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Bearcats News

Reaching out

I really feel for student athletes who actively reach out and try to get colleges to notice them. Ben Josipovic is one of those kids and not only is he putting up numbers at the high school level, he’s also quite the smart kid. An intelligent player who shows how much he wants to be on your team by reaching out to your coaching staff in the recruitment period will work harder and spend more time watching film than other players. That’s what Josipovic would give the Bearcats.

Talented Big Man Chris Obekpa To Officially Visit Cincinnati

The Bearcats have been pretty silent on the recruiting front this season but landing Chris Obekpa would certainly continue to up the talent level at UC. By most sources he’s basically Cincinnati and UConn’s recruit to lose. Mick would probably have Obekpa step in right away when Yancy Gates graduates but the Huskies are the Huskies. UC needs to make a statement this Thursday in front of a blacked out, sold out 5/3rd Arena when Chris takes his official visit.

More Recruiting

RB intrigued by UC offense

As he should be. The Bearcats have been come a balanced team and run the ball much more under Coach Jones.

Other UC Stuff

10 Players With the Most To Gain – Pead makes this list, even though his performance at the Senior Bowl is incorrect.

“The Inseparables” Look To Lead Bearcats Back To Tourney – Dixon, Gates’ play will be critical down the stretch.

Cincinnati Bearcats Football: 20 Best Defensive Players in School History

UC Continues To Roll, Wins Fourth-Straight, 60-46 – Lady Bearcats are stringing together some wins!

Cheer Team Day Brings Hundreds of Youth Cheerleaders to Campus

BEast News

Temple in Talks to Join Big East in All Sports

Pitt AD says school won’t pay Big East more than $5 million – 13 Big East teams for 2012. That’s okay.

Nati News

Benson: No talks with Bengals – Yes, because Mike Brown is still hybernating.

Around the Nation

BCS plus-one format gains momentum – Great news!

Fight with Cincy only the start of Xavier’s problems this season

Savannah St visit rounds out FSU’s 2012 schedule

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Brett McMurphy at CBS Sports is on the forefront of all things Big East related. By and large if he reports something odds are they true or will come to fruition in the near future. Now he is stating that Temple is a but a couple signatures on the dotted line away from rejoining the Big East in all sports. According to a source close to McMurphy the announcement could come as early as next week. Temple was once a full member of the Big East before being booted by the conference after the 2004 season. At the time, the Owls’ football program was in a state of disrepair and according to the Big East wasn’t worthy of membership in an AQ conference any longer. Since that wake up call, Temple has gotten serious about their athletics and made all the right moves to climb out of the gutter. The hiring of head football coach Al Golden was a catalyst to regaining respectability. They joined the MAC and while never winning a conference championship were consistently one of the best rushing teams in the country with a defense that was none too shabby, either. Obviously Al Golden had turned the program around.

Now with conference realignment in full swing, Temple has become a prime expansion candidate. At first, Temple was eyeing an invitation in the hybrid Moutain West-Conference USA that is expected to form beginning in the 2013 season. TCU, Boise State, and San Diego State’s departure from the Mountain West as well as Houston, SMU, and UCF’s departure from C-USA left both conferences scrambling for options. A merger seemed like the right move, which it is, and Temple wanted to get in on the action. But, with the Big East in hopes of adding to it’s media market inventory, Temple’s location in Philadelphia seemed ideal despite Villanova having a presence there. In all likelihood, if the Big East extends an invite especially to join in 2012, Temple will jump all over it and become the conference’s 13th team when all of the invitees join in the coming years.

