Monday, November 29, 1999
BEARCATS NOTEBOOK
Taflinger scores points - and lecture from Huggins
Cincinnati Bearcats guard Chris Taflinger, a walk-on from Lima, scored the first points of his career when he connected on a foul-line jumper in the closing minutes of UC's semifinal Big Island Invitational win over Santa Clara.
“It felt pretty good,” he said, “but the defensive mistakes and the turnovers take that away pretty fast.”
When Santa Clara came downcourt for its next possession, Taflinger got hold of a loose ball and tried to dribble upcourt on a fast break, but he lost the ball between two Broncos defenders.
While Santa Clara shot free throws, Taflinger was called downcourt for a lecture from coach Bob Huggins.
“He just gave me a rundown of how many times I touched the ball and how many times I turned it over,” Taflinger said.
Taflinger entered each of UC's first three games because they were comfortable victories, a trend he hopes continues. Last season's walk-on, Alex Meacham, played 12 times in 33 games. Taflinger must get used to having so much time between his warm-up period and when he enters the game.
“It's kind of hard sitting there for 38 minutes or something and you're not really loose,” Taflinger said. “You've got to get ready the best you can.”
Balance and rotate
Through three games, UC made full use of its offensive options.
The Bearcats had a total of 14 double-figure scorers in those games and had five players averaging 10 points or more.
Of the players on UC's roster, only three were shooting below .500 from the field: DerMarr Johnson (.467), Jermaine Tate (.375) and Donald Little (.000), who had missed three shots.
On an island
The Big Island Invitational has not been the launching pad to greatness that some of the other early-season tournaments have been.
The one Final Four team to emerge in the previous seven years of this tournament was Stanford's 1997-98 team.
Louisville, which played here in 1996-97, reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Connecticut earned a No.1 NCAA seed in 1993-94, but lost in the Sweet 16. Purdue won the Big Ten title in 1994-95, but lost in the NCAA second round.
Tourney triumphs
You know all about UC's difficulty getting past the second round of the NCAAs, but in-season tournaments have been kinder to the Bearcats.
In the Big Island title game, they were shooting for their third in-season tournament championship in their last four attempts. They won the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic in 1996 and the Great Alaska Shootout in 1998.
Cyclone sighting
Sunday's game against Iowa State was the third in the past four years for the Bearcats. They faced the Cyclones in the second round of the 1997 NCAA Tournament and the second round of the 1998 Great Alaska Shootout and split those two meetings.
Those were the only previous games between the two schools.
Arkansas finishes 3rd
Sophomore guard Jason Gilbert scored all but two of his career-high 17 points on 3-pointers and Arkansas beat Santa Clara 79-60 Sunday in the third-place game of the Big Island Invitational.
Gilbert's other two points came on free throws when he was fouled attempting a 3, something the Razorbacks (3-1) did 29 times, making 14 (48 percent).
Arkansas' trademark pressure defense hurried the Broncos (2-2) into 25 turnovers and 39 percent shooting (20-for-51). The Razorbacks took control in the second half with a 12-0 run that gave them a 59-43 lead with 11:04 to play. Their biggest lead was 73-50 with 5:15 to play on a layup by Brandon Dean.
The 5-foot-11 Gilbert had two points in the opening-round win over Mercer and didn't score in a one-minute appearance in the semifinal loss to Arkansas.
He more than made up for that against Santa Clara, hitting his first 3 less than four minutes into the game and he had three 3s by halftime as the Razorbacks took a 34-30 lead.
Gilbert, who made five of 13 3-point attempts, had a total of 11 points in Arkansas' first three games this season. He averaged 2.8 points as a freshman last season, going 20-for-62 from 3-point range.
T.J. Cleveland was 3-for-3 from long range for Arkansas and had 13 points, while Alonzo Lane, Chris Walker, Brandon Davis and Charles Tatum each added 10 points.
Nathan Fast had 17 points and Todd Wusching added 10 for the Broncos, who outrebounded Arkansas 41-26 but could never get going offensively as the Razorbacks forced the quicker pace.
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