Cincinnati Preview
February 03, 2006 07:31 PM | General
February 3, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The job confronting Cincinnati's Andy Kennedy couldn’t have been any tougher: following in the footsteps of a legendary coach in August right before the start of school, being named an interim coach with no guarantees that he will be around next year, and taking over an experienced team with big expectations that has had to overcome a rash of injuries and suspensions. Kennedy is also down an assistant coach following the resignation of Keith Legree in November.
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| West Virginia's Kevin Pittsnogle scored a team-high 22 points in WVU's 71-70 win over Notre Dame Wednesday night.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
So goes the life of Andy Kennedy these days, a UC assistant coach the last five years. He played for Gene Bartow at Alabama-Birmingham and coached five seasons at UAB before going to Cincinnati.
To his credit, Kennedy has been able to steer his team clear of any major problems and brings the Bearcats into Morgantown with a 15-7 record and some pretty good wins on their resume.
“I don’t know Andy that well but I think he is making the most of his opportunity right now,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “They’ve played one of the toughest schedules in the country. They’re 4-4 in the Big East and there are an awful lot of teams that would like to be 4-4 in the Big East right now.”
Cincinnati beat Vanderbilt 92-83 back on Dec. 10, knocked off LSU 75-72 on Dec. 23, and outlasted Marquette 70-66 on Jan. 7. UC owns eight wins so far over RPI Top-100-ranked teams and a couple more wins will probably get them back into the NCAA tournament.
“When I was coaching at Richmond we played Cincinnati twice and Coach (Bob) Huggins left his mark on this team, too,” said Beilein. “They are a great defensive team, they are very athletic and tough as nails and just one night after another it’s the same deal playing terrific teams.”
Most recently, UC overcame a slow start to defeat South Florida, 73-60, at home on Jan. 31. Cedric McGowan and Jihad Muhammed each scored 18 points and the Bearcats used an 11-1 run to erase a seven-point deficit with nine minutes to go in the game. The win snapped a two-game Big East losing streak for Cincinnati, which is just 2-4 in its last six conference games.
“They’re really an impressive team the way they play, their rebounding; their defensive pressure is terrific,” Beilein said. “We’re going to have to handle the ball and take care of it well because they’re going to guard us.”
Six-seven senior guard James White rolled his right ankle with less than three minutes to go in the USF game and did not practice Wednesday, according the Cincinnati Post. White, the team’s leading scorer averaging 16.5 points per game, is expected to play Saturday against West Virginia, though.
The rest of the Cincinnati lineup consists of 6-6 senior forward Eric Hicks (14.4 ppg., 9.5 rpg.) and 6-9 junior center Ronald Allen (3.0 ppg., 1.8 rpg.). Hicks is the Big East shots blocked leader averaging 3.6 per game.
“He’s very good and he’s getting about 10 rebounds per game,” said Beilein. “He’s just a stud and Mike Gansey knows him well from playing with him last summer. Mike has told us how good he is.”
Chadd Moore, a 6-2 senior guard, and Devan Downey, a 5-10 freshman guard, are the top two players off a depleted Bearcat bench. Downey is averaging 12.7 points and 3.9 assists per game and is shooting 42 percent from 3-point range.
Moore is averaging 2.9 points and 1.7 assists per game. Cincinnati doesn’t have a player taller than 6-5 coming off its bench. The Bearcats are without 6-8 senior center Armein Kirkland, who injured his knee against Connecticut and is out for the season.
“You can count on them out-rebounding us, I know that,” said Beilein of UC’s lack of height. “I didn’t get to see them without Kirkland so I don’t know of a big difference.”
No. 11-rated West Virginia isn’t that much deeper, using primarily an eight-man rotation, but it has a senior-laden team that has been able to win close games recently to stay atop the Big East standings with a 7-0 conference record.
Most recently, the Mountaineers were able to hold on and defeat Notre Dame, 71-70, on Wednesday night when Chris Quinn’s runner was off the mark with three seconds left. West Virginia led by as many as 15 in the first half before the Irish went on a 3-point bombing spree.
Kevin Pittsnogle scored a team-high 22 to help West Virginia to snap Notre Dame’s 11-game winning streak over the Mountaineers dating back to 1999. He leads West Virginia in scoring with a 19.9-points-per-game average. Pittsnogle is now 15th in career scoring at WVU with 1,469 career points.
Pittsnogle, whose wife Heather was in labor for their first child as of early this evening, did not practice with the team on Friday.
“He’s at the hospital with her,” Beilein said. “We’re anticipating and waiting and praying that everything works out fine. We’re just hoping for a healthy baby.
“Hopefully they’ll have the baby by the end of the day but I know it’s been a long day for them. He’s going to be a very proud papa and we’re just waiting for the event,” Beilein said.
The coach said Pittsnogle will play Saturday against Cincinnati if there are no complications.
“I would assume there will be a bit of adrenaline going if I know Kevin,” Beilein said, adding that junior Rob Summers will start if Pittsnogle can’t be at the Coliseum.
Six-four senior Mike Gansey is averaging 18.8 points per game and is shooting 61.2 percent from the floor, including 49.5 percent from 3. On Wednesday, Notre Dame used a triangle-and-two defense to try and contain Pittsnogle and Gansey.
Joe Herber, who broke the school record for consecutive starts with 115 against Notre Dame, chipped in with 10 points against the Irish and is averaging 9.2 points per game. Herber is now 53 points shy of reaching 1,000 for his career.
Tip off is set for noon and the game will be televised by ESPN Plus. Stations carrying the game locally include WCHS (Charleston), WOAY (Beckley), WVFX (Clarksburg), WTOV (Steubenville, Ohio) and WJAL (Chambersburg, Pa.). There are no tickets remaining for the game.
