Monday, March 20, 2000

Task too much minus star Martin

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BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Bob Huggins watches UC's title hopes vanish. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It was not supposed to end here. The Cincinnati Bearcats' season was not even supposed to pass through this city, and it had been preordained to storm beyond the NCAA Tournament second round.

        This is where it suddenly stopped, though, just like the three seasons before but, at the same time, not anything at all like those debacles.

        Sunday afternoon, UC fell with grace and without Kenyon Martin in a 69-61 loss to seventh-seeded Tulsa at the Gaylord Entertainment Center. The Bearcats recovered from a 16-point first-half deficit that suggested likely embarrassment, then mishandled a late five-point lead that hinted at possible survival.

        “I never even thought about losing a game the whole season,” said power forward Jermaine Tate. “Looking at the end of last year when we lost to Temple ... I knew there was nobody that could beat us. I never thought about losing the national championship.”

Kenyon Martin covers his face as times runs out in Sunday's game. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        That will be someone else's trophy now, awarded in Indianapolis in two weeks. Martin almost certainly will accept the Oscar Robertson Trophy that weekend as the college player of the year, but he will not get the chance to take his team.

        “They gave a great effort,” coach Bob Huggins said. “They didn't quit. They had every opportunity to quit. They didn't pack it in. They played. You're not always going to have things go the way you want them to go.”

        If Martin still were in the lineup, not out with a broken leg, he would have guarded Tulsa's Eric Coley. Coley led Tulsa (31-4) with 16 points and 16 rebounds, blocked four shots, picked up four steals and passed for four assists.

        Of course, if Martin still were around, UC would have been a No.1 seed and would not have met Tulsa this soon.

        Had the Bearcats (29-4) not begun this game in a stupor, they would not have been forced to expend the energy required to scramble back from the 28-12 deficit that stood with 7:10 left in the first half to the 50-45 advantage in place with 8:11 to go in the game.

DeMarr Johnson and Pete Mickeal try to stop Tulsa's Eric Coley from passing during the first half Sunday. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        Huggins employed a three-guard lineup and a trapping defense to erase most of the deficit, but the Bearcats ultimately were undone by the changes that forced upon them. They were outscored 24-11 in the final eight minutes.

        “We lost. That was the only mistake we made,” said forward Pete Mickeal, who scored 16 and got 11 rebounds for UC. “We lost the game. It's win or lose. It doesn't matter what happened in the game, it's at the end of the game whether you won or lost.”

        From the first possession, the Bearcats were attacked with a defensive ferocity they rarely had seen this season.

        “Some of us weren't on the same page,” Tate said. “They were really up. I don't think we weren't ready to play, but I just don't think we were on the same page.”

        The Bearcats' difficulty running their offense was obvious from the start, but the frustra tion that developed came far too quickly. After Tulsa's Dante Swanson stole the ball from DerMarr Johnson and fed Coley for a fastbreak dunk, Tate retrieved the ball from the net and shoved it in Coley's face. That was a technical foul. Tony Heard's two free throws gave Tulsa a 17-7 lead.

UC's Pete Mickeal and Kenny Satterfield tie up Tulsa's Brandon Kurtz. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        When it got to a 16 points in favor of the Golden Hurricane, it clearly was time for a tactical change. Out of a television timeout, Huggins presented a lineup with four perimeter players and Tate in the middle and ordered the defense to align in a 2-2-1 halfcourt trap.

        The Hurricane did not score a basket for the next 6:26, which allowed the Bearcats to close to a 31-26 deficit with five points from guard Steve Logan and four from Mickeal in a 12-1 surge. They were fortunate to trail by seven at the half, given that Johnson, Logan and Kenny Satterfield shot a combined 3-of-16 from the field.

        “At first, it took us some time to adjust,” Coley said. “The main thing is, we held on and got our rhythm back. The game was played in spurts. We counter-punched and came back.”

        Huggins had to dump the halfcourt trap because the Bearcats were too tired, but they appeared to be in excellent shape when Ryan Fletcher connected on a 3-point shot and then made two free throws for a 50-45 lead.

        Huggins took out Satterfield at that point to give him a rest. The offense reduced itself to a series of quick shots, turnovers and empty trips, and Tulsa raced toward 14 straight points in just three minutes. UC had only two timeouts left and Huggins tried to conserve them as Satterfield waited to reenter the game.

        “I had to play Satterfield and Johnson and Logan all together, where before I was able to rotate them and keep them fresh,” Huggins said. “We get up by five, and just make some bad decisions. Maybe a little of that's fatigue. We had to make some subs we we really didn't want to have to make at that particular time, but we didn't have any choice.

        “I'm really proud of our guys,” Huggins said. “I'd be lying if I didn't say ... I think all of us, to a man, would like to see what happens if Kenyon's still playing. I don't know how you can't say it wasn't a great year.”

What might have been?
No regrets: Bearcats gave what they had
Martin: 'I just felt helpless'
Expanded roles hinder freshmen
Tulsa's Coley torments Bearcats
UC NOTEBOOK
Enter this week's Hoop Madness Contest or check on your score in last week's contest
More Tournament coverage at Cincinnati.com/madness
Join the discussion in our College Sports forum

TULSA (69)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Coley           38   6-9   4-7  5-16  4  2   16
Hill            20   1-9   0-0   0-4  1  3    3
Kurtz           30   2-8   0-1   1-6  1  2    4
Harrington      15   3-6   0-1   0-0  0  4    6
Heard           34   2-7   6-6   2-3  4  4   10
Davis            5   0-1   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
Swanson         25  6-11   0-0   0-0  2  0   14
Reed             3   0-1   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
Shelton         25  4-10   4-6   3-7  0  3   14
Johnson          2   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Mcdaniel         3   1-1   0-0   1-1  0  1    2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 25-63 14-21 12-39 12 19   69
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.397, FT-.667. 3-Point Goals:
5-20, .250 (Hill 1-6, Harrington 0-2, Heard 0-4,
Swanson 2-5, Shelton 2-3). Team rebounds: 5.
Blocked shots: 5 (Coley 4, Swanson). Turnovers:
11 (Kurtz 4, Heard 2, Hill 2, Coley, Mcdaniel,
Shelton). Steals: 11 (Coley 4, Harrington 3,
Heard, Hill, Kurtz, Shelton).

CINCINNATI (61)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Fletcher        23   5-9   2-3   1-3  0  3   13
Mickeal         37  5-12   5-6  2-11  1  5   16
Little          14   1-2   0-0   1-2  0  2    2
Johnson         34   2-9   0-1   2-7  2  3    6
Satterfield     34  2-10   5-6   1-7  5  2   10
Tate            26   2-2   0-0   1-1  1  3    4
Stokes           1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Logan           30  2-10   4-4   1-3  1  0   10
Grove            1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  1    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 19-54 16-20  9-34 10 19   61
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.352, FT-.800. 3-Point Goals:
7-20, .350 (Fletcher 1-5, Mickeal 1-3, Johnson
2-6, Satterfield 1-2, Logan 2-4). Team rebounds:
5. Blocked shots: 8 (Johnson 3, Little 2, Tate 2,
Mickeal). Turnovers: 14 (Mickeal 5, Satterfield
4, Johnson 2, Fletcher, Little, Tate). Steals: 4
(Logan 3, Mickeal).
__________________________________
Tulsa              31   38  -   69
Cincinnati         24   37  -   61
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Cincinnati 1 (Tate). Officials:
Ted Valentine, Joe Demayo, Bob Sitov.

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