What I want to see from the Bearcats this season

Posted By: R. Panth
October 21, 2003
  1. When you don’t know something, ask for answers: The trap is back, or so it seems. We all know there will be growing pains with assignment errors for the first few months with a full court press. When the players find themselves confused and not knowing what to do, they should say as much. Their coach Bob Huggins will always be there to help them when they make mistakes. He is known to slowly and patiently clarify what the eff they effed up, especially if it was the fifth time that he is explaining it to them and someone got a free dunk as a result of the (bleeping) moron’s boneheaded, stupid assignment error.
  2. Help your fellow Bearcats: It has been noticed for years that when Huggins finds himself out of ideas, he admits to Chuck that he doesn’t know. What amazes me is the fact that in all these years, not once has Chuck said, "Don’t worry Huggs. I do know" and explained to his friend what the answer was. Not once. You cannot possibly convince me that every single time that Huggins didn’t know, Chuck didn’t know either. That would be too ironic to be believable. Chuck should start helping Huggs with the answers when Huggins admits that he doesn’t know. If that is asking for too much, how about clues? Hand charades, maybe?
  3. Take it one game at a time: Imagine having to play two games at the same time. You couldn’t possibly do it if both games were at home. Maybe a double header with one game following the other but certainly not two games at the same time. It would be a logistical nightmare. They do play two games at the same time with split squad games in baseball during spring training, and that’s probably why baseball managers rarely tell their teams to take it a game at a time. A quick glance at the schedule shows that the Bearcats do not have two games on the same day at the same time. It is a relief to know that the Bearcats are not experimenting with split squad games and is allowing this young team to take it one game at a time.
  4. Make shots: It is tough to win if you don’t make shots. If you don’t make shots, you can’t score, and if you don’t score you will probably lose. Not scoring doesn’t necessarily mean that you will lose, but the chances are higher than they would be if you did score. Ex-Bengals Head Coach Bruce Coslet said it best a couple of years ago during a post-game news conference. He said, "If you don’t score, you can’t win. The best you can do is tie, but you can’t win." Therefore, "making shots" should be a priority this season.
  5. Stop thinking. React: Basketball, unlike chess, is not a thinking man’s game. It is a game of reaction. It is believed that one can, through repetition, train the muscles to spontaneously react to situations and events. Practices will no doubt be used to train players to react to situations and instinctively make adjustments, especially when a trapping defense is being used. Once these reactions become second-nature to the players, and thinking (as well as day-dreaming) is eliminated, the press should be extremely effective. In years past, it has been proven that Bob Huggins is capable of training his players in such a manner. In fact the training regiment has been so successful that Bearcat basketball players have shown a tendency to not think (and simply react) off the court as well.