Cincinnati News, Pittsburgh News, Ray Mernagh

MERNAGH: CRONIN’S PRESSER STEALS THE SHOW

Mick Cronin’s team fought hard.

Cincinnati rebounded the ball as well as any team has against Pittsburgh this year (23 on the offensive end).

They cut a once 23-point lead to 8 in the final minute, before falling 71-59.

They never stopped playing and got sensational efforts from their bigs on the glass.

But it was the big that wasn’t there, Yancy Gates, suspended for what sounds like at least an indefinite period, that Cronin was asked about post-game. And his response to the questions was worth waiting around for. Here, in full, is his entire post-game presser from his opening statement to his answers to all the questions the assembled media threw at him.

Cronin: “Well obviously Pitt has a great team and they played excellent basketball the first half. We were unable to take care of the basketball and that put us way too far behind and put ourselves in too deep a hole with our turnovers in the first half. That being said we missed a lot of layups, we missed some wide open shots, and to lose by twelve to a great team on the road it’s gonna be tough to watch the film and watch the missed layups and good shooters — Larry Davis i think he took one tough one but I thought he had 5 or 6 wide-open three’s. Kilpatrick took a tough one, he had a wide-open one but it was really the missed layups that killed us they’re back-breakers. You’re not gonna beat a great team in their own gym where they never lose if you’re missing layups. There was a little segment there where I thought we lost our composure but I was really proud of our guys in the second half we became a much better team and we learned a lot about ourselves and about our character and the way we cut that lead to eight against a team that people…that doesn’t happen to them in their own gym so I was really proud of our guys effort and the way they didn’t give up.”

Q: You mention the missed layups and then there’s the rebound numbers 23 offensive rebounds they usually don’t give up that….

Cronin: Yeah you know we really…our guys played hard I was really proud of our effort. The problem with those 23 offensive rebounds though was we only scored 16 second chance points. So we either get the rebound and we threw it out, we did a good job of passing out of traffic and not trying to go up too much in traffic but we miss six footers, ten footers, twelve footers you know you’ve gotta convert. You’re not gonna beat Pitt if you don’t convert. You gotta put the ball in the basket and we just, we didn’t do it. But it is something that you’ve gotta be proud of the way our guys played hard anyone that saw the game saw our guys never gave up so, and I think the rebounding shows how hard they were playing.

Q: You mentioned the other day that you were working on the offense and you struggled again to make shots is it just a matter of…

Cronin: It was layups today.

Q: Especially in the first half.

Cronin: Yeah the first half was a lot of layups. You can’t control that and I’ll tell you the growth part for us as a team was hopefully we learned tonight was that we let the missed layups the missed shots and then when Pitt made some tough shots we let it effect us. And that’s when we turned the ball over towards the end of the half. We were frustrated and Cashmere Wright is a guy I’ve gotta do a better job with and some of our other guys I think were frustrated with a lack of scoring and trying to force it. We didn’t force it early and when we tried to force it that’s when we turned the ball over. Can’t do that.

Q: You had no points from your starting guards until like 3 minutes left in the game…

Cronin: Yeah, that’s tough, it’s tough to win that way.

Q: Especially when your second-leading scorers (Gates) is at home…

Cronin: Yeah, you know our effort was great you know you look up we’re down 8, you know it was 10, we had two stops at 10 and missed wide-open 3′s both times no I think Wilks drove it I thought he got fouled no call but that happens, SK (Sean Kilpatrick) missed a wide-open 3 we had two chances to cut it there but you know it would’ve been monumental to come back from 23 down at Pitt.

Q: Did you change anything with Yancy not there?

Cronin: No no not…our ball movement and our execution is a lot better with him out of the lineup just because we don’t throw the ball into the low post…without him posting we have better spacing we get a lot more player movement our screening is better and I think it showed. We were just missing layups and missing shots.

Q: Did you think about starting Biggie (Anthony McClain) or why did you go with the lineup you did?

Cronin: No, yeah you know Tom I thought it would be tough to ask Biggie to do that you know Thomas has played more minutes. We thought about starting SK tonight but it would’ve been tough to give him his first start at Pitt.

Q: What about the way Biggie played?

Cronin: Aw you can’t ask anymore from Bigs other than the one free throw blockout where McGhee got him in the first half, he told me McGhee went in too soon on him and snuck him but Biggie always gives you great effort. I thought he was very effective too, he clogged the paint in the second half he got one blocked shot but I think he changed a lot of shots.

Q: You talked about wishing you could play him more with Yancy…

Cronin: I don’t have to worry about that now…I can play him without Yancy.

Q: Not what I was gonna ask you, I’m assuming Yancy is gonna be back at some point but can you find a way to play Biggie more with him?

Cronin: With who?

Q: Yancy?

Cronin: Yancy’s not with us right now so I don’t have to worry about that.

Q: You expect to meet with Yancy tomorrow?

Cronin: No

Pittsburgh writer breaks into the convo at this point…

Q: Can you talk about how Gibbs played in the first ten minutes?

