NEW YORK – Cincinnati tried to play smaller and faster, which Mick Cronin felt was the way to go for this team. It worked like a charm on Wednesday, but Cronin knew it would be a tall order against Georgetown on Thursday. He was right, and while he seems to have found a way to play that works, the Bearcats will have to wait to go with it again after falling 62-43 in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.
Cincinnati got off to a nice start on the season in winning their first 12 games. Since losing a tough one to New Mexico at home, they haven’t put together a winning streak longer than three in a row, although they started Big East play with a win at Pittsburgh. In February they lost five of six at one point after winning five of six. They should be in the NCAA Tournament, as they have the wins without any bad losses.
The Bearcats might make a run in the NCAA Tournament like last year. But they could also go out right away, especially if they get matched up on a good defensive team. The Bearcats defend well, but offense doesn’t come easily to this team. While Georgetown is a terrific defensive team, Cincinnati scored ten points in the last 16 minutes of the game. That’s not a recipe for victory unless you play better than lock-down defense of your own.
In many ways, the Bearcats in the first half looked a lot like Providence did against them a day earlier. Georgetown switched up defenses and let Cincinnati get nothing going until late in the half, after building up a 16-point lead.
Georgetown was able to control the pace, which was going to be a big key to the game. Cronin talked on Wednesday about how a slow-paced slugfest is not the best for this team, and it was on display for much of Wednesday. They turned the ball over 15 times and had just 38 shot attempts, which Cronin said was not enough. Making only 14 of those shots added to it.
“That’s just a style of play where you get used to playing against them,” said Cronin. “Possessions get magnified just because there’s fewer possessions when you play them in a game.”
Save for a stretch in the latter part of the first half, Cincinnati was ice cold most of the game. They shot under 37 percent, but take away the three-minute stretch where they cut the deficit from 16 down to seven late in the first half and that number drops, especially from long range where they were 5-10 in the first half and 6-17 for the game.
The Bearcats shoot 40 percent from the field and under 32 percent on three-pointers. They don’t have a great inside scoring threat. Their defense has been there all season, though it wasn’t great against Georgetown. The real barometer for this team is how they play offensively, so they can do well if they face a team that is better offensively than defensively.
Cronin said the team came to New York to win, but getting additional days off before the NCAA Tournament might not be so bad. Even so, they would rather still be playing.
“Obviously, the best teams will win, whoever plays the best,” said Cronin. “But we came here to win. It’s not like I say, well, we’re in the NCAA Tournament, we don’t care. We wanted to win the Big East Championship.”
Cincinnati is better equipped to play faster and speed teams up. Cronin felt that way and will surely continue to play that style, and the two days in New York proved it. They won when they were able to keep the tempo in favor of it and lost when they couldn’t.
