Kil-ing them softly

Photo Courtesy of Cincinnati.com

By: Hunter Tickel

En route to its second road win over a top-15 team in the past week, the University of Cincinnati nearly let one go.

Guard Sean Kilpatrick hit a game-winning 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds remaining to break the deadlock, as the Bearcats escaped Storrs, Conn. with a 70-67 upset of No. 13/11 Connecticut on Wednesday.

“Once I saw [Kilpatrick] had [the ball], I liked our chances,” said UC head coach Mick Cronin. “If they come up, he can [get to the free throw line]. If they back up, he is a confident shooter. You just roll the dice in that situation. My belief in him took over; I just let him go.”

With less than two minutes remaining, UConn stormed back from an eight-point deficient as guard Shabazz Napier dropped 10 points during that span, including a long-range jumper to tie the game with nine seconds left.

UC (15-4, 5-1) did just enough to come away victorious after missing the front end of two one-and-ones, while shooting 1-of-4 from the free throw line down the stretch.

“It would have been a tragic loss,” Cronin said. “We started missing free throws up eight [points] with our best foul shooters getting fouled. If we walk up there and make the first [two], you’re up 10, and the game is over. I guess we kept it exciting for ESPN.”

UConn guard Jeremy Lamb converted two shots from the charity stripe at the 6:52 mark to complete a 20-7 run and give his team its final lead of the contest.

The Bearcats answered with a 10-0 spurt, capped by a Kilpatrick corner 3-ball to extend their lead to eight.

“We’ve got answers on the offensive end,” Cronin said. “We weathered the storm. In the last 10 minutes of the game, we are a different team defensively. We really lock down. A big part of that was rebounding.”

Senior forward Yancy Gates grabbed a game-high 12 boards to go along with 13 points, for his fifth double-double of the season and 18th as a Bearcat.

Four other teammates joined Gates in double figures, with Kilpartick netting a team-best 16 points including 4-of-9 shooting from distance.

The Huskies dropped their first home game of the season as Cincinnati garnered its seventh consecutive road win in the Big East, dating back to last year.

Napier carried the Huskies while burying a game-high 27 points, in addition to seven assists.

Just past the midway point of the first half, UC held a two-point advantage before notching a 10-0 run for its largest lead of the game.

Cincinnati shot 7-of-14 from 3-point range in the opening period as it took a nine-advantage into
the intermission.

The Bearcats will face former head coach Bob Huggins as they travel to Morgantown, W. Va., Saturday for a 3 p.m. tip-off on ESPNU.

“It gets a lot easier,” Cronin said. “Just as long as we have [Kilpatrick], we’ll be fine.”

Bearcats earn 7th consecutive road win in Big East

Sophomore guard Sean Kilpatrick dropped a career-best 27 points in a win at Georgetown.

Here is my soccer article on UC players making academic all-state teams.

Please read and leave me feedback. Also I'm starting a new blog called Tickel's Rehabilitation, in which I'll be chronicling everything that has happened to me. The link is hunter-tickel.blogspot.com. This is for my blogging class at UC and I need comments on this blog in order to complete the course successfully. So bring me some traffic and contribute in the comments section.

No fight left in Irish

Here is my link to my first article in six months, feedback is appreciated. UC won its Big East opener and 7th straight in dominating fashion.

4 things to take note of from the Bearcats in 2011-12

Listen up, freshman. You rookies will be relied on to continue the storied tradition of University of Cincinnati athletics. If you didn't keep up with UC's sports scene last year — or the past few years — it's time to catch up.

First lesson: football. Can you smell that? That is the smell of the best time of year, football season, which is right around the corner. Get your face paint ready, fire up those grills and buy tickets early because you don't want to be the one person in the group sweating it on gameday.

Prior to last season's dismal meltdown, the football team was the hottest athletic program on campus, but now the men's basketball team has reclaimed that title.

A new era was ushered in when former assistant to Bob Huggins, Mick Cronin, became the new head coach in 2006.

Cronin faced an uphill battle from day one, especially since the Bearcats were leaving Conference USA for the Big East — arguably the toughest conference in college basketball.

With this quick briefing, here are the four things to take note of in the upcoming year.

Can Cronin cope with the expectations?

Last season, Cronin took UC to the NCAA tournament for the first time in his five seasons at the helm.

This ended a five-year hiatus for a city that had grown accustomed to seeing UC's name called on Selection Sunday.

The Cincinnati alumnus took the Bearcats to the Big Dance after losing his top two scorers — including 2010 NBA second-round draft pick Lance Stephenson. The Big East coaches picked the Cats to finish 12th in the conference, basically giving Cronin a free pass to have an average season.

