Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Cincinnati Back in the Big East Game
Unless you're a complete college basketball junkie, the sport wasn't exactly a hot topic around your Fourth of July barbecues this weekend. You could watch "SportsCenter" from now through September and not get more than 10 minutes of college hoops content.
But news last week that uber-talented-yet-troubled prospect Lance Stephenson had ended his prolonged and bizarre recruitment with the decision to join Mick Cronin at Cincinnati got my jones going again.
If you haven't heard of Stephenson, well, you will. The 6-6 forward and McDonald's All-American out of Lincoln High School in Brooklyn is coming off a high school career that saw him finish as the all-time leading scorer in the history of New York.
All-time scorer.
New York.
That's the whole state, not just New York City.
That right there should put to rest any questions anybody has about his game.
But players who score damn near 3,000 points in high school don't last until late June and end up at Cincinnati for just no reason (no offense).
Stephenson has a pending sexual assault charge from last year and there are questions about his eligibility due to his involvement with sports apparel maker Under Armour, founded by a booster for Maryland, which just happened to be recruiting him heavily at the time.
For a guy who's just about 100 percent guaranteed to be one-and-done with college, a loss of eligibility, even for just a few games or a semester, would severely hamper the benefit Cronin will receive from landing the most talented recruit since the school employed one Mr. Bob Huggins.
But if Stephenson, No. 12 on the ESPNU Top 100, highest of any incoming Big East recruit, can skate past the New York courts and NCAA Eligibility hawks, this signing just made Cincinnati a serious factor in the 2009-2010 Big East.
Already respectable at 18-14 and 8-10 in conference last year, the Bearcats will be far from a one-man team. Returning from last year are guards Deonta Vaughn (15.3 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 4.7 apg) and Cashmere Wright (missed freshman year with torn ACL), plus forward Yancy Gates (10.6 ppg, 6.1 rpg as an all-conference freshman).
And this isn't last year's Big East they'll be facing.
Of the teams who finished above Cincinnati in the standings last year:
Louisville lost Earl Clark and Terrence Williams, two of the league's four NBA lottery picks, who were 1-2 in minutes, scoring, rebounding, and assists for last year's regular season and Big East Tournament champions.
Connecticut lost co-Big East Player of the Year in Hasheem Thabeet, not to mention guards A.J. Price and Craig Austrie, and forward Jeff Adrien.
Pittsburgh lost DeJuan Blair, San Young, and Levance Fields.
Villanova lost Shane Clark and Dante Cunningham.
Marquette lost Dominic James, Jerel McNeal, and Lazar Hayward.
Syracuse lost Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf, West Virginia lost Alex Ruoff, Providence lost Weyinmi Efejuku, and Notre Dame lost Kyle McAlarney.
Holy rebuilding year, Batman!
But of course losing those guys doesn't bury them. This isn't a mid-major conference, where losing your star player often means taking a big step back while waiting for another to develop.
Edgar Sosa and Samardo Samuels (Louisville), Luke Harangody (Notre Dame), Jerome Dyson, Kemba Walker and Stanley Robinson (Connecticut), and Scottie Reynolds, Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes (Villanova) are all back for at least one more season.
And that's just the guys who were there last year. Big East coaches get paid a lot of money, and much of that is due to their ability to recruit outstanding players year after year after year.
Of this year's ESPNU Top 100, 18 will play for Big East teams this season (third most behind the ACC with 22 and the Big 12 with 21). That includes four for Villanova, three each for West Virginia and Marquette, and two each for Connecticut, Louisville, and Pittsburgh.
And one very big one for Cincinnati.
Will an eligible Stephenson be enough to catapult the Bearcats to the top of the Big East standings? Probably not. Cronin still has some work to do in that regard.
But if the question is can Cincinnati return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since their 14-year streak was broken in 2006, the answer is an unequivocal yes.