Looking at it on a local level, this is great news for Cincinnati! The Owls will likely slide into the spot on the schedule vacated by the West Virginia Mountaineers when they up and left for the Big 12. Temple will be UC’s third away game of the 2012 season in addition to Louisville and UConn. It’s unclear exactly when the Bearcats would travel to Philly but just the fact that the Big East was able to replace WVU is a good thing. So as it stands right now Cincinnati’s Big East scheduled has been restored with seven conference games. The only downside to this move is that the Big East will now be heavy in the East with UConn, Rutgers, South Florida, Central Florida, Navy and now Temple in the conference. Theoretically, this would move UC into the West Division with Louisville, Memphis, San Diego State, Houston, SMU, and Boise State. It’s not a certainty but there is a high possibility of Cincinnati making the most travel of any Big East team outside of the Aztecs and Broncos. Overall, road trips to the East coast are much more doable than trips out West.

Finally, even though Temple will round out the Big East schedule, UC is still looking for a 12th school and there are two options open to the Bearcats:

1. Add some non-Big East opponent, preferably not another FCS school since Delaware State is already on the schedule.

2. Wait and see if the Big East gets Boise State, Memphis, etc. to join as the conference’s 9th school a year earlier than planned. This news about Temple makes me think that this option is out the window but John Marinatto just might able to pull a rabbit out of his hat.

Whoever the 12th team may be, adding Temple is the right move for the Big East and the Owls should be welcomed with open arms by Bearcat fans. Look for my history on UC-Temple in the coming weeks.

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Boy I wish Cincinnati played Louisville a month ago. Injuries wreaked havoc on the Cardinals’ roster early in the season but UL managed to get through their non-conference schedule unscathed. But the season looked like it was starting to fall apart when Louisville entered Big East play. The Cardinals dropped 4 of their first 6 conference games including an embarrassing 41-point loss to the Providence Friars on January 10th. Yikes!

Unfortunately the Bearcats are catching the Cardinals at exactly the wrong time. There is no team in the Big East playing better basketball right now, other than maybe Notre Dame and Syracuse, that Louisville who have won 7 of their last 8 games. Their lone hiccup in that stretch? A 52 – 51 loss to the Syracuse Orange. The good news for Cincinnati is that they will be hosting this game and 5/3rd will surely be rocking under blackout conditions on national television. It will certainly be a hostile environment the Cardinals will find themselves in on Thursday night.

Key Numbers

You can tell Mick Cronin comes from the Rick Pitino coaching tree because both coaches value depth and spreading the wealth offensively. Louisville has six players that average more than 8 points per game and with Wayne Blackshear working his way back into the lineup he is approaching that mark. This depth is further reflected in how Pitino has spread out the minutes he gives his players; 10 players averaging 11 or more minutes played per game. Some of the playing time is due to the injuries Louisville sustained early in the season but it’s clear the Cardinals have depth and Pitino will use that to keep his starters rested. This allows UL to have an extra jump in their step especially in the paint. Louisville is one of the best rebounding teams in the Big East at over 39 per game. Even more so, they are equally good at guarding the boards on offense (5th in the Big East) as well as defense (2nd in the Big East). Typically teams are really good at one but not so much the other. The Cardinals are very good at both and it’s one of the reasons why they’ve won 21 games this season.

Players to Watch

- Peyton Siva (#3) vs. Cashmere Wright: It’s point guard vs. point guard as these two juniors hook up once again. They know each other very well but Cash it seems has gotten the better of Siva statistically over the past few years. Both run their respective offenses and are built very similarly but Siva is much more turnover-prone than his counterpart. His 1.7 assist/turnover ratio (253rd nationally) is horrible for a starting point guard and he gets into foul trouble quite frequently (over 3 per game). On the flip side, Cash’s assist/turnover ratio is a solid 2.0 and he very rarely gets into foul trouble (2 per game). Hopefully this trend continues Thursday night.

- Chane Behanan (#24): He is Louisville’s version of Justin Jackson except much more polished and a more talented scorer. UC fans who follow basketball recruiting should know him well as he spurned Cincinnati in favor of signing with the Cardinals. Unfortunately the Bearcats will have to face this sparkplug in the coming years. While he has short arms for a forward, he’s extremely quick and goes after the ball with aggression. Essentially he makes up for his size with pure effort and is one of the reasons why he is second on the team in rebounds.

