. I hope that the play is as crisp the second time around. 

I said yesterday JaQuon Parker would make the first basket. Can't back off of that one. 

Calling a random 6 point game from Ge'Lawn Guyn. 

Sean Kilpatrick and Eli Carter was a combined 4-23 from the field in the first meeting. I'm pretty sure they will not combine for numbers like that again. 

Cincinnati is an 11.5 point favorite tonight. I think they cover. 

Prediction

Cincinnati 70 Rutgers 58