Yesterday the Cincinnati baseball team took over the internet for the reason you see above. The post game hijinks that the team pulled off were put in gifs, uploaded on the internet and were everywhere yesterday. Chris at Bearcats Nation has a good look at all the places the Bearcats ended up. I touched on this a little yesterday, but want to continue today. 

The biggest difference between college sports and pro sports are age and experience. The latter comes with the former. Kyrie Irving was better at 19 with the Cavs than he was at 18 when he was at Duke for example. College athletes are kids and young adults at the most. It can be hard to remember that sometimes. Winning and losing tends to take over the conversation. It's only when people go too far with their reactions to losing that there is a collective snap back of "Hey, they are college kids, chill."

The great thing about the gifs and the video I'll post at the bottom of this post, which has a quarter of a million views by the way how awesome is that, is that the UC players are doing the same goofy shit that we all did in college. Everyone has photo bombed their friends. When one of your friends, or anyone really, was giving a speech in front of class, I tried to make them laugh. I'm sure I was not the only one in the world who did this.

College baseball players mostly pay their own way. I think there are only 11 or 12 scholarships available. Not every school can afford to fill those. Since there are at least 9 players on the field, there are a lot of guys not on scholarship. They are at Cincinnati because they want to be at Cincinnati. Goofing around to make each other laugh is universal. I'm happy for the guys that they got to experience some national attention for their jokes. There can't be a lot of people who know who is ranked #1 in college baseball. I sure don't. But the casual fan has seen the past couple of days that the Cincinnati baseball team is an awesome group of players. That matters more than anything else. On field results are one thing to be proud about, seeing the guys wearing Cincinnati across their chest having more fun than anyone else is something we should all be proud of. Go Bearcats.

Brian Cleary was let go by UC after 17 years at the conclusion of the baseball season. UC was 24-32 this season, 6-18 in the Big East. The thing the team was most notable for were their post game interview shenanigans, which were pretty effing awesome. This one was my favorite.

The hot name for his replacement is former Georgia coach David Perno. From the linked article by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Perno says the following

“I hope it moves that way. I don’t know anything to this point, but I’m definitely very, very interested. Just doing homework on my end, that’s a great situation and they’re hungry to win.”

Coach Perno was a former Georgia player in the late 80s into the 1990 season. He helped the Bulldogs reach the College World Series. He moved into coaching after his playing career ended. He was on the staff of the 2001 Georgia World Series participant and took over the head coaching/manager spot the next season. Georgia went to Omaha three times under his watchful eye. The Bulldogs played for the National Title in 2008.

Perno is open for the UC job because he was asked to resign at Georgia on Sunday. The team was 21-32, 7-20 in the SEC. I know SEC baseball is much tougher than other leagues because of the clear weather advantages, but that is not a good record. He was nearly 30 games under .500 in SEC play as the manager. He did have a winning record in his time at Georgia.

It seems the new UC strategy is to hire former SEC coaches a few years after their greatest success. Twitter has seemed very happy with this potential hire. I guess because he was a coach at somewhere that is perceived to be good at college baseball. I don't know anything about college baseball and I'm not going to pretend now. It's the off-season. Nothing is happening. Except this coaching search. This is the hottest coaching search in America. Possibly. Why not. Let's pretend that it is and care about it a whole lot.

The season review series kicks into the final four players remaining. Today we are going to cover one of the senior leaders of the team, one of the leading scorers on the team, one of the leading rebounders on the team, JaQuon Parker. To catch up on the previous installments of the Season Review series, simply click on the players name and read away.

Titus Rubles - David Nyarsuk - Jermaine Sanders - Shaq Thomas - Justin Jackson

Ge'Lawn Guyn - Jeremiah Davis, Alex Eppensteiner, Kelvin Gaines

For the first time in his college career, JaQuon Parker played in every Cincinnati game, starting 33 of the 34 contests. Parker played a career high 30 minutes a game. He used a career high 21.1% of the Bearcat possessions. He had a career high 21.3% shot percentage. Parker made a career high 127 of 310 field goals, hitting 41%. He was a career best 40-100 from 3. That's 40% if you can't do simple math. Parker set another career standard with a career worst 54.2% outing from the free throw line, going 78-144. JaQuon posted the second highest free throw rate of his career in that effort. As a result of his improved 3 point shooting, Parker had a best 47.4% effective field goal percentage. As a result of the free throws, he had a downgrade from last year in true shooting percentage at 49%. He had a 102.7 offensive rating. Parker scored 372 points, 10.9 a game.

JaQuon was a little worse on the glass compared to last season. He averaged 4.8 rebounds a game. He pulled in 2.1 offensive boards a game, 7.6% of the available offensive rebounds. That was right on his career trajectory. Parker only pulled in 9.9% of the defensive rebounds, 7% fewer than last year, by far the lowest rate of his career. Park made up for that by passing the ball better. He had 55 assists, 1.6 a game. That was an improvement. He had 54 turnovers though. He turned the ball over on 15.4% of UC possessions, not terrible, but he wasn't as sure handed as he was as a junior. Parker managed a career high in steals with 25. He blocked 1 shot.