- Kyle Kuric (#14)/Chris Smith (#5): As a team the Cardinals don’t shoot the 3-ball that well. But these two absolutely light it up from beyond the arc. Kuric shoots 36% from three point land and Smith is even better at 41%. Look for Rick Pitino to try his darnedest to get these guys open looks. Cincinnati has a tendency to slowly recover from high-screens which leaves shooters with precious seconds to hit wide open threes. This can’t happen tomorrow night.

Final Thoughts and Prediction

Mick Cronin will be facing another one of his mentors Thursday night in Rick Pitino. For whatever reason, maybe that was it, the Bearcats always seem to play their best ball against the Louisville Cardinals. Cincinnati is currently riding a two-game winning streak in this series and will have the advantage of a blacked out 5/3rd Arena backing them. UL is playing its best basketball right now but there are a lot of factors in this game that are working in UC’s favor. This is going to be a toughy but I can see the Bearcats pulling this one out.

Cincinnati: 70

Louisville: 67

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Dixon Tabbed to BIG EAST Conference Weekly Honor Roll

He’s definitely the frontrunner for this week’s BOTW award. Dixon certainly led the way Saturday night with 20 points and 6 boards. But he’s been incredible from the free throw line this season having the best percentage from the stripe (72%) other than Sean Kilpatrick. Dixon dropped 8 of his 10 free throws on Saturday to finish off the Pirates and he proved once again that he is the most reliable Bearcat when UC is trying to maintain a lead late in games.

Xavier-Cincinnati Crosstown Shootout May Be A Burden, But It’s Also A Necessity

I mentioned yesterday that despite the circumstances surrounding the most recent Crosstown Shootout, the game cannot be cancelled at it seams like administrators at both schools tend to agree with that. Essentially, there needs to be better crowd control and officials to make sure everyone in the arena don’t lose their heads. It’s always an intense game and that is one of the reasons why it shouldn’t be cancelled.

Recruiting

Bearcats add another Bruns

UC cornerback commit Drake Bruns’ brother will be joining Cincinnati as a preferred walk-on. He will play linebacker.

Other UC Stuff

Ramsland named To BIG EAST Honor Roll – Not to be outdone by Dion…

Whit Babcock Feature – Tommy G got some time with Whit Babcock. Good stuff.

Elliott leading Bearcats resurgence - This young team is looking better and better as the season goes on.

UC Looks To Extend Winning Streak Against Marquette

The Art Long Challenge - Scott has been pushing this hard this season. It has to happen for Thursday.

Big East position rankings: DL – Well lookie who took the #1 spot!

BEast News

South Florida: The truth and lies of the Bulls – Are they as dangerous as their record makes them seem?

TexanMark’s Tailgates Guides: Memphis – For those of you who haven’t been to Memphis for a game before.

2012 Big East Tournament Bracket Update

Nati News

Bengals’ Simpson in court – He’s an NFL player. He’ll get off easy.

Around the Nation

Mardi Gras float mocks LSU’s national championships flop

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University of Cincinnati Athletic Director Whit Babcock appears to have an endless stream of ideas flowing into the marketing department. Most recently, this department released its newest fan guide for students and general attendees alike to be the best fans that they can possibly be on Thursday night when UC hosts arch rival Louisville. Yes it’s exactly as dorky as it sounds. Take a look (click the image for a closer view):

Like the fan guide for the whiteout against Syracuse on Big Monday, this is most certainly a brainchild of Whit Babcock and you can see his sense of humor all over this poster. My particular favorite is the ‘fan stance’:

Don't forget to bend those knees!

I guess he figured the crowd at 5/3rd arena has learned enough from the first fan guide to not have to be told to stay quiet when UC has the ball. But there still appears to be a need to show the crowd how to make three-point goggles with their hands. Like I mentioned in my commentary on the whiteout fan guide, this is incredibly cheesy. But it’s also incredibly ingenious. Whit Babcock went to the well once more and presented yet another idea to get fans to the game and to build interest in UC basketball. He can make a hundred posters like these and as much as I pick on them, they’re still great for this athletics program.

