Monday, March 20, 2000

No regrets: Bearcats gave what they had

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BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Bob Huggins shows his frustration. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        NASHVILLE, Tenn. — No regrets, Bob Huggins said. You do what you can. You try until the clock stops. And you walk away.

        That was the lesson. That, and this: Life isn't always fair. Mostly, it's not. Enjoy it when it is.

        Tulsa beat Cincinnati Sunday, 69-61. The Golden Hurricane knocked down the Bearcats twice, once to begin the game and once to end it; UC got up the first time. Yet even Huggins took solace in the notion his team never stayed on its knees.

        “I don't know how you can look back on it,” he said, “and not feel good about it.”

        They had come back from 16 down, hadn't they? Tulsa started the game on a 28-12 run that had some of us asking: What NBA team do these people play for?

        The Bearcats looked like they'd brought Popsicle sticks to a knife fight. At 17-7, Tulsa's Tony Heard whipped past Kenny Satterfield and into the lane so quickly, Satterfield had to grab Heard's shirt to slow his progress. “We want to push it down their throats,” Heard had said Saturday. He walked grinning to the free throw line and made two.

        When Cincinnatian David Shelton nailed an open 3-pointer, it was 28-12 with 7:06 left in the first half, and what you thought then was: No team deserves to go out like this.

        UC rallied, thanks to a half-court trap and a will the Bearcats had acquired since the conference tournament. With 8:10 left, they were up 55-50. Then they forced it. Ryan Fletcher and Steve Logan missed consecutive 3s the Hurricane turned into baskets.

Off to a bad start
        “Once we took the lead, we were anxious to bury them,” Fletcher said. “We went away from what got us there, which was to be patient.”

        Tulsa went on a 14-0 run, in less than four minutes. A season that looked unstoppable two weeks ago ended in an exhausted heap. No regrets, though.

        “None on my part,” Pete Mickeal said. “Not at all. We gave it what we had.”

        They needed some things Sunday that they didn't get. DerMarr Johnson had to have a big game; he missed his first seven shots. The Bearcats had to establish a flow on offense right away; for 12 minutes, they needed a map to the basket.

        They needed to match Tulsa's quickness. On their way to 28-12, the Hurricane ran a one-team track meet. It was shocking. “That wasn't them,” Mickeal insisted, though a blur would have looked like slow-motion compared to Tulsa forward Eric Coley. “It was us not playing.”

        The Bearcats took that punch, maybe because in the last 10 days, punch-taking had become a habit. Then they played. Johnson hit consecutive 3s. Jermaine Tate dunked after a film-at-11 pass from Johnson. Fletcher canned a 3 and made two free throws. It was 50-45, UC. The world began tilting toward the improbable.

        Tulsa answered, though. The good teams do. The Hurricane outscored UC 14-0 to go up 59-50. “That was the game,” Tulsa coach Bill Self said.

        No regrets, though.

40 minutes of effort
        “In four years, I grew from a boy to man,” Kenyon Martin said. He stood in the hall outside the silent dressing room, broken right leg stretched before him. Martin was the symbol of UC regret. If that's how you chose to see it. Martin didn't.

        “I'm close to graduating. Hopefully, I'm going to make me some money playing this game.” And what of Sunday? “They played their hearts out,” Martin said.

        No regrets. UC's sweat ethic came up big. The Bearcats did what they could. They tried until the clock stopped. And then they walked away.

        Losses aren't always unbearable, even those that steal your dream season just as the dream is in clear view. It wasn't a great season for the Bearcats. But given the circumstances, it was as great as could be. What else is there to ask?

        Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454.

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