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Night And Day Difference For Frazier
I have urgent breaking news about Reds third baseman Todd Frazier.
Fans at Great American Ball Park will not be hearing the same two Frank Sinatra songs (“Fly Me To The Moon” and “Come Fly With Me”) when he steps to the plate in 2013.
“I’m still going to have ‘Fly Me To The Moon,’ but I’m also going to have another song,” Frazier told me on 700 WLW. “I can’t really tell you what it’s going to be right now, because I’m in the midst of choosing from a couple.”
Are we talking about another Sinatra tune or might Frazier be considering a different legend from his home state of New Jersey like Bruce Springsteen?
“I like him too, but I don’t get as relaxed and as fired up as I do when I listen to Frank,” said Frazier.
You’ve got to love a 27-year-old major league baseball player who gets fired up listening to Francis Albert Sinatra.
The most appropriate Sinatra classic for Frazier to add as a walk-up tune might be ‘Night and Day’ because Todd’s role with the Reds going into this season is as different as night and day from where it was a year ago.
Last season, Frazier led the Reds during spring training in HR (5) and RBI (15) only to get sent to Triple-A Louisville one day before the season opener when the team claimed pitcher Alfredo Simon off of waivers.
“It was tough and I’d be lying to you if I said that it wasn’t,” said Frazier. “Not many people get to experience something like that. I’m just lucky to have family and friends behind me that helped me understand that it was not the end of the world. They said, ‘You’re going to get called up and you’ve got to believe that.’ I certainly did.”
The call-up came in 13 days and Frazier spent the rest of the season in Cincinnati, batting .273 (.331 OBP/.498 SLG) with 19 HR and 67 RBI to finish third in the National League Rookie of the Year vote.
“I was certainly disappointed that we didn’t make it farther in the playoffs, but for me personally, I was happy with my season,” said Frazier. “I thought that I could have done better, but at the same time, for my first season I thought that I did pretty well.”
So well, that he’s not fighting for a job this spring. Even before Scott Rolen retired, the Reds made it clear that Frazier would be their primary third baseman this season.
“I went into spring training last year and put a little pressure on myself because you want to be ‘that guy’ and get up to the big leagues,” Frazier told me. “But for me this year, everything is good. I’m happy and I’m more comfortable understanding that I do have that job. It feels good to even hear that come out of people’s voices. I can’t wait – it’s going to be fun.”
Frazier’s expanded role with the team goes beyond the field as he’s been named the captain of the Reds Heads Kids Club featuring autograph sessions and other members-only experiences for fans that are 14-and-younger.
“I remember when I was young, I sent letters to famous people and tried to get as many autographs as I could and I know how it feels,” said Frazier. “I might have sent out about 15 to 20 letters. I had this book that had everybody’s name and address in it. It was pretty silly to think about it now. I only got one back. I can’t remember all of the people that I sent letters to, but I remember Cal Ripken sending something back.
“I think that giving back to little ballplayers like that is pretty cool. I can’t wait to see them happy and excited and to be the face of the ‘Kid’s Club’ this year is pretty exciting.”
Perhaps he can even get the Reds youngest fans to start listening to Sinatra.
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Getting Cash Back
Before hurting his right knee against DePaul on January 15th, Cashmere Wright was playing as well as any guard in the Big East.
The senior from Savannah, Georgia had scored 20-or-more points in three of his previous four games and for the season was averaging 15.1 points on 47% shooting – including 44% from 3-point range.
Since returning from the injury, Wright has been mired in the worst shooting slump of his career, going 23-for-95 overall (24%) and 12-for-60 (20%) from 3-point range, while averaging 8.0 points in nine games.
In Sunday’s loss at Notre Dame, Wright did not attempt a shot in the first half and finished the game 0-for-2 in 23 minutes.
“He’s lost his confidence,” said Mick Cronin on his weekly radio show on Monday. “If you go five, six, seven games and shoot 20%, you would lose your confidence too.
“It’s a mental thing and I have to do a good job of making sure that his mind is in the right place. Internal pressure that players put on themselves and external pressure that players feel from family, friends, and fans – some let it affect them more than others. He’s a sensitive kid and there’s no doubt that he lost his confidence.”
So how does Cronin plan to help Wright get it back? By reminding Cashmere that he doesn’t have to make every shot to help the Bearcats win.
“I have to do a better job of making sure that his mind is on defense and leadership,” said Cronin. “He’s got to lose himself in the game and give us everything that he can with his steals. He’s not the all-time leading scorer at Cincinnati. Or the all-time assists leader. But he is the all-time steals leader and he can give us that. That’s what he has to focus us because if he doesn’t give us that we’re in trouble.
“My goal is to get him to realize that he did have a great game (after the injury). He was 3-for-14 from the field in that game, but he had a great game. It was the Villanova game. He had 14 deflections and his energy and defense inspired his team to get 46 deflections and beat a NCAA Tournament team by 18 points.”