Once again, well done Mr. Babcock.

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In addition to 28 scholarship athletes who signed their Letters of Intent with the Cincinnati Bearcats, two preferred walk-ons also joined the group; Dylan Coombs and Franklin Bruscianelli. Adding these players is nothing new for college football programs and it’s an opportunity to find a diamond in the rough. Overall it isn’t wise to load up on walk-ons (most programs don’t) but with 85 players on the roster, it’s okay to roll the dice with a few. The duo the Bearcats snagged have lots of upside and come from programs that have a strong culture of winning. You can never have too much of that on your football team. While traditional LOI signees will receive an athletic scholarship, both Coombs and Bruscianelli will be applying for the Lindner Honors Program and receive a scholarship this way.

Dylan Coombs

Overview

Franklin Bruscianelli

Overview

Outlooks

Coming on as walk-ons trying to climb the ladder against players who are on scholarship to play football isn’t easy. What’s more, both are joining a 2012 class full of players who will accept athletic scholarships to play at Cincinnati. Not including these two, the Bearcats signed 5 defensive backs and 4 linebackers in the 2012 class. Add onto that the current DBs/LBs on the roster and that’s a lot of players for Coombs and Bruscianelli to jump. I love adding intelligent players who come from winning programs but I don’t think either of these two walk-ons will advance farther than the practice squad. It’s nothing personal but it’s a fact of life that that is where most walk-ons wind up.

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Williams is Endorsing the Crosstown Shootout

In an interview today with the Cincinnati Enquirer, President Williams stated that he would like the Crosstown Shootout to continue despite the events of the last matchup. You remember that game right? Of course you do but just in case you’ve been living in a cave for the past three months, Xavier was obliterating Cincinnati when Dez Wells shoved GeLawn Guyn to the ground. Then all hell broke loose and Yancy Gates decked Kenny Frease with a right hook. In the ensuing days suspensions were handed out on both sides and questions asking for justification of keeping the series going emerged. The Crosstown Shootout has always been one of the fiercest rivalries in all of sports, let alone college basketball. Two schools with rich histories share the same city and are separated by only a few miles. Tensions are bound to boil over and there always seems to be at least one confrontation in each of these games.

But what happened on that Saturday afternoon will forever be typified as one of the ugliest moments in this rivalry.

That should by no means warrant officials from both schools to cancel the Shootout. There are measures that can be taken such as better crowd control, having stricter penalties for students barking obscenities and throwing objects onto the court, and ensuring that experienced refs are officiating the game. Axing one of the best games in sports is the easy way out and President Williams, as well as Xavier AD Mike Bobinski, recognize this. Obviously I’m glad to hear the Crosstown Shootout will continue. It’s the game that Bearcat and Musketeer fans circle on the schedule each year and on a national scale puts the city of Cincinnati in the spotlight for a few hours. No matter what side you root for, most people can agree that it would be a tragedy if these teams were dropped from their opponent’s schedule.

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Some final video on the football coaching changes:

Bearcats knock off Seton Hall

Parker Plays Big Against Pirates

Cincinnati Goes Wire to Wire in 62-57 Victory

Dion Dixon Thrives In the Cincinnati Bearcats Must Win Situation

Dixon’s game takes on different feel

Bearcats Top Seton Hall, 62-57

Other UC Stuff

Shakim Alonzo Update: Timeline of Events and Conflicting Narratives Emerge – Not sure this affects his enrollment at UC.

Schaffer Looks To Prove Doubters Wrong…Again – JK has the stats and pedigree to back it up. He’ll find a team.

Bearcats Escape Last SHU Rally, 54-48 – Beating the Pirates twice in the same day feels pretty good!

