Saturday, January 15, 2000
Lucky UC avoids injury
Strength training helps Bearcats stay healthy
BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Pete Mickeal's knees hurt. So do Jermaine Tate's. And all the Cincinnati Bearcats are short a few hours' sleep as the result of Friday's midnight tipoff against Ohio University at the Shoemaker Center.
As health problems go, these aren't much, especially for an elite college basketball program this season.
The No.1-ranked Bearcats have not had one of their regulars miss a game on account of injury, which is one very good reason they are ranked No.1. The only two games in which the Bearcats were down a man were because players — first Donald Little, then Ryan Fletcher — were sent home from road trips by Huggins.
The two other teams in the top three with the Bearcats in this week's Associated Press poll — No.2 Arizona and No.3 Stanford — have been afflicted with serious injuries.
Stanford lost senior forward Mark Madsen for eight games because of a severe hamstring pull. He's back now but struggling to regain his rhythm. He was only 3-of-12 from the floor in the past two games.
Arizona will be without small forward Richard Jefferson, who was averaging 12.2 points, for perhaps two months because of a broken foot he suffered in last Saturday's game against Stanford.
Several other top 25 teams have had to get by without significant players for extended periods: Syracuse (center Etan Thomas), Michigan State (point guard Mateen Cleaves), DePaul (forward Lance Williams) and Temple (point guard Pepe Sanchez).
UC's Mickeal has been able to play in every game despite the tendinitis in his knees and is UC's second-leading scorer. Tate has missed practices as he recovers from two knee surgeries but never missed a chance to play.
“We've been banged up a little,” coach Bob Huggins said. “Pete's play early in the season was attributable directly to his knee.
“If you look at Jermaine, people don't realize how hard it is to come off two surgeries like that.”
Huggins said UC's strength training helps avoid problems. “We lift really hard and we lift all season long, and that's had a tendency to help us,” he said. “Sometimes, I think it's just that you're very fortunate that things like that don't happen.”
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