Over the next month, Wright is almost certain to set Cincinnati’s all-time record for games played. After watching his senior point guard play through knee and shoulder pain for much of his career, Cronin wants to see Cashmere relax and finish strong.
“He’s a conscientious kid who wants to play well,” said Cronin. “He’s unlike me, because I am oblivious to other people’s opinion. If I have one gift, it’s that I have tunnel vision on doing my job. Whether your opinion of me is great or whether your opinion of me is poor, it doesn’t really affect me. Unfortunately, kids can be affected a lot more than you think this day and age. He is a very conscientious kid who is putting a lot of pressure on himself.
“He’s trying as hard as he can to help his team and I just have to make sure that he does two things: Worry about defense and stay aggressive. You can’t worry about making mistakes. I have to get him in an aggressive mindset on both ends of the floor, and whatever mistakes he may make we have to live with. But he has to be on the attack and he has to be aggressive or we’re not going to be a very good team.
“I’d like to get us to where we’re playing well, and helping Cash get his confidence back is probably the number one thing that I have get done as a coach.”
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The Never-Ending Search For The Next Tim Duncan
You probably know the basic details of the Tim Duncan story.
Grows up a competitive swimmer in the Virgin Islands…eventually takes up basketball as a teenager…gets discovered by Wake Forest…becomes one of the greatest players in history.
But here’s a nugget that you might not know: The coach at Wake Forest that found Duncan was current UC assistant Larry Davis.
“We had a kid abruptly leave that was starting at center for us as a freshman,” Davis recalled. “He walked in one day and said that he was homesick and we couldn’t talk him out of it. Going into the spring, we had no guy on our roster that was bigger than 6’8”. So (head coach) Dave Odom called all of the assistants in and told us to turn over every rock because we had to find a center. So I started making calls. I had met a guy by the name of Holman Harley who was working for an agent at that time, and I called him and said, ‘Do you know of any big guys anywhere?’ And he said, ‘Yea, there’s a 6’10” kid in the Virgin Islands.’ He gave me Tim’s name so I tracked him down, got him on the phone, and asked who he was being recruited by and he said, ‘I got some letters from Delaware State and one letter from Providence.’
“About the fourth time that I called Tim on the phone I asked him if he had ever been to the United States. He said, ‘Yes, I have a brother-in-law in Ohio and I went to Ohio State’s basketball camp last summer.’ I said, ‘Is Ohio State recruiting you?’ Tim said, ‘No.’ I got off the phone and immediately called Holman Harley and said, ‘Are you sure this kid can play? He’s 6’10”, he was at Ohio State’s basketball camp and they’re not recruiting him. How can that be?’ Holman said, ‘Larry, I’m telling you – the kid can play.’
“I went in to Coach Odom and told him that I might have found a kid and he said, ‘Where is he at?’ I said, ‘The Virgin Islands.’ It wasn’t hard to talk him into making the trip. So Dave went down to see him and I’ll never forget – he calls me on the phone and said, ‘You’re not going to believe this guy. He’s 6’10”, he can run like a deer, he’s got great hands, and we’re bringing him in.’ Tim ended up visiting Providence and Wake Forest. It was 45 degrees when he visited Providence and 80 degrees when he visited us. That’s when I knew that we were getting him.”
And that’s how Larry Davis helped sign perhaps the greatest under-the-radar recruit in college basketball history.
While the former head coach at Oak Hill Academy (1983-85) and Furman University (1997-2006) hasn’t landed the next Tim Duncan at Cincinnati – at least not yet – his relentless recruiting efforts have been instrumental in helping Mick Cronin rebuild the program.
“I’ve never been around a guy that loves recruiting, evaluating, and working like he does,” said Cronin. “Most guys his age become the resident veteran coach on the bench, but he loves recruiting like a 25-year-old. He can’t get enough of it. He loves it.”
“A lot of colleagues knock recruiting, but I like it,” the 56-year-old Davis told me. “I like meeting people, I like travel, and it’s a challenge. It’s competition and I like competition – what can I say.
“It can drive you nuts because kids make decisions based on some of the craziest things that you could ever imagine, and there are always hidden land mines out there. You have to figure out who is on your side and who is not on your side and sometimes, somebody that you don’t even know is in the background either helping you or killing you. So when you get a kid to commit and sign, it’s a great feeling.”
Cronin became aware of his colleague’s zest for recruiting nearly 20 years ago when Davis was an assistant coach at Ball State.
“We met when I was a high school coach at Woodward and he was trying to outwork people for Eric Johnson,” said Cronin. “He ended up at Louisville, but Eric would tell you to this day that the best job that was done in the recruiting process was by Larry Davis. He loved Larry Davis, but it was hard to turn down Louisville for Ball State.”
Observing Coach Davis’s recruiting persistence made a strong impression on his future boss.
