Cincinnati followed a loss to Providence where they looked horrible offensively with a loss to Pittsburgh where they looked horrible offensively. Cincinnati is 18-6, 6-5.  A large, large, large part of this was because of the excellent Panther defense. There is a reason that Pitt has amazing defensive numbers. They get in your shorts and make you run offense. They go hard. I really like that team. I wasn't high on them in December and thought they were a bit of a overrated bunch. Instead, they rallied hard in Big East play and look like they really belong at the top of the standings. They are good. 

The Bearcats are not playing good basketball right now. That's safe to say. They were bad against Rutgers. Bad against Seton Hall. Bad against Providence. Bad tonight. Cincinnati was 16-52 from the field. That's 30.8%. They were a putrid 4-25 from 3. Cashmere Wright continues to be in a horrible slump. He was 1-11 from 3 and 2-12 overall. Cincinnati was decent at the foul line, 16-22. The Bearcats missed a lot of shots and only rebounded 31% of their misses.

The Bearcats didn't score a field goal the last 9:21. They scored 7 points in that span. 

We know this team can't score when the guards don't score. Sean Kilpatrick had 15 points on 5-8 shooting in the first half. He was 0-7 the second half and 1-2 at the foul line. He scored 1 point. JaQuon Parker had 2 points in the second half. Cashmere Wright had 5 points total. When you put the clamps on those guys, Cincinnati is sunk. 

The good news, relatively, was that Titus Rubles stepped up in the second half. He scored 8 points on the strength of 4-5 shooting from the foul line. He was just 2-9 from the field. He had 8 rebounds to lead the team. 

One other thing Pittsburgh did was take advantage of the UC big men. In one case, the lack of them. Justin Jackson played 7 minutes before leaving the game with some kind of left leg injury. With a game so close, who knows if he plays Tuesday. The Panthers went right at Cheikh Mbodj with Steven Adams. Adams got Mbodj in foul trouble. Adams also scored 13 points on 5-6 shooting, 3-4 from the foul line. Talib Zanna had 11 points on 4-6. They dominated the second half. 

Tray Woodall deserves a shout out. He had 14 points. He hit 4-6 from 3. Pitt only made 4 of them. He hit the dagger 3 late in the game. He iced the game at the line after temporarily leaving the door open. He's good. 

It's February. There are no must win games. I think Nova on Tuesday is as close as you can get to that right now, however. That's a good team that UC needs to beat at home. Especially with what's coming up. I know all of our faces are like Mick Cronin's in the picture above, but don't give up now. Believe. Believe in the Cats. 

Box score via SI. 

PITTSBURGH(20-5)

	MIN	REB (O/D)	AST	FG-A	FT-A	3P-A	PF	ST	TO	BLK	PTS
Woodall *	35	2 (0/2)	3	4-8	2-4	4-6	1	0	2	0	14
Patterson *	31	6 (0/6)	3	3-9	3-4	0-2	2	1	1	0	9
Adams *	29	2 (1/1)	2	5-6	3-4	0-0	3	0	1	4	13
Zanna *	28	9 (3/6)	1	4-6	3-6	0-0	3	0	1	0	11
Robinson *	18	2 (0/2)	1	0-2	4-4	0-0	0	1	1	0	4
Wright	16	2 (0/2)	0	1-5	0-0	0-0	2	1	0	0	2
Zeigler	15	2 (1/1)	2	1-3	0-1	0-0	4	0	1	0	2
Moore	12	1 (0/1)	0	1-2	1-2	0-0	1	1	0	0	3
Taylor	11	3 (1/2)	1	1-3	2-2	0-0	1	0	0	0	4
Johnson	5	0 (0/0)	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	2	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	0	29 (6/23)	13	20-44	18-27	4-8	19	4	7	4	62
				45.5%	66.7%	50.0%
* Starters

CINCINNATI(18-6)

