Big East proving too tough for UC

After his team’s win against the University of Cincinnati Sunday, Feb. 7, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim talked about what it’s like to be a team on the rise, trying to climb to the top of what he thinks is the toughest conference in the country, the Big East.

“It’s hard, it’s really hard,” Boeheim said. “In this league, if you’re at the bottom and you have to climb, you have to climb over about eight [teams]. In most leagues, if you’re climbing, you have to climb over three or four and you get to [fifth or sixth place]. In this league, you climb five [teams] and you’re still in 10th place. It’s not a good place to be.”

The Big East currently has five teams ranked in the Associated Press Top-25 poll and there are about seven more after which that are currently fighting for an NCAA tournament bid.

“The bottom teams are much, much better [this season],” Boeheim said. “Last year we had the three or four top teams and a couple others, but now we have those same teams, but we have more [good] teams down the line.”

Cincinnati (14-9, 5-6 Big East) is one of those teams striving to get to the top, but after a late-season collapse last season and dropping three of their last four this season, fans are starting to get impatient.

“They’ve got pieces, really good pieces, it just takes a while,” Boeheim said. “It’s just fitting them all together. I think that’s difficult to do when you have so many new faces. Stephenson’s a good player, Wright’s a good player, but they are new guys.”

UC’s young team looked like they were making progress when they beat then No. 24 Vanderbilt and No. 22 Maryland on its way to the finals of the Maui Invitational Nov. 25, 2009, where they eventually lost to Gonzaga in overtime.

But since then, the Bearcats have struggled on the road, losing at Xavier, UAB, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Louisville and Notre Dame. UC has a 1-6 record away from home this season, with its only win coming against Rutgers Jan. 2.

“We understand we play in the Big East,” said UC head coach Mick Cronin. “We understand we’re in the situation we’re in because we gave three games away or we’d be 17-6. But, even if we were [17-6], we would still have to play well on the next road trip and coming home in the next two.”

Cincinnati is now in tied for ninth-place in the Big East with South Florida.

Senior guard Deonta Vaughn said the team isn’t worried about where they stand, but rather where they will end up.

“We just know that we have some winnable games still ahead of us and the Big East tournament coming up,” Vaughn said.

Cronin said his team has become much better in the last three days and, “if we play the way we played [against Syracuse], we’ll be fine,” Cronin said.

Cincinnati has seven games remaining in the regular season, four are on the road and three are against top-10 teams.

“In February, you still have to play,” Cronin said. “You have to worry about the things that make you a good team and the things that make you a good player. Whether you’re 14-9 or 17-6, you have to be tough enough to hang in there and keep playing.”