“My dad taught me to be smart enough to listen to older guys and Larry helped to guide me in the business,” said Cronin. “I’ve tried to pattern myself after his effort in recruiting.”
The key word in the last sentence is effort.
“Young assistant coaches in our business need to spend a week with him in July,” said Cronin with a laugh. “When you’re out there in July, he’s watching games from 8 am until midnight. He’s not a guy that will watch a few games, get a workout in, and go out to dinner. He’s in the gym when the first game starts and the last game ends. He’ll tell me who I need to see and I’ll say, ‘Where are you going?’ And he’ll say, ‘Well, I’m going to see a half of this game and a half of that game and then I’m going to go check on this kid.’ If he lays eyes on 10 kids he might find that guy that wasn’t highly-rated – whether it’s a Sean Kilpatrick or a JaQuon Parker.”
While Davis has inked his share of big-name recruits over the years such as 11-year NBA veteran Bobby Jackson when Larry was an assistant at Minnesota, his ability to find lesser-known recruits has been invaluable at Cincinnati.
“What I’ve learned is to be able to rate his tone of voice,” said Cronin. “He call and say, ‘I think I’ve found one,’ and I can tell by the way he says it how good that he thinks the guy is. I can tell by his excitement level that we had better hurry before too many people see the kid.”
“Scouting services and ratings are great, but I’ve always been taught from the first day that I got into this that you should judge with your own eyes,” said Davis. “You try to see what a guy’s potential is down the road. Some of it, quite honestly, is a little bit of luck, but you have to have an eye for it too and know some of the characteristics that you’re looking for. I take pride in trying to do that and I work for a boss who could care less about the ratings. Mick wants to know if the guy can play or not – that’s the most important thing to him.”
“What Larry understands is that good players don’t have to be highly-rated,” said Cronin. “He believes in out-working the opponent. He doesn’t just go to a city and see one practice. He’ll talk somebody into working out at six in the morning, so that he can see another kid practice at three, and another kid play at seven. It’s sheer numbers. In sales, the more people that you get in front of, the more sales that you’re going to have. In recruiting, the more guys that you see means that you’re eventually going to see somebody that can play. That’s how you find Hasheem Thabeet in a back gym when nobody else was recruiting him at the time.”
The 7’3” Thabeet was a late signee in Coach Cronin’s first year at Cincinnati who chose UConn over UC and ultimately became the 2nd overall pick in the NBA draft – unfortunately in recruiting, you don’t always get the guy. But Davis has won his share of battles and landed Troy Caupain and Jamaree Strickland in this year’s early signing period. According to Rivals.com, Caupain is a 3-star recruit while the 6’10” Strickland received 3 stars from 247sports.com.
But before you put too much stock into the scouting services, you should consider the Wake Forest class of 1993.
“When the recruiting rankings came out that year,” said Davis, “we had signed three or four other guys so it listed their names and how many stars they received and ended with, ‘and Tim Duncan.’ No comment, no rating, just ‘and Tim Duncan.’ In the end, he was the number one guy in the country.”
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Searching For A Few More Buckets
It’s become blatantly obvious to me that the Bearcats really miss one of the seniors from last year’s team.
No, not Yancy Gates.
I’m talking about Dion Dixon.
You haven’t thought about him in a while have you?
Oh sure, they miss Yancy too, but Cincinnati’s recent offensive woes have made me appreciate how difficult it has been to replace Dixon’s production.
Dion was UC’s second-leading scorer last year at 13.0 points per game and got to the free throw line a team-high 166 times (Gates ranked 2nd with 106 FTA). Furthermore, Dion was a key barometer in Cincinnati’s wins and losses as Dixon averaged 14.7 points in UC’s 26 victories and only 9.0 points in the ‘Cats 11 losses.
When the Bearcats thrived in a 4-guard “spread” offense last year, it was because all four guards could score. UC does not have a consistent fourth perimeter threat this year.
So what’s the fix?
Obviously, an end to Cashmere Wright’s shooting slump would be a godsend, but Mick Cronin knows his personnel better than anyone and that’s why he keeps talking about defense when his team is struggling on offense.
“Obviously I’m concerned about putting the ball in the basket, but when you play great defense and have high deflection totals, you’re going to create easy baskets in transition and you’re going to score points off of turnovers,” said Cronin.
Let’s face it: Cheikh Mbodj and David Nyarsuk are not suddenly going to morph into dominant low-post scorers and Titus Rubles and Justin Jackson are not magically going to start burying three pointers. But they can block shots and help create turnovers.
Here is a look at Cincinnati’s top five wins (by RPI rating) and how many points the Bearcats scored off of turnovers:
Marquette (#15 RPI) – 19 points
at Pitt (#32 RPI) – 8 points
Oregon (#38 RPI) – 24 points
Iowa St (#51) – 26 points
Villanova (#57) – 21 points
In those five quality wins, the ‘Cats averaged 19.6 points off turnovers. In their seven losses this season, that number drops to 9.1.