	MIN	REB (O/D)	AST	FG-A	FT-A	3P-A	PF	ST	TO	BLK	PTS
Kilpatrick *	37	4 (1/3)	1	5-15	4-6	2-9	4	1	5	0	16
Wright *	33	0 (0/0)	2	2-12	0-0	1-11	3	1	3	0	5
Parker *	27	3 (1/2)	1	2-4	3-3	0-2	3	0	1	0	7
Mbodj *	17	1 (0/1)	0	1-2	2-4	0-0	4	0	0	1	4
Jackson *	7	1 (1/0)	1	1-3	1-1	0-0	0	0	1	0	3
Rubles	24	8 (3/5)	1	2-9	4-5	0-1	3	1	0	0	8
Sanders	17	4 (1/3)	1	1-2	1-2	1-2	0	0	0	0	4
Nyarsuk	13	3 (0/3)	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	1	0
Gaines	10	3 (1/2)	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	0	0	0	0
Thomas	9	0 (0/0)	0	1-3	0-0	0-0	2	1	0	0	2
Guyn	6	1 (0/1)	0	1-2	1-1	0-0	0	0	0	1	3
TOTAL	0	28 (8/20)	8	16-52	16-22	4-25	20	4	10	3	52
				30.8%	72.7%	16.0%
* Starters

James White has always been known for his great dunking ability. He was a great Bearcat, but his dunking skills have been his calling card.  For years, people have been saying that he should get a chance to be in the NBA dunk contest. That is finally happening this year. Hopefully things will go better for James than they did in the NCAA dunk contest, when he was robbed. 

White had a couple of great in game dunks as a Bearcat. Like this windmill. 

He had this great dunk against Louisville. 

To close, here are some great dunks from White before his UC career. 

Tomorrow night at 6pm on ESPN, the Cincinnati Bearcats play one of the biggest home games of the season when they host the Pittsburgh Panthers. Cincinnati is looking to bounce back off an ugly performance in a loss to Providence. Pitt is riding a 2 game winning streak, having defeated Syracuse and Seton Hall. Pitt is coming off a very ugly game against the Hall. Both teams know that their efforts from earlier in the week will make it hard to win this game. It's going to be a good old fashion good one. 

This is the second meeting between the teams this season. The first happened on New Year's Eve. It was such a long time ago that Cincinnati scored 70 points in regulation. That's hard to believe against a team that isn't DePaul, but it really happened. This game saw Sean Kilpatrick and Cashmere Wright battle foul trouble in the first half and both score 12 points in the second. This was the game David Nyarsuk took over late with 4 points and 2 huge offensive rebounds. It seems like forever ago since he produced. JaQuon Parker had 13 in the UC win. 

Pitt did not make a 3 pointer in that game. They were 15-25 at the free throw line. The Panthers made a furious rally late, but Cincinnati was able to hold them off to win 70-61. 

Tomorrow is a white out. So wear some white shit. 

Stats are BIG EAST PLAY ONLY 

Record: 18-5, 5-4 

Home: 10-3

RPI (from Real Time RPI): 26

Rank: 17

Vs Pittsburgh: 9-8

In Cincinnati: 5-2

Winning Streak: 2 

Last Meeting: 70-61, December 31, 2012

Minutes

• Sean Kilpatrick 35.2
• JaQuon Parker 31.3
• Cashmere Wright 30.1
• Titus Rubles 23.2
• Cheikh Mbodj 22.2

Scoring

• Sean Kilpatrick 17.6
• Cashmere Wright 13.7
• JaQuon Parker 9.3
• Cheikh Mbodj 5.9
• Titus Rubles 5.5

Field Goal % (Min 15 attempts)

• Cheikh Mbodj 47.7
• Justin Jackson 42.9
• Shaq Thomas 40
• Sean Kilpatrick 39.4
• JaQuon Parker 39.2

Free Throw % (Minimum 15 attempts)

• Cashmere Wright 86.1
• Sean Kilpatrick 75.5
• Cheikh Mbodj 74
• Titus Rubles 70
• Justin Jackson 61

3 Pointers Made (3 point %)

• Sean Kilpatrick 28 (32.2%)
• Cashmere Wright 16 (29.6%)
• JaQuon Parker 11 (36.7%)
• Jermaine Sanders 5 (27.8%)
• Titus Rubles 3 (20%)

Rebounding

• Titus Rubles 5.8
• Justin Jackson 5
• JaQuon Parker 5
• Cheikh Mbodj 4.6
• Sean Kilpatrick 4.4

Assists

• Cashmere Wright 29
• Titus Rubles 22
• JaQuon Parker 17
• Sean Kilpatrick 15
• Justin Jackson 14

Turnovers

• JaQuon Parker 24
• Sean Kilpatrick 18
• Cashmere Wright 16
• Titus Rubles 15
• Justin Jackson 14

Steals

• Cashmere Wright 11
• Sean Kilpatrick 9
• Titus Rubles 5
• JaQuon Parker 5
• Justin Jackson 5

