Gonna keep this post game on the short side since, like all of you, I want to watch the national title game. Cincinnati couldn't complete the sweep of the participants, losing to Notre Dame 66-60.
The problem wasn't the offense in this one. UC had their lulls. Overall they shot 47% and hit 9-21 from 3. That's pretty good. The problem was on defense. Notre Dame shot 50% from the field. They answered UC's 9-21 from 3 by going 9-16. They had open shot after open shot after open shot it seemed. Notre Dame used their experience and their talented guards to slice the Cincinnati zone to shreds. If it wasn't not covering the roll man on the screen and roll, it was leaving guys open in the corner for 3 or getting beat on a cross court pass. Defensive lapses caught up to the Cats hard.
One notable thing about the game was that Mick changed the starting lineup. Justin Jackson went to the bench and Titus Rubles into the starting lineup. Rubles had 2 points on 1-6 shooting and 7 rebounds. Justin Jackson did not play.
We did see one thing offensively that stood out. Cashmere Wright was 1-5 for 5 points. JaQuon Parker was 2-2 for 8 points. For the second straight game, 2 of the 3 amigos had a hard time scoring. UC had a hard time getting it going. When you add in that Rubles had 2 and Mbodj 8, that's trouble for the Cincinnati Bearcats.
Cashmere Wright passed Oscar Robertson with an assist on the first basket of the game for 4th all time in UC history. Congratulations to Cash.
More tomorrow. Box score via SI
NOTRE DAME| MIN | REB (O/D) | AST | FG-A | FT-A | 3P-A | PF | ST | TO | BLK | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grant * | 38 | 1 (0/1) | 2 | 7-10 | 3-3 | 2-4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 19 |
| Atkins * | 36 | 0 (0/0) | 6 | 3-7 | 3-5 | 1-1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 10 |
| Connaughton* | 36 | 6 (0/6) | 3 | 3-7 | 2-3 | 2-4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Martin * | 35 | 1 (0/1) | 2 | 4-7 | 0-0 | 4-7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Cooley * | 32 | 8 (2/6) | 0 | 5-13 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| Sherman | 13 | 3 (1/2) | 1 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Biedscheid | 10 | 0 (0/0) | 0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 0 | 19 (3/16) | 14 | 24-48 | 9-13 | 9-16 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 66 |
| 50.0% | 69.2% | 56.2% | |||||||||
| * Starters | |||||||||||
CINCINNATI| MIN | REB (O/D) | AST | FG-A | FT-A | 3P-A | PF | ST | TO | BLK | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kilpatrick * | 33 | 4 (1/3) | 1 | 6-11 | 0-0 | 3-6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 15 |
| Wright * | 32 | 0 (0/0) | 8 | 1-5 | 3-4 | 0-2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Parker * | 25 | 1 (1/0) | 1 | 2-2 | 2-4 | 2-2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 8 |
| Rubles * | 25 | 7 (1/6) | 5 | 1-9 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Mbodj * | 17 | 3 (0/3) | 0 | 4-4 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| Thomas | 24 | 3 (1/2) | 2 | 2-6 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Sanders | 16 | 1 (0/1) | 1 | 3-5 | 0-0 | 2-4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| Gaines | 11 | 4 (1/3) | 0 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Nyarsuk | 10 | 3 (0/3) | 0 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Guyn | 7 | 1 (1/0) | 0 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| TOTAL | 0 | 27 (6/21) | 18 | 23-49 | 5-11 | 9-21 | 18 | 2 | 9 | 5 | 60 |
| 46.9% | 45.5% | 42.9% | |||||||||
| * Starters | |||||||||||
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