“Our steals have to go up and our turnovers have to go down,” said Cronin. “That was something that we were really good at last year – we were one of the best teams in America at getting more shots than our opponent. We have to get back to that.”
That doesn’t mean that Cronin is ignoring the Bearcats struggles on offense. He’s trying to find a way to get a guard-oriented attack as many easy shots as possible.
“You want to get layups, free throws, and wide-open three point shots,” said Cronin. “You don’t want to take contested shots. I would also say that you have to get more shots. We need to get more steals and generate more offense from our defense. That’s the number one thing that we’re capable of and need to do a better job of.”
Cronin also believes that focusing on aggressive defense will lead to stress-free shooting.
“When you have great hustle and intensity for loose balls, rebounds, and steals, it translates into offense,” Mick told me. “You have to get lost in the game with your hustle. I tell the guys that they have to play so hard that they don’t think about missing shots. Basketball is a marathon and you go through hot streaks and cold streaks. Your constants have to be togetherness, hustle, rebounding, and defense. Those are the things that will carry you through a season.
“We can’t try any harder to make shots. When you try too hard – that’s the problem. You have to be aggressive as an offensive player and you can’t worry about missing. No good offensive player in the history of the game would argue that point.”
All seven of Cincinnati’s losses are to teams that are in the RPI Top 100 and four of the losses were by four-or-fewer points. All the Bearcats need are a few more baskets a game…who says they need to come from their half-court offense?
“Here’s our defensive philosophy.” said Cronin. “When they have the ball, we’re trying to get it. Don’t just try to be solid and make them shoot over us – get the ball. If a guy drives anywhere near you, take it from him.”
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The Coaching Life Takes Its Toll
As I watched an angry and frustrated Mick Cronin barely touch his postgame meal after Wednesday’s loss at Providence, I was reminded of the advice he used to get from his mother. As the wife of a long-time basketball coach, the late Peggy Cronin didn’t necessarily want her son to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“My sister has multiple degrees and is highly educated and my mom – God rest her soul – told me to do better in school,” Mick told me recently. “I should have gone to law school and then I would be able to eat and sleep at night.”
But as a huge fan of the Godfather movies (the theme song is the current ringtone on Mick’s cell phone) he is also quick to quote the fictional mobster Hyman Roth in The Godfather: Part II by saying, “This is the business that we’ve chosen.”
Business has mostly been good for Cronin and the 17th-ranked Bearcats, but they came up short against a Providence team that is no pushover. The Friars are in the Top 100 of the RPI rankings and were coming off of a road win at Villanova on Sunday.
“People get the schedule at the beginning of the year and they go through it and say, ‘There’s a win,’” said Coach Cronin. “My brother loves to do that. I always tell him, ‘I don’t want to hear it, and I guarantee that it won’t be close to what you think.’ You can’t think about March right now and you can’t think back to November and December. You’ve got to try to get better each and every day and know that the minute you let up, you’re going to lose in this league.
“That’s how we clawed and scraped our way to rebuilding Cincinnati basketball. It’s not because we have five NBA draft picks running around. We did it by staying focused on just winning the next game. My job is to make sure that the guys are focused on that and nothing else because if you go into a game thinking you’re supposed to win, you will lose.”
The Bearcats scored a season-low 50 points in Wednesday’s defeat and have averaged just 54 points in their five losses this season. While UC has limitations on offense, ESPN’s Jay Bilas says that the Bearcats are deserving of their national ranking.
“I think that Cincinnati is one of the Top 20 teams in the country and they grade out that way from an efficiency standpoint,” Bilas recently told Mo Egger on ESPN 1530. “Defense is primarily carrying it for them. Cincinnati is an excellent defensive team and a really good rebounding team. Where the Bearcats can get into trouble is when they turn the ball over.”
Bilas made those comments one day before the Providence loss and proved to be prophetic when Cincinnati committed 15 turnovers against the Friars.
“That really hurts us in a lot of ways,” said Coach Cronin. “You can’t score if you turn it over, and you might get an offensive rebound if you get a shot off. The turnover also fuels the other team’s fast break and eliminates our defense. Just don’t throw it to them and we might score. We have some guys that can play.”
“Sean Kilpatrick and Cashmere Wright are their two best offensive players, but JaQuon Parker does a terrific job when he gets the ball in the right spots,” Bilas told Egger. “A lot of basketball comes down to ball movement and player movement. We can sit and talk about running this play or that play but it’s not plays – it’s players. I know that Mick Cronin tells his guys, ‘Be a player, don’t just run the play.’ The plays that he runs are all really well-designed.”