JaQuon Parker started his final season as a Bearcat with a solid 8 point, 6 rebound, 2 assist, 1 steal, 1 block game in the opener. He followed up with 13, 4 boards, all offensive, 2 assists and 3 steals. He played just 13 minutes against NCAA Tournament team NC A&T, but had a season high 5 assists. Park followed that with one of his better games of the season. He scored 21 points on 7-10, 5-11 from the foul line, 8 rebounds and 2 assists against Campbell. That solid game was followed by a dud against Iowa State. Parker scored 2 points on 1-7 with 3 turnovers. He responded with 16 on 6-16 in the Vegas Invitational thing win over Oregon.

The 16 point performance against Oregon kicked off one of four runs of four game double digit scoring stretches. Park had 13 and 6 against Alabama, 11 and 3 steals against UALR and 12-6-4 against UMES. Parker was 7-16 from 3 in that stretch. After an 8 point outing against Marshall stopped that streak, he started the second. JaQuon was 2-10 from the field against Xavier, but he hit 7-10 at the foul line to beat the Muskies in his final Shootout. He had 5 offensive boards against X. JaQuon matched his season high of 21 against Wright State the following game. He went 8-15 from the field and had 5 rebounds. He was the spark in that contest. Park had a rough go against New Mexico with 14 points on 5-14 shooting and 4 turnovers. He closed the streak with 13 points and 5 boards in a win over Pittsburgh.

Cincinnati lost their next two games. Parker didn't play well in either. He was 1-8 for 3 points, but 4 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals, against St John's and 2-2 for 8 points, 3 turnovers, against Notre Dame. Park got back in the groove in a pair of UC wins with 11-8 against Rutgers and 12 points, but 6 turnovers, against DePaul. Parker was one of the guys who helped give us a panic attack as DePaul made a late rally. JaQuon didn't shoot well against Marquette, 3-10, 7 points, but he had 8 rebounds, 5 offensive, and matched his season high with 5 assists. He had 11-6-4 against Syracuse in a losing effort.

JaQuon went into a 2 game shooting slump as Cincinnati pulled out a pair of ugly wins over Rutgers and Seton Hall. He was 1-6 for 7 points, 4-6 at the foul line, against Rutgers. That was followed by 1-5 for 9 points, 6-8 FTs. He had just 5 rebounds in the 2 games. JaQuon snapped out of his funk everywhere but the foul line against Providence. He had his first double double of the season with 12 points on 4-7 shooting and 10 rebounds. He was a miserable 3-9 at the foul line, which really hurt because Cincinnati lost by 4. Park was kind of a non-factor against Pitt with 7 points and 3 rebounds.

He would not be a non-factor in the next 4 games as JaQuon kicked off his 3rd stretch of four double digit scoring games. He put up 19 on 6-10, 3-3 from 3, 4-11 FTs, with 6 boards against Nova. He had 15 and 6 against Georgetown and gave UC their final lead of that game. He also didn't commit a turnover. Park carried UC against UConn with 14 points on 7-12 in the overtime loss. He was the only guy to score, but that's all he did, 1 rebound, with 12 points on 5-12 shooting against Notre Dame. The hot streak ended with an absolutely miserable game against UConn. Parker was 2-9 from the field and 1-9 from the free throw line. He had a bad turnover late in the game when UConn was making a run. He also missed a layup that set up the Huskies with a chance to win.

The final four game stretch of double digit scoring performances started with a miserable game against Louisville. Park got 12, but on 5-16 shooting. He, and every other Bearcat it seemed, turned the ball over 4 times. He played all 40 minutes of that game, the only time he would do so during the season. JaQuon had a fine 14 point, 8 rebound, 6 offensive, 3 assist performance as he went out a victor on senior day. Park hung his second double double of the season in the Big East tournament. He put 15 and 10 on PC on the back of 5-9 shooting. He had 12 points on 3-6, 4-4 FTs, against Georgetown. In the NCAA tournament, Parker got hit in the eye early in the game against Creighton. In 25 minutes, JaQuon didn't score. He had 1 rebound, 2 assists and 1 steal. He didn't play a lot of minutes at crunch time. Parker started the year with 3 field goal attempts and ended the year with 3 field goal attempts.

There were a number of things about JaQuon Parker's season that stand out. The first and biggest negative was his miserable performance in the Creighton game. The CBS analysts said during one of the games that losing your last NCAA tournament game as a senior is a bad feeling that never goes away. Every time you look back on your career, you remember that game. Unfortunately for Park, he played the worst game of the season in that one. It hurts to see a guy you loved watching go out in one of the worst ways possible.