Hansson Defends BIG EAST Crown, Pikhartova Sets UC Record in 100 Back

Bearcats Fall to Purdue 6-0 – Swept. Not a good start to the season.

Ramsland Scores Career-High in 17-12 Win Against Fresno State

Track & Field Places Second At BIG EAST Indoor Championship

Cincinnati Bearcats Football Season 2011 In Review | Defensive Backs

Shakim Alonzo Update: Charges Could Be Filed, Alonzo Tells His Side Of The Story – This is an extremely tense situation.

BEast News

Big East Linkage: Who Is UConn, Two-Star Player Recognition, And Lots of Wonderful Freshman

Nati News

Cueto will start opener, Valaika 100 percent, Francisco hurting

Around the Nation

More money, bowls’ waning popularity driving push for a plus-one – Amen.

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The Bearcats have been pretty well represented so far in the slow period between the National Championship Game and the NFL Draft in April. Both Pead and Wolfe repped the C at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama with Isaiah pulling down MVP Honors. Pead wasn’t done there as he sported his #23 Bearcats jersey at the College Football All-Star Challenge just days later. While Isaiah didn’t win any awards, he showed that despite being 20 or so pounds lighter than the linebackers he was competing against, he could hold his own without a problem.

More good news for the Bearcats as Isaiah Pead, Derek Wolfe, and John Hughes have all been invited to participate in the NFL Combine in Indianapolis between February 22nd and 28th. I will provide a more detailed analysis of each prospective draftee in April but the former UC players will probably get drafted in the order I listed them in. Clearly Pead will be the Bearcat taken highest in the draft. He not only improved his draft stock over the course of the 2011 season, proving he was the best player on the field at time, but got himself a ton of attention in the post-season events in which he participated. He will likely be a 2nd or 3rd rounder in April. Derek Wolfe will be the next ‘Cat picked somewhere in the 3rd – 5th round to play defensive end in the NFL. He got some time there at the Senior Bowl and, as we’ve seen, can straight dominate offensive linemen. Finally, Wolfe’s ‘linemate’ John Hughes has the big body of an NFL defensive tackle and will probably be taken by some team in the 6th or 7th round of the draft.

In addition, Cincinnati will be hosting their Pro-Day on Friday, March 2nd. The only school to have their’s earlier is Missouri so it will be a good opportunity for the Bearcat seniors to make a strong first impression on NFL scouts. Pead, Wolfe, and Hughes are locks to be drafted or at least signed as post-draft free agents. But fellow Bearcats such as JK Schaffer, Alex Hoffman, and Evan Davis will need some extra looks to get offered a contract or a camp invite in the months ahead. This Pro-Day is another opportunity for them to gain the attention of NFL teams.

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The Bearcats got a much-needed win yesterday in their 62 – 57 victory over the Seton Hall Pirates. Cincinnati is now 19 – 8 overall and more importantly 9 - 5 in the Big East. It’s no secret that UC’s out of conference schedule has, well, sucked this season and tallying 9 wins so far in the toughest, deepest league in college basketball is huge. For starters it gives them a higher seed in the Big East tournament. They will be matched-up against weaker opponents where, theoretically, it should be easier to tally wins. It never hurts to pad the resume in the days leading up to Selection Sunday. Secondly even though the Bearcats have 5 Big East losses, it says a lot more to being 4 games over .500 given the national perception of the difficulty of the Big East versus a conference like the PAC-12. The NCAA Tournament committee will certainly take that into effect. But there are some other factors at play as we begin the final two weeks of the regular season.

FACTORS WORKING IN CINCINNATI’S FAVOR

- Good Wins: Georgetown, Notre Dame, UConn

Beating a ranked team and having them finish as a top-ranked team is definitely a plus for Cincinnati. Not only were the Hoyas the 11th ranked team when the Bearcats beat them in early January but G-Town is now #9 in the country. In addition, Notre Dame and UConn were among the victims of UC early in the Big East schedule. The Irish got manhandled by the the Bearcats and weren’t ranked at the time. But since then they have been one of the hottest teams in the conference and are now ranked 25th. On the flip-side UConn was nearly a top-10 team when Cincinnati strolled out of Storrs victorious on January 18th. They proceeded to lose 6 of their next 8 games and are in danger of missing out on the Big Dance all together. Still, both wins will make UC look very appealing.