For the Bearcats to operate at peak efficiency on offense, they need Wright to play as well as he had before spraining his knee against DePaul. In four games since the injury, the senior point guard is 9-for-41 overall (22%), 5-for-24 from three point range (21%), and has as many turnovers as assists (9-9).
“He’s been banged up and just can’t catch a break,” said Cronin. “He may not look as tough as (former Bearcat) Bobby Brannen, but he’s every bit as tough. He’s every bit as tough as any guy that I’ve ever been around as a coach.
“For him, it’s just a matter of staying healthy and getting his rhythm back. The more he practices and plays games; he’ll get back to being his normal self. If he can stay healthy, he’s going to play well.”
Wright and his teammates certainly don’t have time to rest and recover. They begin a critical stretch of three tough home games in seven days on Saturday night against Pitt.
“The longer you’re in this business – and this is my 10th year as a head coach – you come to realize that this is a game of survival,” said Cronin.
His mother tried to warn him.
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MRI Provides Good News For Cashmere Wright
If you watched Oprah Winfrey’s big interview with Lance Armstrong on Thursday night, it began with a series of yes/no questions in which Armstrong finally admitted using performance enhancing drugs in all seven of his Tour de France wins.
At the exact same time as the Oprah/Lance interview aired on TV, I was asking Mick Cronin a few yes/no questions on his radio show about Cashmere Wright’s knee injury and status for the Marquette game.
Question: Will Cashmere play on Saturday night?
Coach Cronin: He’s day-to-day. That’s my status by the way. That’s the life of a coach – day-to-day.
Question: Did Cashmere have an MRI on Wednesday?
Coach Cronin: Yes.
Question: Is there any structural damage?
Coach Cronin: No.
The fact that there is no structural damage is the key piece of information. Let’s face it, when Wright was helped off the court in agony on Tuesday after scoring 20 points and dishing out 7 assists in just 22 minutes of playing time, it was impossible not to fear the worst.
“He was headed for an easy 30 (points) and 10 assists which is complete domination of a game,” said Cronin. “You don’t want to see him – or any player – go down, but especially him after what he’s been through. And then factor in that he’s playing the best basketball of his career. For him, (a serious injury) would be tragic, so it was great news that his MRI was negative.”
Ironically, Wright’s most recent injury was to his “good knee.” He’s had three surgical procedures on his left knee after tearing his ACL as a freshman, but sprained his right knee against DePaul. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for Cashmere to realize that it wasn’t as serious as his previous injuries.
“He went out at the 15:20 mark, and at the next time-out, I look up and he’s standing in the huddle and he’s giving me the eye like he wants to go back in the game,” said Cronin. “I would say that it scared him more than anything.”
To make matters worse, Wright was not the only Bearcat to suffer an injury in the game. In the first half, Justin Jackson was taken to the locker room with an injured wrist. X-rays were negative and Jackson returned to action with his wrist heavily taped.
Wright and Jackson did not do much at practice on Thursday and Cronin says he’ll be cautious in determining if either player will be allowed to take court the court on Saturday.
“It’s a long year and we have a lot of games left,” said Cronin. “Hopefully, we’ll have a lot of games in March, so I can tell you that I’m not going to take a risk now for no reason.
“(Cashmere) probably wouldn’t have practiced much anyway to be honest with you. From here on out with our major minute guys, we don’t need to practice a whole lot. Full-speed practice is not much more than an hour, the rest of it would be teaching points, scouting report, shooting, and individual work. That’s something that I believe in a lot, and obviously with Cashmere, he’s had some injuries.
“It’s a little bit different with Justin. He’s got a sprained wrist and he’s stiff. He’s another veteran guy that doesn’t need a lot of practice. So we’ll see how he feels. It’s his right wrist so that’s an issue for free throws, not that he’s shooting a lot of jump shots. But again, you’re not going to risk March for January.”
Since Jackson was able to return to the court after his wrist injury on Tuesday, it seems logical to expect him to play against Marquette.
As for Wright, Coach Cronin loves to quote the end of Rambo: First Blood Part II when Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) tries to comfort John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) before Stallone’s character walks off into the distance as the credits roll.
Colonel Trautman: How will you live John?
Rambo: Day-by-day.
Cronin told reporters that he was “Bill Belichick-ing” them – or not saying much – on all injury-related questions on Thursday, but it appears that Wright’s status is truly TBA for the upcoming games against Marquette and Syracuse.
“We’ll see how he feels on Friday…and Saturday…and Sunday,” said Cronin. “Seriously, I’m not trying to be funny, he is day-to-day.”
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Cronin Deserves Credit For Rebuilding Bearcats
Last year after the Bearcats’ thrilling road win at Villanova, a woman stopped Mick Cronin on his way to the team bus. It was the mother of one of the ‘Nova players and she told Mick how much she appreciated his postgame comments after the Xavier brawl.
A few weeks later, a few of us were having dinner with Coach Cronin during the NCAA tournament when a similar thing happened. This time it was a man who identified himself as a Musketeers fan and he praised Mick for the same thing.
