Bearcats Dominant!!!

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The title says it all, UC beat the crap out of South Florida. They dominated about every statistical category. The Bearcats came out and jumped to an early lead and once that happened I felt like they were going to dominate this game and they did. South Florida's best chance was to come out and build an early lead. Honestly I thought there was a good possibility of that happening with them playing yesterday and already having their feet wet. You see it happen all the time when a team has a bye in a tournament, they come out sluggish, while the other team is immediately into the flow of the game having played one day earlier. Usually that is made up for in the second half as the team without the bye has tired legs. Once the Bearcats jumped out to an early lead I figured South Florida was in trouble.

Yancy Gates was the star of the game and is playing like he belongs in the NBA right now. Whatever happened to turn the switch on for Yancy has ignited this entire team and they are playing like a top 15 team in the nation, if not better than that. Gates was an incredible 10 for 11 from the field with 25 points. He also had 4 rebounds and an assist. He did all this playing 23 minutes, that's barely over half the game. If you double his stats for a full 40 minutes, you're talking 50 points and 8 rebounds. That's how dominant he was tonight. If Gates keeps playing with intensity the sky is the limit for him, and he could carry this team to a Big East Tournament Championship and possibly a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

Dion Dixon and Sean Kilpatrick both also scored in double digits with 21 points and 12 points respectively. Both of them shot 50% or better as well. Between the two of them they also brought down 9 rebounds with Dixon having six. The only player to play over 30 minutes was Dixon as he had 31. I've said it before, over and over again, that if UC can get by Notre Dame tomorrow they have a good chance to win this whole thing with them playing 9 players double digit minutes. They did it again tonight as 9 players had double digit minutes. If they get by Notre Dame they will be in the semifinals and by then each team will have played a game and some two or three if Marquette can beat West Virginia in the game going on right now and get by Louisville tomorrow.

The Bearcats are playing as a team better than anyone in the country in my opinion. They need to, if you aren't the most talented team the best way to beat a more talented team is through teamwork. Don't get me wrong, the Bearcats have some talent. To me, a lot of their players are underrated. That said of the teams remaining in this tournament most of them have more talent on their team. Or at least one or two players that are more talented than anyone the Bearcats have on their roster. That doesn't necessarily mean they are more talented top to bottom though and I would take the Bearcats 8th and 9th guys over about any other team's 8th and 9th guys and our top players aren't too far over matched, especially Gates and Cashmere Wright.

One team that may not be more talented than the Bearcats is Notre Dame, who is next on the checklist for UC in this tournament. They do have Ben Hansborough who is the conference player of the year. While he's a great college player, he isn't going to be an NBA star, just like his brother. I think the Bearcats are more athletic than Notre Dame and they will need to use their length and athleticism to beat the Irish tomorrow night. Everyone knows what Notre Dame is going to do, the high screen and roll. They do it all the time. The Bearcats are going to have to fight through those screens and come over the top. They can not drop below and give them open looks at the three. That's how the Irish win. There will be more on this tomorrow, but Notre Dame is a team that lives by the three. When you live by the three you die by the three.

Anyway back to the impressive win over South Florida tonight. The defense has been carrying this team all year and was good again tonight. They are now the fourth best scoring defense in the country and the best in the Big East. I'm surprised to be saying this, but this defense is better than any of the Huggin's teams that I can remember. They are smothering offenses and opponents aren't getting many good looks. Their press has been effective all year and was again tonight. It wore South Florida down and there was no chance of them making a big comeback again tonight. With the Bearcats playing 9 guys double digit minutes, the press doesn't have to create a bunch of steals to be effective. They can use it to wear teams down as other than Pitt nobody goes as deep to their bench as UC does.

The Bearcats need to go out to dinner and enjoy this tonight and then it's back to work tomorrow. Make sure they get a good nights rest. I'd like to be talking about how the Bearcats won by blowout again tomorrow night and didn't have to play their best players more than 25 minutes or so like they did tonight. If UC can keep playing as a team and smothering opposing offenses with their great defenses they can make runs this year. Forget building for the future, the time is now to win Big East Tournaments and make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament