Saturday, January 01, 2000
Fletcher returns to UC practice
Senior likely to play Sunday against UNLV
BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
UC Bearcats senior forward Ryan Fletcher returned to practice with the team Friday afternoon, one day after being sent home to Cincinnati and missing the team's victory at Boise State.
Fletcher, who averages 8.3 points and 4.1 rebounds and is UC's top big man reserve, was ejected from Wednesday's pregame practice by coach Bob Huggins. Thursday morning, he was placed on a plane for home. He is expected to play in Sunday afternoon's game against UNLV at the Shoemaker Center.
“There's still two days to go,” Huggins said.
Fletcher termed the problem that developed between himself and Huggins “just some miscommunication.” This was the first game Fletcher had missed in the past two seasons. He had scored at least five points in every UC game but one but did not please his coaches with a zero-rebound effort against Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Monday's win at the Shoemaker Center.
“We're both mature about it, understand things like that happen when you're competitive and the intensity level is high,” Fletcher said.
Huggins declined to talk about Fletcher following the game in Boise, but he alluded to the problems that had developed when talking about the improved play of senior forward Jermaine Tate in recent games. Tate averaged 6.3 points and 5.0 rebounds and played sturdy interior defense in the three games since UC lost at Xavier.
“Jermaine stopped mak ing excuses and started doing what he had to do,” Huggins said. “That's the difference. It's not a secret that the guys who put the time in, the guys that work at it, the guys who are going to allow you to coach them are going to get tremendously better.”
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