I bring this up now because the Bearcats have dropped three of their last four games and I haven’t received a single e-mail criticizing Coach Cronin. It’s my belief that the way he handled himself after last year’s Xavier game caused many people to look at Mick in a different light and reconsider what he’s accomplished as Cincinnati’s head coach.
“I don’t know because I’m not sure how people look at me,” Mick said when I asked if he agreed. “You know me really well, and I’m concerned with being a great father, a great friend, a good brother, and a good son, but most importantly a great father. (My daughter) Sammy’s opinion of me is the one that matters most.”
Of course, the key for any coach to win over fans is to win games. Cincinnati has increased or equaled its win total in each of the last five seasons, made it to the Big East Tournament championship game for the first time last year, and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2001.
Simply put, Mick Cronin has successfully rebuilt Bearcat basketball.
“We had to rebuild a winning culture,” said Cronin. “Now the expectation of winning is there and the players are willing to listen, practice appropriately, and give the required effort – I don’t like to say extra effort – the required effort that it takes to win games.”
After starting this season 12-0 and climbing into the Top 10 for the first time since the 2003-04 season, the Bearcats have stumbled over the last two weeks in home losses to New Mexico, St. John’s, and Notre Dame. Scoring was a problem in all three defeats as Cincinnati averaged 55.3 points.
“Offensively, we’re just leaving too much on the table,” said Cronin. “We had seven second half turnovers (against Notre Dame) and they were all unforced. We shot over 50% in the second half, but we didn’t get enough shots off. We have to get ‘tighter’ on offense and the guy with the ball has to slow down so he can make a play. Whether it’s a simple ball reversal, making an assist, or putting the ball in the basket – when we slow down we’re fine.”
It would obviously help if Cincinnati had a reliable low post scorer.
“Would it be nice to have some guy down low that’s a monster that we could throw it to? Sure, but that’s an easy excuse,” Mick told me. “We just have to do a better job of moving the basketball. The key to making shots is taking easy ones. I need to do a better job of coaching our guys so that our passing improves. As our passing improves, we’ll make plenty of shots.”
Additionally, the Bearcats need to get more offense out of their defense. Last year in a 71-55 win over Notre Dame, the ‘Cats had 11 steals. In Monday’s 66-60 loss, UC only managed two steals and 21 deflections (UC’s goal is 40).
“We’re constructed to play in the passing lanes, run up and down, and stay on the attack,” said Cronin. “We need to be on the attack. The key for us is to get into transition.”
At one point last year, the Bearcats lost three straight Big East games to fall to 5-4 in league play. After that, they did not lose back-to-back games for the rest of the season.
There are at least 16 games remaining this season, and Cronin and the ‘Cats will look to get back on the winning track on Saturday at Rutgers.
“When you’re coaching basketball, it’s never as bad as it seems when your team is struggling and it’s never as good as it seems when your team is winning – that’s why you have to watch the film and evaluate,” Mick told me.
“They don’t give away wins in this league. We have to take it as a learning experience and do what we have to do to get better.”
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The Bengals Were — And Are — One Year Away
In his first two NFL seasons, Baltimore’s Joe Flacco won three out of four playoff starts – all on the road.
Pretty incredible right?
Here are Flacco’s stats for those four games: 37-for-85, 471 yards, 1 TD, 4 INT for a passer rating of 45.8. In one of the wins, Joe was 4-for-10, 34 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT for a QB rating of 10.0.
I bring up those stats because it seems to me that the national bash-fest of Andy Dalton after his second subpar playoff game is absurd. The playoff losses in Houston were not strictly Dalton’s fault, just as Flacco clearly didn’t deserve all of the credit for Baltimore’s postseason wins in his first two seasons.
Look, nobody knows for sure if Andy is going to develop into one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL, but I do think that his career if off to an outstanding start – especially when you consider that he inherited a team that was 4-12 the year before he arrived.
“I think Andy is an incredible quarterback,” said Andrew Hawkins. “He is going to continue to progress and continue to get better and he’s going to bring the Bengals a lot of wins and playoff wins for many years to come.”
Going into this season, I thought that the Bengals young nucleus was still one year away from being a championship contender. With a quarterback in his second season, a receiving corps made up mostly of first and second-year guys, and two rookies starting for most of the year at center and right guard, the offense is still developing. But despite their inexperience, the Bengals went 10-6 and ended the franchise’s 30-year draught without consecutive playoff appearances.
“We wanted our season to go further and felt like we had the potential to go further, but it was still a good season,” said Andrew Whitworth. “To make back-to-back playoff appearances is an accomplishment. It’s a young football team with a lot of promise and there’s a lot ahead of us.”
