Monday, February 14, 2000
UC so good, even Huggins is happy
BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The game was dead and buried already when Kenyon Martin tipped the pass, stole it and proceeded to dribble the length of the floor. Only DePaul's 5-foot-7 guard Rashon Burno stood between Martin and Play of the Day. It's times like this you want to look away, but can't. Talk about a 911 moment.
“I thought he would try to run in front of me,” Martin decided.
And do what? Die?
“Slap the ball away,” Martin said.
As it was, Burno stepped lightly out of Martin's way. He looked like he was opening the coach door for a princess. You blame him?
“Why would I be concerned about his safety?” Martin said. “I'm concerned about my safety.” Martin capped the play with a flying Wallenda dunk. And so it goes.
Better than very good
UC thumped DePaul Sunday, 87-64. Ho meets hum. Again.
I hate to be smug. But can somebody give the Bearcats a game? They're 11-0 in Conference USA, outscoring everyone by an average of 15. DePaul was supposed to offer a decent test, unlike the previous parade of floormats UC has beaten.
“They're very good,” coach Bob Huggins decided. “They've got the best players in the league other than our guys.”
DePaul was behind 40-26 at halftime, then really fell apart. The league's best rebounding team got out-boarded by UC by 18. The league's best offensive player (arguably), Quentin Richardson, got put into the witness protection program by UC senior Pete Mickeal.
“He was trying. But he couldn't get position on me, and he couldn't shoot over me,” Mickeal said. Mickeal wasn't being cocky. What is, is.
With about four minutes left, Richardson scored on a garbage-time putback. Mickeal, already done for the day, shook his head from the Bearcats bench, as if to say, “You wouldn't get that with me in there.”
And so it goes.
DePaul coach Pat Kennedy kept calling timeouts, hoping to stop his team from hemorrhaging all over the building. What was Kennedy supposed to say? “Try not to hurt yourselves out there.”
Seven-foot freshman center Steven Hunter came to Cincinnati on a tear, having scored 45 points in the Blue Demons' last two games. Martin mugged that confidence early, blocking Hunter's first shot into the backcourt. After that, Hunter flinched every time Martin looked at him.
“He is a freshman, you know,” Martin said.
And so it goes.
Peace in our time
Every game is evidence that this year won't be last year, or the year before that. Or any year since 1962. UC is a load. On Sunday, freshman point guard Kenny Satterfield flushed any lingering notions he won't be ready for March, scoring 23 while making 10-of-12 shots. The Bearcats so thoroughly stuffed the Demons, they didn't even exploit the matchup gift offered with 6-9 DerMarr Johnson against 6-1 Kerry Hatfield.
Never has a Bearcats season been so uneventful. Never in Huggins' 11-year term has peace broken out so thoroughly and lasted so long. He is in nearly a perpetual state of pleased, a veritable bliss. For Huggins.
“Any complaints?” someone wondered afterward.
“No,” the coach said.
Huggins is so complimentary, he's starting to sound like Dick Vitale. “We were pretty revved up to play,” he said. Of Mickeal's job on Richardson, the jolly, benevolent Huggins offered, “That was the Pete Mickeal I like. That guy came to play today.”
And so it goes. I asked Martin if he could remember a game this year when UC played poorly for 40 minutes. Even in the very good years, they've hit patches of very bad, usually for longer than 40 minutes.
“You tell me,” Martin said.
I'd rather not. I'm no bigger than Rashon Burno.
Call Paul Daugherty at 768-8454. Fair Game, a collection of his columns, is available at local bookstores.
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