The Fall of the Cincinnati Bearcats

December 27th, 2012: The Cincinnati Bearcats are 12-0 and one of four undefeated teams left in college basketball. Later in the day, they would face their toughest test of the season against the New Mexico Lobos, who were coming off of a shocking loss to South Dakota State. Before that loss New Mexico was a top 25 team, and everyone was anticipating the Lobos to give the Bearcats a good test.

After the 1st half of play, the Bearcats had a small 3 point advantage over the Lobos, but in the 2nd half the Lobos were dominant in the paint and took the lead and held it. In the final seconds, Sean Kilpatrick was blocked shooting a 3 pointer that would have won them the game, and the Lobos handed UC their first loss of the season.

 December 31st, 2012: The Bearcats were coming off of their first loss and traveling to Pittsburgh to play the 24th ranked Pittsburgh Panthers in their first conference game. Throughout most of the game, the Panthers held a small lead over the Bearcats. But with 10 minutes to go, Cashmere Wright took over the game for the Bearcats. Wright led the Bearcats’ 14-2 run that gave them the lead in the 2nd half, and they would never look back. The Bearcats looked like they had shaken off their first loss, and that they deserved to be back in the top 10.

January 5th, 2013: The Bearcats would play St. Johns on this day. Everyone expected this game to be a Bearcats blowout, but that was not the case at all. St. Johns held the lead for most of the game, and in the final seconds Cashmere Wright missed a half court shot that would have given them the win.

January 14th, 2013: The Bearcats fell out of the top 25 poll for the first time this season.

January 19th, 2013: The Bearcats played #25 Marquette on their home court. At halftime the Bearcats held a 16 point lead over Marquette, but in the second half, Marquette came roaring back and were able to force the game to overtime. In overtime, Sean Kilpatrick scored with 5 seconds to go, which gave the Bearcats the lead, and they would go on to win.

February 7th, 2013: The 17th ranked Bearcats traveled to Rhode Island to play Providence. The Friars were big underdogs, but they proved everyone wrong. The Friars held the lead most of the game, but with minutes to go, the Bearcats made a push and had a chance to tie the game late in the game. With 10 seconds left, Sean Kilpatrick dribbled the ball off of his leg and caused a back court violation, which gave the Friars the win.

February 11th, 2013: Bearcats fell out of the top 25 again. They have not been able to get back into the top 25 ever since.

February 15th-24th, 2013: The Bearcats would lose 3 straight games against Georgetown, UConn, and Notre Dame respecctively.

Present: The Bearcats are 19-9 overall, 7-8 in the Big East, and they have 3 games left. They play at home against UConn on saturday, then they play at their rival Louisville next Monday, and they close their season out playing South Florida at home next Saturday. If the Bearcats continue their losing ways, it’s possible that they could miss the NCAA tournament, which would be the 4th time in 6 years that they would miss the tournament. A team that looked to possibly become a 1 seed earlier in the year could now possibly become a 1 seed in the NIT.

5 Great Things that Happened in 2012

Every day it seems like ESPN has big news, whether it be something that we actually want to hear, or if it’s just another story on Tim Tebow and Mark Sanchez. I’ve given it a little bit of thought, and these are 5 things that in my opinion were the most important in my eyes. This is in no particular order.

1. The San Francisco Giants amazing playoff miracle. I don’t think anybody, even the Giants’ players, thought that they would come back from down 2-0 when their comeback would have to happen away from home against our own Cincinnati Reds. I remember thinking about how slim the chances were that the Reds could actually blow it if they lost that first game against the Giants. And I honestly thought after leaving that first game that I would buy another playoff ticket WHEN they played in the NLCS. I remember hearing the call on 700 for game 5, when the Reds final batter struck out and all I could do was think “how could they blow it?”. But the Giants made me feel better about my Reds. They knocked off the Cardinals in another series comeback, and then swept the Tigers to win the world series. This is truly one of the great miracles of sports history.