Unlike last season, the Bengals didn’t slide into the playoffs by simply taking advantage of a soft schedule. They beat three teams that finished with winning records (Baltimore, NY Giants, and Washington) and earned their postseason berth by knocking out the Steelers in Pittsburgh in a must-win scenario.
“Going into this season, I told the guys that we really hadn’t beaten anybody in big games,” said Chris Crocker. “We finally got over that hump, but we also gave away games that we should have won.
“The tide is kind of turning in this division. It’s not Pittsburgh and Baltimore anymore; we’re really somebody to reckon with. I feel really good about this team.”
“Everyone is learning and gaining from experience,” said Rey Maualuga. “Last year I thought we were good, and this year we were even better. With the guys coming back next year, who knows what this team can do? ‘Look out,’ I guess. These guys are a team to watch and a team to beat next year.”
The key is to keep getting better from top to bottom. Dalton appeared to regress late in the season, and needs to continue to improve at reading defenses and throwing accurate deep balls. A speedy and shifty compliment to BenJarvus Green-Ellis would be a boost to the running game, and Jermaine Gresham needs to become more consistent to live up to his immense potential at tight end. On defense, there are obvious questions at linebacker and safety that have to be answered, but the key pieces will be back from a unit that was the NFL’s best over the second half of the season. It’s a roster that needs tweaking instead of wholesale changes.
“The truth is there aren’t a lot of teams playing now,” said Whitworth. “Whatever we’re missing, there are a lot of other teams that are missing more.”
A second straight playoff loss in Houston has left a bitter taste in all of our mouths, but it hasn’t changed the way I felt about this team all along: It was – and is – one year away.
“Next year for the season to be a success, we have to go to the playoffs and win a playoff game. That’s how you take the next step,” said Hawkins.
“We have to live and learn from it and keep growing and keep beating on that door until we beat it in,” said Marvin Lewis.
“It’s time to push ourselves further,” said Whitworth. “It’s still going to be a young team, but we’re going to expect a lot of ourselves.”
“The sky’s the limit for this team in 2013,” said Geno Atkins.
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Bengals Fail To Go Green In Playoff Loss To Texans
The Bengals front office and Senior Producer Greg Cosell of NFL Films have something in common: Both had A.J. Green listed as the #1 overall player in the 2011 NFL draft.
“He is unbelievable,” Cosell told me recently. “When you watch him on tape, he’s just a ‘wow’ player. He is so smooth that you lose sight of the fact that he is almost 6’4” and nearly 210 pounds. He moves like a much smaller guy. He’s so smooth and fluid and has such great explosion – to me he’s an absolute joy to watch. He’s my favorite wide receiver to watch.”
But there wasn’t much of Green to see in the first half of Saturday’s 19-13 playoff loss in Houston.
Andy Dalton threw 10 passes in the first 30 minutes and none of them were tossed in the direction of Green. Five were thrown for Jermaine Gresham, three to Marvin Jones, and two to BenJarvus Green-Ellis.
“A couple of times Andy took off and ran when A.J. was the number one target,” said head coach Marvin Lewis. “But he can’t force the ball into coverage. He’s got to read the coverage and throw the ball into the weakness of the coverage. That’s what you want him to do. He can’t give in to ‘Oh A.J. didn’t touch the ball here.’ He’s got to make sure that he’s doing it the way it’s designed.”
“I would love to get the ball on every play but when they double me there are other guys on the team that can make plays,” said Green. “I tried to make plays whenever my number was called but we didn’t make enough as a whole team to come away with a win.”
It was clear that the Bengals coaching staff thought that the Texans defense was vulnerable up the middle and that Gresham would have opportunities, but it’s hard to fathom not throwing to Green at all for a half.
“You have to do what you do,” said my partner on the radio broadcasts Dave Lapham. “You can’t say, ‘OK, they’re playing Cover 2 and Jermaine Gresham is going to be on a linebacker or a nickel defensive back that he can physically dominate.’ Baloney. A.J. Green got you to the dance. I don’t care what the game plan was. You cannot go an entire half without putting the ball in his hands one time.”
To their credit, the Bengals adjusted in the second half as Green was targeted 11 times and caught five passes for 80 yards.
“We want to get the ball to A.J. as much as we can, and in the second half we were able to move him around a little bit and make some plays,” said Lewis.
Unfortunately, the Bengals were not able to connect with Green on a play that would have given them the lead with less than three minutes to go.
On third-and-11 from the Houston 36-yard line, Green blew past Texans cornerback Johnathan Joseph and safety Danieal Manning and was open in the end zone, but Dalton’s heave was beyond A.J.’s grasp.
“I was digging and I laid out, but I couldn’t get a hand on it,” said Green. “We’re both young and that’s something that we need to work on. Our deep balls this whole year weren’t consistent enough. That’s me and him – both parts. That’s the stuff we need to work on in the off-season.
“Football is a game of inches and that’s one thing that we need to get better at. We need to capitalize when plays are presented our way. That’s the next step to being a great team.”