Another thing that jumps out about JaQuon this season were his turnovers. Over 12 games from December 27 - February 12, he turned the ball over 32 times. 59% of his turnovers happened in that small portion of the season. Not good. The final 4 games of the season he turned the ball over twice. When the flood hit, it hit hard.

The third thing that jumps out is his free throw shooting. Parker was never Mark Price at the foul line, but he was never this bad. Even during the season he went 9-49, he was a 58% foul shooter. He was at 68% a year ago. He lost 14%. I think it was clear that the major problem was in his head. Mick said late in the year that he never had a team worry as much as this one did. I think Parker worried about going to the free throw line. Once he missed one, the doubt seeped in. He hit 9-12 over 2 games and 2-12 over 2 games at separate times this year.

The final thing that stands out about JaQuon Parker is how much of a joy it was watching him play. Everyone plays hard. JaQuon Parker played harder. He wasn't the most talented guy to put on a Bearcat uniform, but there were few players who would bust their ass like he did. Park would fit in on any Cincinnati team throughout history. He was tough not just on the court, but his mental makeup off of it was excellent. I honestly don't know how many players could go through the hell that Parker went through his sophomore season and end up being a huge key to a Sweet 16 team and a leader his senior season. That type of maturation is part of the reason I love college basketball. You don't get to see someone like JaQuon Parker grow as a person and a player like we did in other sports. He was out to sea and fought back. He earned his minutes. He earned everything he accomplished. When we look back in a few years on JaQuon Parker, we are going to remember him ripping the rebound from Kyle Kuric in the Big East tournament in 2010, the magnificent game against Marquette on senior day last year and the fact that he busted his ass every game. JaQuon Parker is the type of player that makes me proud to be a Cincinnati fan. 

On Tuesday I wrote a season review about Titus Rubles. In that post, I noted what everyone already know, that Rubles made just 4 three pointers this season. There could easily be a post about the 43 or 44 three point attempts that Titus attempted, but this post is about the 4 that he made. How did such a bad 3 point shooter only make four? Or you could say how could such a decent shooter, around 41% on 2 pointers, be such a terrible 3 point shooter? A lot of that is because of his shooting form. Some of that is because of his range. There is something similar that I noticed about all 4 of these makes that you can't say about all of Rubles' attempts. We'll get to that after the picture show.

All the images in this post are from WatchESPN.

November 13, 2012

Make #1

Rubles has the ball up top. He waves off JaQuon Parker, but he will move towards where Parker had the screen/post up.

Titus had some space on his man, who was expecting a drive, pulled up and drilled it.

January 5, 2013

Make #2

UC was in transition. Rubles immediately ran to the corner for the highest percentage shot. He was unguarded.

The shot went up and he was still unguarded. Easy bucket. Well, easy shot attempt.

Make #3

Rubles got the ball in the corner after an inbound play. The man was late coming out on him, leaving Rubles with another easy look from 3. This one wasn't quite the corner, but it was higher percentage than most of his attempts.

Make #4

This is a high leverage situation for Cincinnati. You can see Cashmere Wright's left hand. He pointed Rubles to the left. This was a smart move.

The St John's big man didn't pretend to close out. Rubles hit his last 3 of the season to put UC down by 1. Rubles would later attempt the game winning shot for Cincinnati. You probably know what happened there.

The thing that all 4 of these shots had in common was that Rubles put the ball up right away. When I think back to some of Titus' 3 point attempts later in the season, the second thing I think of after him missing is hesitation. He never seemed fully confident on pulling the trigger. He would pull the trigger on long 2s. He would definitely shoot a lot. The 3 point shot was clearly in his head. That's a hurdle he's going to have to overcome next season. He doesn't need to take high leverage shots like in the St John's game. He just needs to be confident putting the ball up. That being said, he should rarely put the ball up from 3 unless he is wide open. He will be wide open in November and December by design. Teams are going to give him looks. He's got to do what he rarely did last year, make them pay.

Jake Golic is the son of Mike Golic. Like his father, Jake played at Notre Dame. Unlike his father, Jake is not going to play at Notre Dame his whole college career. His father announced it on his radio show today, but Jake also tweeted the news that he is transferring to Cincinnati.

That screen cap is from the linked ESPN piece.

Jake is able to play at Cincinnati right away, as he has already graduated. Golic participated in 5 games at ND, 3 of them in 2010 and 2 of them last year. He had no stats as a member of the Fighting Irish.

Jake Golic is listed as a tight end. Will he be a tight end at Cincinnati? Will he contribute stats? Will he play more than 5 games? We don't know any of these things. Jake probably came to Cincinnati in hopes that he will be able to do all of those things and do them very well. I hope that he does because UC has a hole at tight end with Travis Kelce being on an NFL roster and all.

Best of luck to Jake Golic.

Photo via