Cronin: Gibbs is one of the best players in the country. I’m sure you guys have seen that before. When you shoot the ball the way he can shoot the ball with people guarding you that’s tough you know he can break your back.

Q: Did you feel you guys were on him?

Cronin: A couple of times we lost him a couple times I know two of ‘em where we were on him and it didn’t matter. He’s a great player.

Semi-uninformed guy asks (and I say semi-uninformed because Gibbs used the dribble to hit two runners in the lane and also took a bounce after an upfake before stepping back and drilling a three and he apparently missed it)

Q: He doesn’t necessarily create off the dribble though he relies on screens and…

Cronin: I mean you know he’s got a lot of Steve Alford in him (???) He’s got the mental game that’s the thing a lot of young players don’t have, he knows what he’s good at. I think he can play off the dribble and he does more than people think he just takes what you give him. Now he don’t dance with the ball like Corey Fisher but when Gibbs dribbles it’s effective. He’s got the most valuable thing a good player can have he knows what he’s good at and he maximizes that you know too many young players try to be somebody their not. He’s turned himself into a great great player by doing what he’s good at and too many young guys today listen to outside influences and people telling them well you gotta show that you can play off the dribble so you can make the NBA instead of just being the best player you can be. More kids ought to have his attitude because I saw him in high school and he did not shoot the ball that way and there’s no question why he is who he is, hours and hours of practice in the gym. If every kid had his mental game they’d all be better players no doubt about that.

Q: Do you have an idea of when you’ll meet with Yancy?

Cronin: No. I’m not concerned with it.

Q: You’re not concerned?

Cronin: Nope I’m worried about the guys that are here I love the guys that are here. We don’t have a lot of team rules, play hard, have a great attitude, be a good guy, it’s not that hard to be a Bearcat. You either do it that way or you don’t play for us. Doesn’t matter who you are, does not matter who you are, you’re gonna play hard, you’re gonna be coachable and you’re gonna have a good attitude.

Q: Which one of the basic Bearcat rules did he violate?

Cronin: Probably all three, in my opinion.

Q: Do you think this will be a lengthy suspension?

Cronin: Don’t know, never thought about it let’s worry about the Bearcats and the Panthers. Now I’m already worried about De Paul.

Q: Do you know how the rest of the players reacted when he wasn’t there? How that changed maybe what they did?

Cronin: I honestly do not their commitment needs to be to each other and commitment to the team. You’re gonna have to ask them that, they should be disappointed. You know the problem in college basketball today

Q: They should be disappointed?

Cronin: In him they should be disappointed in him. You watch all this stuff with college basketball today, this guy with twitter, this guy with that, it’s gotten lost that it should be a privilege to play for Jamie Dixon at Pittsburgh or to get to play at Cincinnati the home of Oscar Robertson and that you should take that and make the most of it. There’s too much in college basketball too many kids think they’re doing everybody a favor by being around. What they don’t realize but what you learn is if you don’t wanna be around somebody else will take your spot. Just like myself you know…Bob Knight got fired okay…Bob Huggins got fired you know everybody’s replaceable doesn’t matter how good you are player coach it’s a privilege and an honor to be a part of what we’re a part of and you need to have that attitude. It’s become what can you do for me instead of what can you do for the program? And I’m honored to be here and be a part of the program and there’s just too much of that and it teaches the wrong lessons to young people because the world doesn’t revolve around us and we all know that, you know it’s hard enough to find a job out there (AMEN BROTHER) and I believe as the son of a high school coach my players are gonna be taught to have the right attitude, learn how to be a good person, the world doesn’t revolve around you and I believe in those things and I’m always gonna believe in those things as long as I’m honored enough and privileged enough to be the coach at the University of Cincinnati. My players are gonna be taught that and they’re gonna live up to that and their gonna have that attitude and if they don’t then they don’t get to be a part of our team. But that’s what I believe it’s about and there’s just so much deterioration of players and disrespect of their players and of their coaches. I don’t believe the squeaky wheel should get the oil. What bothers me is the story shouldn’t be about Yancy Gates or whoever missed a game for Pitt, the story should be about the kids who do the right things, that’s who the story should be about. That’s my problem with all that stuff.

Q: Are you disappointed in him?

Cronin: Oh yeah absolutely, absolutely.

Q: Do you think his absence here cost you a chan…

Cronin: NO! Absolutely not! (laughs) not one little bit.

Q:Why not?

Cronin: I just don’t. Not at all and I mean that professionally I don’t mean that personally. I really believe that it did not have any impact on the outcome of the game. So you know it just bothers me that the stories about kids doing the wrong thing when we got kids all over doing the right things. We should celebrate those guys because what happens is you know like they said in the old days of the carnival — Rick Pitino used to tell me this — the dogs bark, but the caravan always moves on and we play at De Paul next.

And with that, Cronin left the podium.

Thank goodness I stayed around to listen.

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