For one who enjoys defense, there weren’t going to be many better places to be this season than Fifth Third Arena Thursday night.
Cincinnati and Central Florida are two of the premier defensive teams in the country already, and their American Athletic Conference matchup took on an added urgency as both teams sit near or firmly on the fence with their NCAA Tournament at-large chances. With the NCAA selection committee’s near-obsession with high-quality wins and the Bearcats and Knights both in need of help in that category, this was a matchup of two teams elbowing for position not just in their conference but in the eyes of the committee with March just around the corner.
It took a late rally, but Cincinnati held serve at home with a 60-55 win in a ferocious battle. Justin Jenifer hit a runner off the glass with 3:11 left to put the Bearcats ahead, and Tre Scott followed with a huge three-pointer that put Cincy in the driver’s seat down the stretch. UC held on and improved to 22-4, and barring a collapse the Bearcats should be safe for at least a bid to the NCAAs, though their seeding could still fluctuate wildly.
Even if one isn’t a defensive connoisseur, there’s a whole lot to be said for every possession carrying heavy meaning in a game. That’s what this one was, and it was contested with a fierceness reminiscent of Cincinnati facing its bitter rival Xavier. It was fascinating, tense, terrific-everything we love about stretch run basketball.
UCF showed quite a bit, rallying from an eight-point halftime deficit to take an eight-point lead, holding the Bearcats to a single basket in an 18-2 run to start the second half. The Knights had the answers until the final minutes, when a stretch with just two points over a span of more than six minutes proved costly.
Cincinnati won without a huge game from Jarron Cumberland (11 points, just 3 of 13 from the field). Jenifer and Keith Williams provided some offensive help with 12 points each, and the Bearcats also took advantage of 17 UCF turnovers, offsetting 18 points from Aubrey Dawkins.
The Knights appear poised to be on the bubble from now until Selection Sunday, but they have plenty of chances to change that the rest of the way. UCF still has road games at top-10 Houston plus Temple, and it also will get a second chance at Cincinnati on March 7. Meaning the two teams will get a second chance to play a March quality game and before so much as conference tournaments have started.
Side Dishes:
- Of course, when one talks defense this season, they can’t get far without Michigan coming up. The Wolverines faced what could’ve been a dangerous road game Thursday, yet they made it look almost easy in a 69-60 win at Minnesota. It took the Golden Gophers nearly 29 minutes to top the 30-point mark, and by then Michigan had built a 21-point lead. Minnesota made a run to keep it respectable at the end, but this was a Wolverines knockout led by Jordan Poole with 22 points. The Gophers, meanwhile, now must take care of business in their next two games at Rutgers and Northwestern, or what once appeared to be an almost certain NCAA bid could still slip away.
- A pair of scoring machines continued to climb the NCAA all-time record books Thursday night. Campbell’s Chris Clemons moved up to eighth in NCAA Division I history, surpassing Bradley great Hersey Hawkins’s 3,008 career points in the Fighting Camels’ 61-48 win over High Point on ESPNU. Clemons is now at 3,033 points, and next up is former St. Peter’s guard Keydren Clark in seventh at 3,058 points. Not far behind is South Dakota State’s Mike Daum, who had a massive game with 38 points and 20 rebounds and surpassed the legendary Oscar Robertson of Cincinnati in the Jackrabbits’ come-from-behind 92-83 win over Purdue Fort Wayne. Daum is now at 2,981 points and with 19 more will become the 10th in D-I history to top 3,000 for a career.
- What a comeback win for San Francisco. The Dons rallied from 14 down with less than eight minutes left on the road to stun BYU 77-71, with Frankie Ferrari scoring a career-best 23 points. Wow. USF has struggled on the road this season so this one is huge, and it also gives them a valuable season sweep of the Cougars. BYU was on a roll; the importance of this one can’t be emphasized enough.
- The Ohio Valley Conference race continues to be outstanding. Co-leaders Belmont and Murray State both won, including the Bruins blowing out Eastern Illinois 99-58 for Rick Byrd’s 800th career victory. Belmont has won 10 straight, while Murray State kept pace with a hard-fought 85-76 win over Tennessee-Martin with Ja Morant scoring a ho-hum 30 points with nine assists. Lurking just a game back is Austin Peay, which disposed of SE Missouri 83-70 with Jabari McGhee posting a huge 18-point, 19-rebound double-double, and Jacksonville State is still just one game out of first too after nipping Morehead State 65-64.
- Northern Kentucky and Wright State continue to be in a drag race in the Horizon. NKU held off improved Youngstown State 76-69, while the Raiders drilled Cleveland State 87-61. These two are tied for the top spot at 11-4.