The Bengals made strides in 2012 as they improved their record to 10-6 and made back-to-back playoff appearances for the first time in 30 years. But the season ended exactly where it did one year ago – with a first round playoff loss in Houston.
“We were 3-5 and dug ourselves out of that hole to put ourselves in the playoffs,” said Green. “We won 10 games which is difficult in this league so I feel like we took a step. The next step is to get past the first round.”
“We have to get better,” said Coach Lewis. “We can’t be satisfied with where we are. We’re not going to New Orleans, so we’re not satisfied. We have to push ahead and get better.”
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Bengals Need Dalton To Deliver In Return To Houston
One of my favorite stats about Andy Dalton is that he has thrown 35 touchdowns in the red zone in his NFL career and no interceptions.
That’s spectacular.
But ball security might not be enough to win in the playoffs.
Dalton has been sacked 46 times this season including eight times in the red zone – at least in part because of his reluctance to throw risky passes. Taking care of the football is obviously a good thing. But if the Bengals are going to beat the 12-4 Texans, Andy is going to have to take advantage of his opportunities to make plays.
“I watched all 46 sacks on Tuesday night because I wanted to see if there was any kind of consistency to them,” said analyst Mike Mayock who will call Saturday’s game on NBC. “I’m a big believer that pass protection starts with the quarterback and Andy is a young quarterback who is really concerned about protecting the football. So on the one hand, you applaud that – especially in the red zone – and he hasn’t thrown a red zone interception in his career. But the flip side to that is that I don’t think he rips the ball when he has a chance to rip it. I think what you’re seeing is a really intelligent young guy trying to figure it out, but for my money, right now he’s too far on the conservative side.”
“He’s a perfectionist and if it’s not perfect he’ll choose not to throw it,” said offensive coordinator Jay Gruden. “Sometimes he makes the right decisions and sometimes you’re like, ‘Thrown the dang ball please.’ But he’s got the ball in his hands and only he can see what he sees and the more he sees the route combinations and gets a feel for the defenses and how they’re covering, the better he is going to be. But for 30 starts or whatever it is, I think he’s done pretty darn good.”
If the Bengals can give Dalton time to throw against J.J. Watt (20.5 sacks), Antonio Smith (7 sacks) and the Texans pass rush, there will be opportunities to make big plays. Houston has good cornerbacks in Pro Bowler Johnathan Joseph and Kareem Jackson, but safeties Danieal Manning and Glover Quin have not graded as well.
“The Texans have given up 29 touchdown passes compared to 18 last year,” said beat writer John McClain from the Houston Chronicle. “The only playoff team that’s given up more is Washington with 31. They’ve given up 54 pass plays of at least 20 yards. That is third worst among the playoff teams. It’s not the corners, it’s the safeties. They’ve had injuries and the backup safeties playing in the two-deep have killed them. They have just not played well on the back end in passing situations so I would expect Andy Dalton to be throwing the ball deep to A.J. Green quite a bit.”
“They’re not playing cohesively in the back end,” said Mayock. “My take on Houston is those two pass rushers on the inside make all the difference and when you protect your quarterback you can get into their secondary. I don’t think their secondary when you break them down individually is great. When you get time, you can get into the secondary and without (the injured) Brian Cushing back there, that’s another problem because he’s an athletic linebacker and not having him in that intermediate area is a big deal.”
Unlike Cincinnati’s AFC North rivals Pittsburgh and Baltimore, the Texans are not especially confusing on defense. It’s a straight-forward scheme led by a tremendous player in Watt.
“I’ve never seen anybody in all the years that I’ve covered football have a season like Watt has had,” said McClain. “He has 90 plays – 90 – for zero or negative yards. On running plays alone, he has 24 tackles for loss and 15 tackles for no gain. He’s been involved in nine turnovers, set an NFL record with 16 passes deflected – the only thing he hasn’t done is intercept a pass and return it for a touchdown like he did in the playoffs last season.”
“They have some good blitzes here and there, but basically, they’re going to get after you with their front four and play a lot of man-to-man,” said Gruden. “By the time you can get open down the field, J.J. Watt and company are feasting at the quarterback. They done a great job with it, and the energy level that they play with on every snap is very impressive.”
“Their defense is more ‘Here’s what we do – beat it,’ ” said Dalton. “They have really talented guys up front and do a great job of rushing the passer and they rely on those guys a lot. That allows them to not do as much other stuff because they have a good front.”
Dalton was 2-0 at Reliant Stadium as a Katy Tiger and 1-0 as a TCU Horned Frog. He’s 0-1 as an NFL player in Houston, and Andy looks forward to getting another shot at beating the Texans in their own building.
“I know the stadium, I know the layout, I know all of that kind of stuff,” said Dalton. “Now it’s time for me to get the first win there as a pro.”
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Dan Hoard