Cronin didn't get the message. He ignored what experts said about his team and instilled trust in his core group of players. The end result was the team's 11-7 Big East record — its best since joining the league. The Bearcats subsequently advanced to the third round of the NCAAs after dismantling Missouri in the second round.

This year's team has a completely contrasting identity. SI.com has UC ranked as high as No. 8 in its preseason poll.

Several times last season, UC relied on savvy veteran leadership, but, with the departure of six seniors, that could potentially change this season.

Seniors Dion Dixon and Yancy Gates — who typically shy away from vocal roles — will have to be more assertive on the court and in the locker room.

Cronin is sure to have a raised and possibly unfair bar this year, and only the results on the court will tell if he can meet it.

UC takes its first trip to SEC country since 1995

If there is a road trip you want to take to follow your Cincinnati Bearcats this school year, Knoxville should be your destination when the Bearcats football team takes on the Tennessee Volunteers Sept. 10.

According to SI.com, Tennessee is the best college football weekend experience in the nation. Who wouldn't want to be among more than 100,000 disappointed fans in Neyland Stadium if UC steals a win?

The game will be televised on ESPN2, giving the Bearcats a chance to replenish its image on the national scene. This is your first and best chance of the year to become a part of the Cincinnati sports tradition, freshman, so don't be lazy and waste it.

Butch Jones 2.0

Under previous head coach Brian Kelly, the Bearcats won back-to-back Big East Championships, garnered four straight bowl appearances, which included an undefeated 2009 regular season where the Bearcats rose as high as No. 3 in the Associated Press poll.

Since Kelly left, however, the Cats haven't been the same razzle-dazzle, explosive offense. Jones will need to find consistency on both sides of the ball to return to the postseason.

The Bearcats were top in the league in several offense statistical categories, and placed four skill players on all-conference teams. Their defense, however, was the laughing stock of the Big East. The poor defense coupled with the team's untimely turnovers, led to an unthinkable 4-8 2010 regular season.

What sports program will emerge this year?

Since UC joined the Big East in 2005, five programs have earned league hardware: volleyball, men's soccer, football, swimming and track and field.

Last year, the volleyball team won the Big East regular season title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Going into the 2011 season, however, the Bearcats will face adversity with the departure of seniors Annie Fesl and Stephanie Niemer — two players who are now in the program's record books.

The men's soccer team was the biggest surprise last year. The team had a second-place Big East finish after being picked to finish in the cellar in the preseason coaches' poll.

Bearcats junior hurdler Terrance Somerville ran one of his best seasons this past year, advancing to the final heat and being one of the eight finalists in the NCAA 110-meter hurdle Championship.

With Somerville back for another season, the Bearcat hurdler is sure to post even bigger numbers and will look to become the first UC track champion.

Tickel Your Fancy

Here is a piece on one of the best coaches in NBA history.

Here is my latest on the Westbrook fiasco and why his future with the Thunder is in doubt.

20 seconds from glory

Cincy alumnus races for final U.S. roster spot

Hunter Tickel | Sports Editor

One of the most accomplished athletes to ever set foot on the University of Cincinnati campus — swimmer Josh Schneider — may take the biggest step of his career Thursday.

The UC alumnus will compete in a swim-off with Olympic gold-medalist Cullen Jones for the final roster spot on the U.S. team for the 2011 FINA World Championships. The 50-meter freestyle will begin at 6:20 p.m. in downtown Charlotte.

The pair have been set to square off since August 2010 when they recorded identical times of 21.97 seconds at the 2010 Conco Philips National Championships.

Schneider dubbs this race as the biggest meet of the year and possibly his life.

"The emotion is pretty high because if I lose I don't get to go, but if I win, I get to represent my country," Schneider says.

Schneider's shot for a spot on the national team wasn't guaranteed after the National Championships seven months ago.

His time in the 50-meter competition was disqualified after his current coach at SwimMAC — Charlotte David Marsh — entered him into the 100-meter competition in addition to the 50-meter.

Schneider didn't show up to the 100-meter because it took place prior to the 50-meter freestyle. Regulations in swimming state that all times athletes record if they miss their first race do not count toward qualification.

A rule that Schneider says is for age-group swimmers, not those competing on the national stage.

"I had to get it appealed," Schneider says. "We got a lawyer involved calling in to sign off on the agreement that if the time was going to be counted, we would have to go into a swim-off,"

Schneider says it was a honest mistake and a coaching error.

Jones is the only person that stands between Schneider and a spot on the 2011 U.S. national team, and, coincidently, the two are training partners for SwimMAC — something that Schneider says raises the level of competition during practice.

At practice, the two don't talk about the race and understand that if either of them is to make it to the 2012 Olympics in London, they will have to knock the other off in the process.

