Bearcat Basketball Taking Hit After Hit

Doesn't it always seem to go that you don't know what you have until it's gone? For the University of Cincinnati men's basketball program, that has seemed to be the case numerous times. On August 24, 2005, the Bearcats found themselves without a leader, without a fixture at the school for over a decade. They found themselves without the man that had 499 wins and 14 straight NCAA tournament appearances with UC — Bob Huggins.

Cincinnati's President Nancy Zimpher forced Huggins to either resign or be fired. He chose the latter. This came right before the Bearcats got their first taste of Big East basketball. This couldn't have come at a worse time. Right away, college basketball analysts were saying that the Bearcats would not even make the tournament, news that is tough for UC fans to hear after 14 years of being spoiled.

This team is seemingly quite used to bad luck, as it lost its star player, Kenyon Martin, in the Conference USA Tournament in 2000 with a broken fibula. Martin was no doubt the most dominating player in college basketball that year and led his team to a 16-0 record in conference play, with 29 total wins before losing to Tulsa in the second round of the Tournament. That year became an "only if" season after UC spent 12 weeks as the nation's number one team.

Then with Huggins gone, as well as Jason Maxiell, the Bearcats' leading scorer who was headed to the NBA, Cincinnati wasn't poised for a great season, let alone a good one. But Andy Kennedy took over as interim head coach, and as UC's first real test of the year on Nov. 29, Dayton destroyed the Bearcats at home 75-66 in an ugly game, after which, Kennedy apologized to the city and fans.

By that, I mean the few fans still in attendance. Cincinnati didn't know what kind of fans it lost until they were gone. Bearcats basketball attendance had plummeted by about 3,000 people so that only 8,300 fans were showing up to fill an arena that can hold over 13,000. There was no atmosphere. The student section was anemic. Dayton's few fans at that game were louder than all UC admirers combined.

President Zimpher must have been proud. This is what she wanted. I'll bet all those fans weren't in attendance were in their dorm rooms at night studying and doing homework. I'm sure they weren't partying at all. I'm sure that because Huggins was forced out that every student is now the model-student just because they don't have a "bad" role model anymore. Give me a break.

Perhaps it was a wake-up call. A wake-up call to fans that the team needs more support than ever before. A wake-up call to the players that they'll have to be the ones to make up for the recruits who left when Huggins left. A wake-up call to the interim coach that the challenge before him is bigger than the space on his head without hair.

Though they lost the next game, they played along pretty closely with Memphis, a remarkably tough top-five team this year. Yet after that, they went on to destroy every foe they faced, even Dayton and Ohio. Cincinnati can thank freshman guard Devan Downey for that, averaging 13.3 ppg. Downey took over games, hitting fade away shots and driving to the basket, making nearly every shot he took. Senior forward Eric Hicks took control of the post game, averaging 15.1 ppg, and another senior, James White, stepped up with 17.6 ppg.

All of the sudden, the Bearcats came out of nowhere and were at one point in first place in the Big East, undeniably the strongest basketball conference in the country. Though they barely lost to Connecticut on Jan. 9, Cincinnati's 10-game winning streak started drawing more and more fans back to the Shoe. Things were looking up for a basketball program with a lot of dark clouds over it.

That is, things were. Things were looking up until senior guard Armein Kirkland tore his ACL in the Connecticut game. Things were looking up until fans discovered Kirkland would be out for the rest of the season. Things were looking up until Cincinnati's depth took a remarkable hit.

Now you're saying to yourself, Kirkland had barely the team's fourth-most points per game and his field goal percentage was only about 35%. Why would the team miss that?

Turns out, this Texas native offered more than just points. He provided minutes. He provided stellar defense. He provided senior leadership. He provided intelligence. Did you know that he got a 1200 on his SAT test? Bet you didn't. Bet you only knew about Cincinnati's reputation as a "thug school." That's because it's the only thing that the national media draws on. Huggins sure never got props for recruiting a smart basketball player.

Cincinnati didn't know what it had until it was gone. When Kirkland got injured while driving to the basket against the Huskies, he was one game removed from his breakout game of the year. He was riding a hot streak, ready to take the Bearcats to the next level, ready to prove analysts and fans all wrong. He was on a mission in his final collegiate season. That breakout game was at Marquette on Jan. 7, in which he scored 14 points and had 5 steals in 37 minutes to lead UC to a 70-66 win over the team that just upset Connecticut on the same floor.

When Kirkland got injured, he had played all 12 minutes of the first half and already had 14 points. There's no doubt that Connecticut would have suffered back-to-back losses had Kirkland not made that fateful cut, but Cincinnati's future does have a lot of doubt.

They now only have eight scholarship players. Eight! And Jihad Muhammad does not even count. Whenever the ball is in his hands, it's trouble. He not only takes horrible low-percentage shots from three feet behind the arc, but he can't make them, either. He not only throws the ball up in the air as an ugly shot attempt, but he turns the ball over, too. Against the Huskies, Muhammad played 17 minutes for zero points, two fouls, and two turnovers. This coming from a senior guard.

After losing to Syracuse at home on Jan. 14 by 19 points, Big East competition doesn't get any easier for the Bearcats and their lack of depth. Eventually Hicks, White, and Downey are going to be overused and burned out, and Cincinnati will drop in the standings. In fact, they were so desperate for bodies that they recruited a couple football players to fill the void against the Orange and for the rest of the season. Because they were so good at playing football this year (4-7), they thought they'd test their luck! Though Connor Barwin, the freshman tight end for Cincinnati, did give some quality minutes, no midseason walk-on is anything like what the Bearcats would have had if fate had not gone the wrong way.

Cincinnati must have realized by now what it has lost, yet it's dark times like these that cannot be forgotten when the dust finally settles in the Shoe. Remember what it's like, support the Bearcats, and know you never ever want to get back to this point.