- Good Losses: Syracuse, Xavier, Marquette

This isn’t a deciding factor for the NCAA Tournament committee. In fact it seems more like a moral victory than anything but it is important to take some time and mention them. Syracuse, Xavier, and Marquette were all highly-ranked teams when they sent the Bearcats packing. While one of those teams (cough Musketeers cough) the other two are still powering through their schedule as top-ranked teams. Essentially, these losses won’t act against Cincinnati as much as those I’ll mention in the next section.

- The Big East

Like I mentioned there’s a national perception about the Big East is that it is the most difficult conference in college basketball. As a result, the Big East is regularly granted multiple March Madness picks each year. Last season a staggering 11 Big East teams, 69% of the conference, received invites to go dancing. But it’s a down year in the Big East and they will probably only receive 7 or 8 bids (still a lot). This means that as long as UC keeps itself in the top half of the conference, and it seems like these halves are becoming more and more separated, the Bearcats will be in a good position come tournament time.

- Four Conference Road Wins

Again, not a deciding factor but being road warriors will show the NCAA Tournament committee that Cincinnati does not have to rely on the friendly confines of 5/3rd Arena to get dubs. This point is only further emphasized with the fact that three of the Bearcats’ four road wins came against ranked teams, at least at the time. If anything it can’t hurt Cincinnati’s chances.

FACTORS WORKING AGAINST CINCINNATI

- The Out of Conference Schedule

It was full of cupcakes and teams that are absolutely killing Cincinnati’s strength of schedule. It was actually better compared to the 2010-11 season with teams like Marshall, Oklahoma, and Georgia filling the lineup. Marshall was expected to finish near the top of C-USA this season and Oklahoma, a 9 – 2 squad at the time, looked to be in-store for a good year. Those three teams are now a combined 41 – 37 and probably not going to win their respective conference’s title.

- Bad Losses: Presbyterian, Marshall, St. John’s, Rutgers

The non-conference schedule is laughable but to make matters worse the Bearcats lost to three of those teams. Xavier is forgivable, as I mentioned above, but let’s hope Presbyterian and Marshall don’t come back to haunt Cincinnati. A team in a bigger conference absolutely cannot lose to team in a lesser conference, especially one whose champion will probably get an invite to be a 15th or 16th seed in the Big Dance. That’s what UC did when they lost to Presbyterian. Also, dropped a few games in the Big East, the worst of which were St. John’s and Rutgers. While full of young talent, both teams have won just 8 conference games and will have to do a ton of work to garner a CBI invitation.

If the NCAA Tournament started today the Cincinnati Bearcats would probably be among the final four teams in, at the very least. Unfortunately it doesn’t start today and they still have some work to do. Paul Dehner mentioned early last week that UC fans can probably relax if the Bearcats won 4 of their final 6 games and we’ll be sweating out Selection Sunday if they finish 3 – 3. I’d say that’s a pretty solid statement and UC really does control its own destiny. They are now 2 – 0 in that six-game stretch. Unfortunately, the final four include games against a ranked Louisville squad that has won 7 of their last 8, a Marquette team that just whitewashed Cincinnati in their last matchup, a surprisingly solid South Florida team that is 9 – 4 in the Big East, and a Villanova team in their bandbox of an arena with Maalik Wayns who dropped 39 on UC the last time these two hooked up. Picking up two wins against those teams will be far from easy. But it has to be done to get UC to 21 – 10 and 11 – 7 in the conference. Cincinnati will have to buckle-down to ensure they aren’t left out in the cold on Selection Sunday.