Wednesday, February 23, 2000

Mickeal takes the blame

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His defense questioned in Temple loss

BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Pete Mickeal couldn't stop Temple's Mark Karcher. | ZOOM |

        Pete Mickeal is willing, but not eager, to accept the blame. He was the Cincinnati Bearcats player assigned to defend forward Mark Karcher at the start of the UC-Temple game, and Mickeal knows all too well the game ended with 28 points next to Karcher's name.

        Both Sunday and Monday, coach Bob Huggins mentioned those 28 points and Mickeal's role in facilitating them as a factor in UC's first defeat since December.

        “Those 28 points weren't just me,” Mickeal said. “Not even half of them. But I take the blame for it, because that's just the way it is here. You know, people point fingers when you lose. You really figure out who's really on your side and who's not when all this happens.”

SO MISS at UC

• When: 8 p.m. today   • Where: Shoemaker Center (13,176)   • Records: UC 24-2 (11-0 Conference USA); Southern Miss 16-8 (6-6)   • TV: Channel 19   • Radio: WLW-AM (700)   BY THE NUMBERS   • 28-16: Average differential in free throws by UC opponents and the Bearcats in the team's two defeats.   • 27-15: Average differential in free throws shot by UC and its opponents in the team's 24 wins.   • 2: Games in which UC has shot fewer free throws than its opponents (Xavier, Temple).

        The No. 3 Bearcats (24-2, 11-0) play again at 8 tonight against Southern Mississippi (16-8, 6-6), which brings the Conference USA player of the week, 6-foot-5 David Wall, to the Shoemaker Center. Wall is a small forward, which means Mickeal is likely to guard him.

        “He's got to do a better job defensively,” Huggins said. “Ordinarily, he forces his guy to catch the ball higher. Ordinarily, he gets through screens. He didn't do a very good job.”

        Ordinarily, Mickeal is a dominant defender. He has put his mark this season on Gonzaga's Richie Frahm, Saint Louis' Justin Love, Oklahoma's J.R. Raymond and, most recently, DePaul's Quentin Richardson, who scored only seven points and shot 3-of-13 in a UC victory Feb.13.

        Mickeal admits to leaving his feet too quickly on some of Karcher's first-half baskets for Temple, but he thought he did an adequate job in the second half, only to see Karcher make several difficult shots. “Everybody we put on him, he hit shots,” Mickeal said. “It's just one of those deals.”

        Huggins agreed, at least to a degree. He credited freshman guard DerMarr Johnson with “maybe the best effort defensively he's given us,” even though Johnson's long arms could not prevent a couple of Karcher's long jumpers from finding their target.

        Although Huggins thought Johnson played well, he reiterated, “Other guys didn't.

        “We've got to get better. We need to stop penetrations, defend screens better. We've got to do a better job with help and support. We can't get ev erybody playing well at the same time.”

        The Bearcats had success switching screens when Temple crossed its wings along the baseline in the first half, but the coaches did not want to expose them to pick-and-roll plays by having the UC big men follow Karcher out to the wings when he ran off screens set in the high post. With the Bearcats struggling to get cleanly through those screens, Karcher was able to consistently catch the ball in a position where he had gained great confidence.

        Where UC no doubt could have been better was in aware ness of the shot clock. There were as many as four instances in which the defense squeezed Temple to the end of the shot clock but then failed to tighten up as the buzzer approached.

        When the time to shoot is expiring and the ball is in the backcourt, the defensive team must eliminate the cushion it provides to prevent drives to the goal. Had Mickeal and center Kenyon Martin closed on guard Lynn Greer on the final Temple possession of the first half, it's unlikely he would have been able to let loose the off-balance 3-pointer that cut UC's halftime lead to 34-33.

        Small details such as that don't matter as much when UC is enjoying one of its typical 20-point victories. “Our mindset the whole game was to play sound defense,” Martin said. “We stuck with that just a little too much.”

        Martin sees there is some pressure building on Mickeal. “I think he needs to let the game come to him,” Martin said. “He's so competitive that he's just going after it every play. Pete'll be fine. He's going to play hard no matter what.”

       

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