Blocks

• Cheikh Mbodj 24
• Justin Jackson 12
• David Nyarsuk 8
• Sean Kilpatrick 4
• Titus Rubles 3
• Kelvin Gaines 3

Record: 19-5, 7-4

Road/Neutral: 5-3

RPI: 35

Rank: 23/25

Minutes

• Tray Woodall 27
• Lamar Patterson 26.5
• Steven Adams 25
• Talib Zanna 24.7
• James Robinson 24.6

Scoring

• Lamar Patterson 11.3
• Tray Woodall 9.7
• Talib Zanna 7.4
• JJ Moore 6.5
• Steven Adams 6.4

Field Goal %

• Cameron Wright 61.3
• Steven Adams 53.4
• Trey Zeigler 50.9
• Dante Taylor 50
• Lamar Patterson 48.3

Free Throw %

• JJ Moore 87.5
• Tray Woodall 82.1
• Dante Taylor 71.4
• James Robinson 67
• Durand Johnson 62.5

3 Pointers Made (3 pt %)

• Lamar Patterson 15 (37.5%)
• Tray Woodall 14 (30.4%)
• Durand Johnson 12 (41.4%)
• JJ Moore 8 (29.6%)
• James Robinson 5 (31.3%)

Rebounding

• Steven Adams 7.3
• Talib Zanna 5.4
• Lamar Patterson 4.8
• Dante Taylor 3.1
• Trey Zeigler 2.6

Assists

• Tray Woodall 55
• James Robinson 32
• Lamar Patterson 28
• Trey Zeigler 13
• Cameron Wright 11

Turnovers

• Tray Woodall 24
• Lamar Patterson 23
• James Robinson 16
• Trey Zeigler 16
• Steven Adams / Talib Zanna 12

Steals

• Tray Woodall 20
• Lamar Patterson 17
• James Robinson 10 
• Cameron Wright 8
• Steven Adams 7

Blocks

• Steven Adams 22
• Lamar Patterson 5
• Talib Zanna 5
• Dante Taylor 5
• Cameron Wright 3

Pitt and Cincinnati play roughly the same type of pace. Don't think the style is going to dramatically improve. Hopefully the quality of play will. 

Pittsburgh has won in the Big East with some good offense, 1.05 points per possession, and some damn good defense, 0.92 ppp. That's tied with Georgetown for the second lowest in the league. Cincinnati is at 1.01 and 0.96. A defensive battle will be had. 

The Panthers are hitting 44.3% from the field, which is 3rd in the league. Their effective field goal %, which weighs 3s, is 48.9%, also 3rd. Cincinnati is shooting 39% and 45.3% respectively. Both of those numbers are very low in the league. 

Both teams shoot a lot of free throws. Pitt has the 3rd most attempts, Cincinnati the 5th. There were 60 free throws attempted in the first meeting. Pittsburgh is the worst free throw shooting team in the league. They make 63% from the charity stripe. They were 15-25 in December. Panther opponents get to the line at the second highest rate. Cincinnati went to the line 35 times against them. That's something that has to happen again for UC to win. 

Pitt is middle of the road in 3s and 3 attempts, but they are one of the better teams at making them at 34.6%. Cincinnati has attempted the most. Panther opponents are only making 28% of their 3s. Cincinnati hit just 18%. As mentioned earlier, Cincinnati held Pitt without a 3 pointer in 10 attempts. 

Pittsburgh is the best offensive rebounding team in the league, pulling in 40.2% of the offensive rebounds. Cincinnati is the best defensive rebounding team at 70.1%. Cincinnati pulls in 36.9% offensively, Pittsburgh 68.8% defensively. Two of the best teams on the glass. Cincinnati had the advantage earlier in the year. The Cats pulled in 41.2% of the offensive rebounds compared to 34.3% for Pitt. 

Both teams turn the ball over about the same. Pitt turns it over on 20.9% of possessions, Cincinnati 20.2%. Neither team turned it over much in December. Pitt forces turnovers on 22.7% of opponents possessions. Maybe that will hurt Cincinnati, who only turn people over on 18%. 

The stakes for this game are huge. One of these teams is going to have 5 losses. Sweeping Pittsburgh would be huge for the Bearcats. This is an absolutely huge 3 game home stand. I'm not going to say that Cincinnati has to sweep it, but winning 2 of 3 is almost necessary. The closing kick is very tough. UC has to bank games like this. 

