The Bearcats blew a 9 point lead with under 8 minutes to go at East Carolina on Sunday. Blowing a 9 point lead to anyone with 8 minutes left is awful in itself. Doing so to a team like East Carolina is borderline unforgivable. It’s the type of loss that makes us, purely fans, uneasy with any lead because if you blow this game, you can blow any game.
The money question is what the hell happened? Let’s just start with the last 9 minutes. That way we have a giant sample. There are vines of practically every Cincinnati possession and the relevant ECU possession. Instead of videos, I’ll fill you in on what ECU did close. Let’s begin.
Possession #1 – 8:37 – 37-33 Cin
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Farad Cobb’s long distance bomb did come late in the shot clock. It was in no way a good shot. It caught the other Bearcats by surprise, as you can see them scrambling for positioning. The fact is that this went down. Nothing else would.
ECU’s Possession: Turnover
Possession #2 – 8:15 – 40-33 Cin
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This was as a result of the ECU turnover, Octavius Ellis drew a foul. He made both free throws for the 9 point lead.
ECU’s Possession: BJ Tyson 3 point shot
Possession #3 – 7:23 – 42-36 Cin
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41 on East Carolina completely shuts this play down. They knew exactly what was coming. Clark tries to sneak the pass into DeBerry, it wasn’t the best of decisions.
ECU’s Possession: Gary Clark blocked a shot
Possession #4 – 7:13 – 42-36 Cin https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Transition opportunity for the Cats. Kevin Johnson pulls up from 3 and the shot goes halfway down before popping out. DeBerry gets the offensive board, but the challenge forces him into a fading hook shot.
ECU’s Possession: That vine stops just short from ECU’s break off the missed layup. There was a beautiful outlet by Tyson that allowed Whisnant a layup.
Possession #5 – 6:25 – 42-38 Cin
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A nice zone play by Cincinnati. Clark gets such great positioning that he can see the double team coming. The help defense was very late because they had to respect Cobb’s shooting. DeBerry made both free throws.
ECU’s Possession: ECU missed a jump shot.
Possession #6 – 5:35 – 44-38 Cin
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Late in the shot clock, Cobb gets a path past the guy at the bottom of the highly extended zone. When the help comes, Cobb loses the ball.
ECU’s Possession: Missed layup
Possession #7 – 4:46 – 44-38 Cin
No video of this one because Gary Clark was fouled before the set went anywhere. He missed the front end of a one and one.
ECU’s Possession: Missed layup
Possession #8 – 4:10 – 3:56 – 44-38 Cin
Two shots for Cincinnati here. The first comes late in the shot clock. Clark kicked out to Cobb, who tried to find a weak spot in the zone. It was good thinking by him to try this twice since the bottom man was extending so far. His jumper was way off.
Caupain tried a runner in what looked like open zone, but you can see 41 challenge it with his arms extended. 41’s name is Marshall Guilmette. He deserved to have his name mentioned.
ECU’s Possession: Made one of two free throws.
Possession #9 – 3:23 – 49-44 Cin
This set came off screen action for Johnson. UC didn’t use KJ, but Clark screened the middle man, which got Ellis daylight. This should have been a dunk because Ellis was wide open. By the time he got the ball, he was hammered. That was really not a good pass by Caupain. Ellis made both free throws.
ECU’s Possession: Tyson answered with a jumper to get the margin back to 5.
Possession #10 – 2:32 – 46-41 Cin
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It’s easy to see what the Caupain wanted here. The ECU defense gets credit for forcing Caupain back on the hedging of the screen. Instead of a college 3, Caupain is putting up an NBA 3. You can see how well that went. Nice contest as well.
ECU’s Possession: Whisnant scored on a tip in and Guilmette added a free throw to make it a two point game.
Possession #11 – 1:50 – 46-44 Cin
If you know what Farad Cobb was doing on this play besides panicking, I would like to know.
ECU’s Possession: Game tying layup
Possession #12 – 1:18 – 46-46 https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
A truly terrible read by Johnson. ECU was completely ready for the ball to go in the high post. That was the guard dropping back to deflect the ball away. Another example of the Cats trying to force something that wasn’t there and ECU making a strong defensive stand.
ECU’s Possession: This
Octavius Ellis follows the man from the middle of the zone up top and tries to go for a steal. This would be a huge mistake. Clark got caught in no man’s land. No one was around the basket when Tyson made his move to the rim.
Possession #13 – 34 seconds – 48-46 ECU
There were 10 seconds on the shot clock when Cobb put up this NBA range shot. That isn’t a bad shot if Cobb is closer to the 3 point line. As is, that shot was terrible. Two shots in this sequence nowhere near the 3 point line. This was practically a turnover.
ECU’s Possession: Missed free throw
Possession #14
Two good looks. The Cats took a couple of 3s that were wild, this one was the shot they wanted. Johnson stepped into it and it just didn’t go. Sanders had a tip in miss as well. It was a tough break.
ECU’s Possession: Game icing free throws.
This was absolutely a clinic in what not to do to close a game on the road. The decision making seemed like the players were panicking. The shot selection was predominantly poor. Cincinnati also gave up layups and ease shots to a team that had struggles scoring the ball. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. It was a brutal loss. It still is a brutal loss all these days later. The lesson we can hope the team learns is how to close games.
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