Cincinnati Heads Home

I'm not too big of a man to admit that I get pleasure in seeing bad things happen to people I don't like. It's especially rich, though, when the very plains they have lain ensnare and ultimately undo them. Today, that happened to UC and Mick Cronin.

Cronin loves nothing more than recruiting athletes who are not basketball players and trying to groom them into a team. If he has one or two guys who can get a bucket, he throws the entire offensive load onto them and tries to use the rest of his roster to drag the game of basketball into the mud. This year's offensive darling was senior Sean Kilpatrick, who had been the ball cow for Cronin for at least a couple of seasons.

Cinci tried to drag Harvard down, but the Crimson made just enough plays to keep the game looking like basketball. Without being able to ugly things up, UC needed to get the biscuit in the basket. Sean Kilpatrick had 18/2/2 on 6-13/3-6/3-4 shooting, but he fouled things up with 5 turnovers. With the attention on him and the Bearcats needing a bucket, the ball swung to Titus Rubles, uncontested on the left baseline. The Cronin's strategy bit him in the haunches.

Rubles is, I'm sure you know, is one of the exceptional athletes Cronin brought in who is just a hair shy on basketball skills. Driving from the left baseline, he rose high and unguarded on the left side of the rimfor a layup that would have cut the game to one. He tried to use his right hand to finish, and he missed. The ball ping-ponged around before ultimately heading out of bounds to Harvard. The rest was free-throw shooting.

On a day when Aaron Craft had already lost, the Lord saw fit to serve me a double-dose of blessing. Cincinnati lost, and they did it to themselves. It will be interesting to see what St. Mick does to win this press conference.