Prediction

I predicted Cincinnati to lose this game when I projected out the schedule. That was before the Providence loss. There is an urgency around this game. There is only 1 more crack at a good team at home. Nova is decent. UConn is decent. USF is garbage. This is a reputation game. This is a seed game. UC has not played great after the layoff. They beat a bad Rutgers team. They nearly blew a 20 point lead to a bad Seton Hall team. They lost to a bad Providence team. This is a gut check. There are no must win games in February, especially with 8 games left. There are important games, however. This is one of them. Take it down. 

Cincinnati 68 Pittsburgh 65

If you've paid any attention to college basketball this season, you know it has been one hell of a crazy year. The AP #1 has lost 5 straight weeks. Kansas lost to TCU. Things are going crazy in every league. There are no great teams, but there are plenty of good ones. That makes for some crazy results. We saw a crazy result on Wednesday night when Providence beat Cincinnati. 

Providence fans were not happy with my claim that PC didn't play a great game. They didn't. They played a solid game. Cincinnati played terribly. It was the worst 40 minutes of the season. This is the type of loss that people say they saw coming. And they aren't lying. The offense has been a mess ever since Big East play started. Hell, it's been a mess since mediocre Alabama exposed a half court weakness Cincinnati has. Lesser teams like Wright State tried to use this to their advantage. They weren't talented enough to beat Cincinnati. Providence was talented enough to beat Cincinnati and they did just that. There are some major flaws with this team. On talent, Cincinnati should have no troubles on offense. They have a good point guard. They have a scorer on the wing. They have another wing who can make plays. They have a talented slasher off the bench. But the pieces don't add up for some reason. At least they aren't adding up right now. 

This is a dangerous loss for a few reasons. One, it really hurts in the Big East standings. UC moves to 2 games back of the leaders and 1 game back of second place. They are in a slew of 4 loss teams. Cincinnati got a shot to get in the title race and this could be, and probably is, the loss that is going to keep them from winning it. This is also a dangerous loss when it comes to the NCAA tournament. Cincinnati should make it unless they fall on their face. This loss is a seed drop. Most places had UC as a 4 seed. Some had them as a 5. Having a 5 seed is historically a bad thing. A 6 seed is what UC has had the last 2 seasons. It would be disappointing if they pulled a 3rd 6 seed with all the expectations on this season. Hopefully this is a wake up game. It damn well better be because the team coming into the Fraction on Saturday is no joke. Time to rally up. 

15 turnovers by the Bearcats was awful. They had 8 in the first half, 7 in the second. The game ended with a turnover. They were sloppy as hell all night long. It's like they didn't take the game seriously and all of a sudden they were down 12 points and couldn't turn it on. 

One of the reasons they couldn't turn it on was because PC held UC to 37% shooting. UC had 18 made field goals. They were held to 13 three point attempts. Providence really disrupted the UC offense. It was a great defensive effort by the Friars. 

Boy, I don't know what has happened to Cashmere Wright since he has returned, but please could it stop? He was 2-9. He had just 2 assists against 2 turnovers. 2 rebounds as well. That is a lot of 2s. Cash was held to 3 three point attempts. His only make was the first basket for UC. Cash took a bad shot at the end of the game, but he was trying to get something going. 

Cash is 9-41, 22% since returning. He's 5-24, 20.8% from 3. He has only attempted 12 free throws. He's in a funk. Every team plays poorly when their point guard plays poorly. It's a part of basketball. Thank god it's only February and Cash has time to pick it up. 

Justin Jackson had some solid numbers in his 20 minutes. He had 9 rebounds, 5 points and 4 assists. On the bad side, he had 3 turnovers. He fouled out. He was 1-3 at the foul line. He didn't have a block or a steal. Jackson played well all things considered, but he also played poorly when you consider other things. Perspective and all that. 

Sean Kilpatrick had his worse 3 point shooting game of the season in which he made a 3 pointer. His worst 3 point shooting of the season was St John's when he went 0-5. Against PC he was 1-8. His previous low was 1-7. 

SK was 4-6 on 2 pointers. He was 2-3 from the foul line for his team high 13 points. He had 2 steals. Kilpatrick had 3 turnovers. He's had 3 turnovers in 2 of the last 3 games. The turnover everyone is going to point to is the one at the end of the game. If he had it to do over again, I don't know if SK would do anything different. He tried drawing a foul on a double team on a screen. He didn't get the call and lost the ball. It wasn't Charles Williams. It wasn't Dion Dixon against West Virginia. Oh well. 