2. The Bengals do it again. Mike Brown mike not be doing anything to help his organization, but the Bengals are showing that they are the real deal, even though they have such a young team. Marvin Lewis is definitely going to bee around for a very long time since Mike Brown doesn’t care about the Bengals and won’t go through the trouble to get another coach, so hopefully Marvin has found a way to guide a team to the Playoffs consistently, and hopefully he can win a playoff game soon to boost his confidence.

3. Chuck Pagano and the Colts. Talk about a great story. Pagano recently won his battle against Leukemia and will be coaching his Colts in the Sunday game against the Texans. Pagano has been the Colts inspiration ever since he had to leave for his treatment, and the Colts have responded well without him. They have the #5 seed locked up, and a nice 10-5 record at the moment. When Pagano steps onto the field on Sunday, you better believe that he’s going to recieve a long standing ovation.

4. My Bearcats! It was great seeing the Cats respond from that brutal brawl against Xavier to go to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2001. Mick Cronin has this team going far, and this year they could climb up to a 2 seed for the tournament, even though they lost their first game of the year last night to a good New Mexico team. The 2011-2012 team gave me motivation to watch every game and attend as many as possible. Hopefully they can improve even more and get to the Elite 8 for the 2012-2013 season.

5. UK finally wins the national championship. If you know me, then you know im definitely not a UK sports fan. But for the state of Kentucky, this was a great moment. This is all we’re known for. People around the country see us as just hillbillies with nothing to do. UK proved them wrong. Even though it doesn’t speak much for the state, it does show that we got something going for ourselves, and that is basketball. UK is struggling this year, but they got a young team, so expect to see much improvement as the year goes on.

NBA Christmas day Lookback

Both the Bulls and the Nets surprisingly did not play well on Christmas, as both teams were blown out on their own home courts.

The day started out with the Celtics playing in Brooklyn against the Nets. Rondo led the Celtics with 19 points as they beat the Nets 93-76. Despite the loss, the Nets have improved significantly from last year’s team that was one of the worst teams in the NBA. The Celtics win put them above .500, which is surprising because the Celtics have been much more above .500 since the organization acquired Kevin Garnett and current Miami Heat guard Ray Allen. Is Allen the possible missing link? We’ll find out as the year goes on.

The next game took place in the Staples Center with a much anticipated game. The Lakers hosted the Knicks, and no one at the beginning of the seasons would of expected to see the Lakers as big underdogs on their home court against a surprising stand-out Knicks team. Both Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points, but in the end the Lakers pulled the upset 100-94. The Lakers are 2-0 since the return of Steve Nash, who might be the key to the Lakers’ success. The win put the Lakers at .500 and extended their win streak to 5 games.

The next game was probably the most anticipated game of the day. The Miami Heat took on the Oklahoma City Thunder, which were last year’s NBA finalists. The game was filled with technical fouls, but that didn’t sum up the game at all. Durant scored 33 points compared to Lebron James 29 points, but the game came down to the final possession. Both Durant and Westbrook missed threes that would of tied the game at the point, and the Heat went on to win 103-97. Both teams are continuing to show their dominance in their leagues. Don’t be suprised if you see both of these teams in the NBA finals for the 2nd straight year.

Probably the second most anticipated game was the Chicago Bulls hosting the Houston Rockets. Both teams look completely different than they were last year. The Bulls are still going without their star Derrick Rose, and the Rockets picked up Jeremy Lin and James Harden over the offseason. Though the Bulls don’t have their star player, they’ve still maintained an above .500 record, going into the game 15-11. The Rockets astonishingly were firing right off the bat, and the Rockets would steamroll the Bulls 120-97. The Rockets led by as much as 35 points in the 3rd quarter. The Bulls did cut the lead down to 14 points with 7 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, but weren’t able to make it any closer than that for the rest of the game.

The final game was back in the Staples Center, but this time the red hot Clippers took the court against the Denver Nuggets. The Clippers have been the shock of the league this year. Their win streak has propeled them way out in front in their division. The Nuggets kept it within 10 points at the half, but the Clippers blew the lead open in the 3rd quarter. They would go on to win 100-112. The win put the Clippers win streak at 14 games.