- Does UMBC have Vermont’s number? The Retrievers certainly have become a headache for the Catamounts, and their 65-56 win at home Thursday was their third straight over UVM dating back to their America East tourney final stunner last March. After a slow start to the season that was hardly surprising given how many key players had to be replaced from last year’s NCAA tourney Round of 3 team, Ryan Odom’s squad has gotten it together and won nine of 10 and now trails Vermont by just a game in the standings. At least the Catamounts are still in first in the conference after Stony Brook missed a chance to get within half a game of first, falling at home to Albany 74-70.
- UC Irvine continues to lead the Big West. The Anteaters threw another defensive gem Thursday and improved to 23-5 overall with a 74-47 blowout of Cal Poly. UCI does play its next three regular season games on the road, but if this team gets to 27-5 at the end of the regular season and isn’t even close to the bubble…as we’ve said before, something is wrong with the selection process. This is a very good team, certainly better than a number of teams with losing records that somehow rank ahead of it in power ratings.
- The Sun Belt is tied again after Louisiana-Monroe knocked off Texas State 63-60 and Georgia State moved back into a tie for first by outlasting Appalachian State 80-75. Along with Georgia Southern just a game back after a 79-74 win at Coastal Carolina, this is setting up as a nice three (or more)-team race.
- St. Francis (Pa.) defeated St. Francis (N.Y.) 81-71 in what is always one of our favorite matchups of the season. The Red Flash have recovered from a slow start to win eight straight and now leads the Northeast Conference by two games.
- The day had one matinee as Loyola (Md.) edged Navy 79-70 in a game postponed one day due to wintry weather in the East. All five Greyhound starters scored in double figures, and Loyola now is tied with Navy in the Patriot League standings.
- Of course, a very sad news item came out early Thursday morning that Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was involved in a fatal car accident late Wednesday night while driving home after his team’s win over Louisville. Boeheim was given a field sobriety test that came back negative, and reports yesterday were that he was not expected to be charged in the incident. Little more needs to be said about what is obviously a very sad situation and accident for all involved.
- Kennesaw State announced on Thursday that Al Skinner will stepping down as head coach at the end of this season. The Owls have had a rough year with a 5-23 record and a 2-11 mark in the Atlantic Sun, and Skinner has a career mark of 40-81 in four seasons at the school, which is actually a considerable improvement over KSU’s previous four seasons mark. Skinner previously had successful runs at Rhode Island and Boston College and has more than 400 wins in his career.
- Finally, just this morning the latest edition of Talking Hoops with Ted Sarandis podcast was posted here on Hoopville, with Hoopville czar Phil Kasiecki hosting. You can listen to it right here.
Tonight’s Menu:
- The night opens in the Mid-American Conference, where Bowling Green just continues to stay on the heels of Buffalo in the MAC East. Take a look at (or at least DVR) the Falcons when they go to face Ohio (6:30 p.m. Eastern, CBSSN). This may be the best BG team since its coach was…Dan Dakich. Or perhaps Jim Larranaga.
- We’re not sure many understand just how arduous Buffalo’s trek through the MAC has been. We’re bullish on the strength of this league, and that the Bulls have gotten through it with just two losses so far says more than many might know. Buffalo is home for another toughie tonight against a solid Kent State team (7 p.m., ESPN2), one that has been missing point guard and second-leading scorer Jalen Avery the past three games yet still is also on the doorstep (19-7 overall) of a 20-win season.
- It’s another big night in the Ivy League. Yale (7-1), Harvard (6-2), Cornell and Princeton (5-3) currently are at least two up on the rest of the field, so it’s time for those in the second division to make a move if they’re going to. Among those still with hopes, Dartmouth is at Yale (7 p.m., ESPNews-look at the Big Green getting on national TV), Brown gets second-place Harvard at home and Pennsylvania hosts Columbia. Also, Cornell is at Princeton in a showdown for third place.
- Six teams-SIX-are separated by half a game atop the MAAC. Absolutely nuts. Two of them meet with Canisius-the sole leader at 9-5 right now, with five right behind the Golden Griffins at 9-6-at Monmouth, one of those many 9-6 squads (7 p.m., ESPNU). Friday night includes the conference’s best rivalry with Iona at Manhattan.
- Elsewhere, there’s one Big Ten game with Indiana at Iowa (9 p.m., FS1), and given the Hoosiers’ prolonged slide it’s hard to imagine the Hawkeyes losing this at home. The teams did meet just over two weeks earlier and IU gave Iowa some trouble, winning almost everything except the final score.
- Davidson plays at Rhode Island (9 p.m., ESPNU), where one of the nation’s more prolific three-point shooting teams (the Wildcats make 9.3 per game) meets NCAA Division I’s very worst. URI is easily No. 351 in the country at 25.2% from long range, and its 4.7 triples/game rate third from worst nationally.
- Wisconsin-Green Bay goes to Illinois-Chicago in the Horizon League (9 p.m., ESPNU), with these two tied for third in the league coming in.
Have a great Friday and weekend.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
