Bearcats begin practice

The roundballs are officially rolling in Fifth Third Arena again as the entire staffs of both the men’s and women’s basketball programs at UC can now attend practice. Where such events used to begin with the public hoopla of “Midnight Madness”, everything now is low-key (although Mick Cronin’s men will have two public scrimmages coming up on the 24th and 31st).

Friday night, while Jamelle Elliott had the women squeaking sneakers on the floor, Mick Cronin and returning players Yancy Gates and Deonta Vaughn spoke to those of us assembled with recording devices, cameras and notepads in the interview room. While the beginning is being underplayed, the end of this season for Cronin and company could be positive for the first time in awhile.

“For a coach, the most exciting time of the year is the beginning of practice,” said Cronin. “Obviously, there’s a lot of excitement around this team. It’s the first time we’ve had that with UC basketball in five years probably.”

With the likes of Vaughn, Gates, Dixon, Davis, and Toyloy returning and fresh names like Lance Stephenson, Sean Kilpatrick, Jaquon Parker coming in, expectations are high. Throw in Ibrahima Thomas and Cashmere Wright who were here last year (but couldn’t play) and you realistically have what should be an NCAA tournament team.

NCAA tournament…remember that?

“We’re only concerned with our expectations,” said Cronin. “Ours are to have a really good team. Really good teams play in the postseason. Reality in Big East basketball is if you have a really good team and you’re competing for a championship you’re in the Top 20 or 25 in the country. It’s been a long time coming for us, we have the type of talent to do it.”

On paper and from what some of us have seen through practice and/or the Deveroes Summer League, this is arguably the most talented team UC’s seen in maybe seven to eight years. There’s size, there’s skill, there’s quickness, there’s scoring and there’s depth. Most of that has been desperately missing in recent years, and you can’t blame Mick Cronin for that. Call it what you want, but he was pretty much handed the keys to a car that was low on gas with three flat tires.

“One through thirteen, we’re athletic, we have depth,” said Cronin. “Two concerns early on are: Ibrahima Thomas not being eligible ‘til December 13th and we’re going to be a team all year that plays a freshman point guard, either Cashmere Wright or Jaquon Parker, and that’s a concern.”

That would be a possible downside to this team…youth. As mentioned, Wright and Parker are new. So are Kilpatrick and Stephenson. However, having seen all of them play except for Parker, I can tell you that NONE of them play like freshmen.

The good thing is all of them have been cleared to practice. The most notable of the freshmen has been Lance Stephenson whose eligibility issues have been the most prominent. Just as Cronin and the UC administration said over the summer though, they feel the process should allow the one dubbed “Born Ready” to be on the floor with the ‘Cats soon.

I can assure you, “Born Ready” IS ready. I’ll go out on a limb again saying, Stephenson is the most dominant new UC player I’ve seen since I packed into the sweatbox that is Purcell-Marian’s gym to watch a youngster from Albany, Georgia 16 years ago-Dontonio Wingfield. (Jeez, now his son’s on the radar too!)

“As far as Lance is concerned, we’re hoping it’s over soon,” said Cronin. “When it’s over, we’ll say it’s over. He’s ready to practice tonight. Obviously, we wouldn’t have signed him and brought him here if we didn’t think he was going to play.”

With Stephenson and assuming everyone remains healthy, the Bearcats should be returning to the NCAA tournament. Last season, they were in sight of it, then folded late. With this season’s talent appreciably better, UC should be playing meaningful games in March.

“That’s the goal,” said sophomore center Yancy Gates. “Our first goal is to worry about the Big East. If we can win the Big East, we can make the tournament.”

And, if they can make the tournament…well, you just never know do you?

One thing’s for sure, the Bearcats have no shortage of guys that can crank in points. Gates has done it and Vaughn has done it. Now, you’ve got maybe the best freshman in the country (Stephenson) along with a couple of others that are no slouches (Kilpatrick and Parker) an improved Dion Dixon and a flashy point guard that can fill it up (Wright).

“I think this year the talent level is real good,” said Gates. “There’s some freshmen here that know how to play. Lance is real talented. He can do a lot of different things on the court as far as putting it on the floor. He’s working real hard at learning the defense at the college level, but Lance has a nice game.”

All of the new “weapons” should help the returning veterans. Most notably, Deonta Vaughn who’s had to shoulder a lot of the Bearcat load ever since he was a freshman himself. Now, he has a teammate that can run more of the point, freeing him up to knock down treys and drive the lane.

“He helps me a lot,” said Vaughn of Cashmere Wright. “I don’t have to force too much or create for other people too much. I can just play the role I used to when Jamual (Warren) was here-shoot the jump shot and tell everybody where they need to be on the court-be the vocal leader out there.”

Vaughn has great motivation for this season. First off, he’s a senior which is self-explanatory. Secondly, the NCAA Final Four is in Indianapolis, the home of Deonta Vaughn.

“It’s back in my hometown,” said Vaughn with a smile. “At least I can try to make it to the NCAA tournament before I leave.”

If you didn’t know (and you should if you’ve followed recent Bearcat basketball) Vaughn is 0 for postseason in his UC career (and we refuse to acknowledge the debacle that was the College Basketball Invitational).

“It drives me,” he admitted. “With this team that we got right now, we’re capable of getting there this year. Everybody’s focused. We don’t talk back to each other, we just listen to each other out there. We’re just excited that everyone’s injury-free this year and ready to get back.”

It should be a fun year for Bearcat fans. Football’s far from over and should be in the headlines through at least the end of the year. Next door in the aging basketball arena full of banners, the talent is finally back that could add another to the wall.

“I think this is the year we can get there,” said Vaughn. “We’ve got players. Everybody’s capable of scoring. We’ve got a lot of players and it’ll be good to get out on the defensive end and do things to turn easy baskets for us so we don’t have to work so hard on the offensive end.”

Fast, exciting basketball with talent most teams in the country would envy.

Finally! Patience is rewarded!