Cheikh Mbodj has to play 25 minutes a game. He really has to. Mick needs him to play many minutes. The problem is that Cheikh can not stay on the floor. He played 22 minutes before fouling out. He only played 10 minutes in the second half. Mbodj wasn't that great when he was on the floor. He had 6 points and 3 boards. 1 block. 

The good thing about Mbodj is that he is money at the foul line lately. He was 4-4. He's 17-23 in Big East play. That's 74%. Better than Titus Rubles. Better than JaQuon Parker. Speaking of which...

JaQuon Parker played a very good game Wednesday. He had 12 points and 10 rebounds. It was his first career double double. Parker had 4 offensive boards. Park had 9 of his rebounds in the second half. He scored 9 of his points in that half to lead the team. Parker hit 4-7 from the field. He really carried the load when no one else could. It was a very game effort from JaQuon. It's one of the reasons that people love him. He plays the game hard. 

JaQuon will probably look back at this one and wonder what if. What if he hit his free throws? He was 3-9 from the stripe. He's at 55% from the line this season. It's a huge flaw of his. Especially considering he gets to the line 4 times a game on average. He could be averaging 14 points a game this year if he was hitting them consistently. 

I love Titus Rubles, but he's gotta start producing more offensively. He didn't score. He hasn't made a field goal the last 2 games. He hasn't made more than 1 field goal since the Syracuse game. He is way too damn talented to not be scoring. He needs to step it up. There is no scoring punch off the bench with him not shooting. The bench is weak already. It's much weaker when someone with a ton of skill isn't producing. 

Shaq Thomas stepped up in a massive way Wednesday. He played the 4 when Mbodj came out with Jackson at the 5. That should definitely be a lineup that Mick starts rolling out there more. Thomas had 6 points on 3-5. He had a block and a steal. The steal came after PC rebounded a missed free throw. That turned into one of his baskets.

Most importantly, Thomas wanted the ball late. He was guarded by Goldsbrough, took him to the basket and had a layup attempt. He missed unfortunately. Thomas seemed to be the only guy who wanted the ball. He knew he had a matchup. He tried to make a play. I hope he starts getting more run. 

Ge'Lawn Guyn and Jermaine Sanders didn't do anything. 

Kelvin Gaines had 3 rebounds, a block and a steal in his 8 minutes. He missed a layup. If only he had any kind of offense. 

David Nyarsuk scored a basket. He is barely playing and has clearly fallen out of favor. 

This was the first conference game UC lost when attempting 20 free throws. Only making 11 hurts. 

Kadeem Batts dominated the UC line. He had 25 on 10-17 with 9 rebounds. He was just 5-12 at the foul line. He could have had a much bigger game if he could have made them. 

UC played great defense on Bryce Cotton. Cotton had 11 points, all in the second half, on 2-10 shooting. Cotton making his 2 three pointers helped PC make their big second half run. 

Providence should have blown UC out. They had a couple of wide open 3s that they missed up 12. They missed multiple layups and free throws when UC edged their way back in. Saying they are awful was an overstatement on my part. They are a solid team. They have no depth and they run out of gas. They can't finish games. 

Lee Goldsbrough picked up at least 4 charges it seemed. Someone would drive and there would be 21 picking up a foul. It was incredibly frustrating. Goldsbrough had 6 points on 3-3 shooting and 4 offensive rebounds. He killed UC. 

At least we get to get over this one soon. Beat Pitt. 

Photos via Cincinnati.com

Cincinnati announced a new opponent for the 2015 football schedule today. It is Alabama! Rooooo.... Wait a second. There is more. It is Alabama. Alabama A&M :( The game is slated to be the season opener according to FBS Schedules. 

This is the 3rd announced non-conference game for 2015. Weren't there more than that, you might be thinking. The answer is yes. That article also states that the future series with Air Force is off. So is the future series with the Miami Hurricanes. It's weird having to call Miami the Miami Hurricanes, but that's what happens when you play a Miami every year. The Air Force game being off isn't new. It was reported in July. 

The Miami series being off is a bit more disappointing. I wouldn't read into the conference realignment stuff too much. You can feel free. I am not paying that stuff any mind until something happens. One would hope that UC would add another big name opponent for a series. 

I think the reason for this news is because UC needs future home games. In 2015, UC travels to BYU to start that series and they travel to Miami. The Miami Redhawks. Both Miami games were supposed to be road games. Playing 3 non-conference road games is not something a lot of schools do. 

So there you go. We know Cincinnati will start 2015 1-0.