"When we found out my time counted, we knew we were going to have to swim against each other," Schneider says. "That's just the way it is. Only two people can go and we both know that."

Schneider is a two-time medalist at the FINA World Championships. He won the bronze in 2010 in Dubai for the 50-meter short course, making him the current American record holder with a 20.88 time. Despite this accomplishment, Schneider is still crafting his game and remaining humble.

"I'm learning so much still, so I still have much to improve on if I'm going to be a contender for a medal at the Olympics," Schneider says. "I'm just defining everything. I'm never set in stone with my technique. If someone has a suggestion for how to get faster I always listen."

Schneider posted a repertoire of feats during his time at UC. He was a five-time all-American, seven-time Big East champion, named the conference Swimmer of the Year twice, broke 22 program-records and finished undefeated in the 50-meter his senior season.

"My time at UC gave me a foundation to further my career as a professional swimmer," he says.

Schneider says the most rewarding part of being a national champion is the recognition he provided for a UC program that hadn't had a national winner since 1946.

"I talked to a few recruits before I left and I've heard that a few of them came there because I swam there," Schneider says. "They were looking for a chance to be a breakout swimmer."

Prior to Schneider's graduation in March 2010, he said that he wanted to land endorsements of which he currently has three. He has also continued his preparation for the 2012 Olympics.

"When you get to the World Championships, especially this year, it's the dress rehearsal," Schneider says. "It gives you a honest perspective of where you are in the world rankings."

Kelce preserves tradition

Former Bearcat makes leap to pros

By Hunter Tickel | Sports Editor

It's the final day of the 2011 NFL draft. Exactly 190 players have been picked six rounds in, and yet, not a single Cincinnati Bearcat has been selected.

But that changes when an incoming call containing the first three digits 215 appears on Jason Kelce's phone in his home in Cleveland.

"I was sitting there and saw [on my phone] that the Eagles were coming up with a few picks," Kelce says. "I said, ‘Well, if I'm going to get picked, it's probably going to be right here.' I stared at my phone. I saw the Philadelphia area code pop up."

After speaking with head coach Andy Reid, Kelce joins the Eagles franchise Saturday.

The 6-foot-3-inch, 282-pound NFL draftee's frame was a shell of its current self when Kelce first set foot on the Cincinnati campus.

He weighed in at 215 pounds when he was recruited by current Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio in 2006. After redshirting his first season as a walk-on, Kelce was primed to play linebacker, but that changed with the hiring of current Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly.

"The coaching changes really helped me get where I am at today," Kelce says. "Kelly brought on strength coach Paul Longo. He was really the one that saw that I had the build and mentality of an offensive lineman. I made the switch and, from then on, he was building my body."

Kelce earned a scholarship in 2007 and began his journey to becoming a larger presence on the offensive line in the Big East. Initially, the Cleveland Heights, Ohio, native was not overwhelmed with the prospect of joining a BCS program without a roster spot.

"I was very confident," Kelce says. "I entered the UC program as a walk on, but in my head, I was better than everybody else was. I'm a little bit big-headed — I guess I try to be humble as much as I can."

In his first year of playing time he appeared in nine games as the offense averaged a program-best 36.3 points per game.

Kelce finished his college stint with 38 starts and was a two-time second team all-Big East selection. He led a unit that earned UC its first 1,000-yard rusher in nearly 10 years.

All of these feats helped pave the way for the highlight of his career.

"You work your whole life for one common goal: to make it to the NFL," Kelce said. "Once you are there, it all starts all over again. You are basically a freshman again. At least now I know the opportunity is there for me to make it."

Kelce already begins his transition from the collegiate level to the pros with skepticism among NFL experts. Kelce has been told that he lacks the physique to have an impact on the next level.

"I find it very hard to believe that I am undersized," Kelce says. "I have heard this from a lot of scouts. There are plenty of centers in the league that are my size or smaller that start in pro bowls."

He's right; five-time all-League center Jeff Saturday stands at 6 foot, 2 inches and 295 pounds — a similar frame to Kelce.

As the lone Bearcat selected this year, Kelce kept the school's five-year run of players drafted intact. Kelce is confident that the current players will carry on the school's success despite a 4-8 record last season.

"This program has completely transformed since I have been on campus," Kelce says. "I think it's a testament to show where the program is at now and that the UC program is here to stay."

Kelce will join former UC stars Brent Celek and Trent Cole in Philly. Celek has already reached out to the rookie, sending him his phone number through Twitter. The trio of former Queen City inhabitants will look to represent the city on the East Coast.

"It sucks that I am leaving Cincinnati, it really does," Kelce says. "I love this city and university. [But with] everything I have heard about Philadelphia — I can't help but be excited."