Thursday, February 17, 2000
UC: Polls, streaks no pressure
'Cats are able to maintain their focus
BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HOUSTON — With the exception of a losing streak, the Cincinnati Bearcats are riding just about every sort of streak a college basketball team can imagine:
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ONE FOR THE THUMB
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The Bearcats can clinch their fifth consecutive Conference-USA regular-season championship with a victory over Houston tonight. UC clinched a share of the title Wednesday when St. Louis lost to Southern Miss.
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UC at HOUSTON
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• When: 9 p.m. today
• Where: Hofheinz Pavilion
• Records: UC 23-1 (11-0 in Conference USA); Houston 8-15 (2-8)
• TV: ESPN
• Radio: WLW-AM (700)
BY THE NUMBERS
• 60-3: Home record of previous UC opponents before Bearcats arrived.
• 4-4: Houston's home record
• 7-19: Clyde Drexler's two-year coaching record in C-USA.
• .003: Difference between UC's field-goal defense and the school record set in the 1961-62 season.
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• They have won 15 consecutive games, the longest winning streak in Division I.
• They have won 15 consecutive Conference USA regular-season games, the longest such streak in the league's five-year history.
• They were No.1 in this week's Associated Press poll, their sixth straight week atop the rankings.
• On the road, they've won seven in a row since their only loss of the season, Dec. 18 at Xavier.
• They've even won two games in a row at Hofheinz Pavilion, dating to the 1974-75 season, where they will attempt to extend all these streaks in a C-USA game against Houston (8-15, 2-8) tonight at 9.
To the Bearcats (23-1, 11-0 C-USA), this doesn't add up to much. “We don't even think about it,” said power forward Jermaine Tate. “We just go out and try to win the next game. We can't look at what we've done in the past. We have to look at what's ahead of us.”
One of the traits that has enabled this UC team to win so often for so long is that it seems unaffected by streaks or rankings, or the pressure that can build from either of those factors.
Their goals being set higher than what can be ascribed by voters in a poll, they have been able to concentrate on winning each game.
“We don't feel that pressure people put on us,” said forward Pete Mickeal. “I think sometimes you watch TV, ESPN, and they say, "Cincinnati is going to have a tough time against DePaul.' So it's like a big hype. It's all a mental game with us. We know what we've got to do, so we're going to do it.”
There is no big hype for UC and Houston. The Cougars are as wed to the bottom of the C-USA standings as UC is top the top. They ought not to pose a challenge, although their lineup does present an interesting proposition for coach Bob Huggins.
Generally, Mickeal is assigned to defend the opposing team's leading wing scorer. In this case, that is 6-foot-2 guard Gee Gervin, who averages 19.3 points and leads the conference in scoring. However, Cougars' freshman George Williams, who stands 6-8, is a natural small forward, and his bulk may make him a difficult matchup for UC freshman guard DerMarr Johnson.
The one real problem this game presents is that it's in the way of Sunday's game against Temple, which poses the most obvious threat to all of the Bearcats' streaks, including the 42-game home-court winning streak that is the nation's second-longest.
“We're real focused right now, especially with Huggs giving us challenges every week,” Mickeal said. “Like he challenged us to rebound the ball against DePaul. In this game, he'll challenge us to rebound the ball. And Sunday, he's going to challenge us to do everything. And we're looking forward to that.
“When your head coach is still giving you challenges at this time of year, that really helps. He's still as motivated as he was in the preseason, the first week of practice. He doesn't let you get down on yourself.”
When Kentucky won the NCAA championship in 1996, it entered the tournament follow ing only its second loss of the season, in the Southeastern Conference title game against Mississippi State. Rick Pitino said then he believed that defeat was essential to the title drive, that it convinced his players how hard they needed to prepare and play in order to achieve all that was possible.
There are those who wonder if UC would be better off, as well, to get one last defeat out of its system before entering the NCAAs. Tate admits he's thought about it. Mickeal, too. But neither can come up with a good reason why they'd need to lose.
Duke carried a 32-game winning streak into last season's NCAA title game, but did the Blue Devils lose to Connecticut because of that burden, or because of the defense played by forward Kevin Freeman, the leadership of guard Ricky Moore and the clutch scoring of Richard Hamilton and Khalid El-Amin?
Huggins' approach to daily practices has kept the Bearcats from feeling that they've arrived, which is one key to their continued success.
“When we win, sometimes it feels like we lost,” Tate said. “He tells us when we did something wrong after a game; we're not rebounding, not defending like we're supposed to. And then we come back in the next day for practice, and it feels like we lost.”
Mickeal, who has experienced only eight defeats in two seasons of college basketball, does not need another loss to remember what it feels like.
“I think sometimes you do need to be refocused,” he said, “but that Xavier loss is still fresh in my mind.”
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