Tales from the Cincinnati Bearcats Locker Room

by Michael Perry

  For the game-opening jump ball, Yoder was positioned next to Marquette star Butch Lee. When the referee tossed the ball in the air, Lee “gave me the biggest elbow in the middle of the sternum,” Yoder said. “As all hands go up for the jump ball, he hit me. I bent over and could hardly breathe. That was sending a message. Butch is from New York. I’m some country hick.”

  Yoder had the last laugh. The Bearcats won 63-62.

  Yoder was a junior-college All-American from Southern Idaho. He played high school ball in Topeka, Indiana, just outside of South Bend. It was a small country school with about 300 students, he said.

  Yoder, who at six foot four played center in high school, started his college career at Mississippi before transferring to Southern Idaho.

  He was the top scoring reserve for the Bearcats during the 1975-76 season and started in the backcourt with Collier as a senior in 1976-77 when he was named Metro Conference Player of the Year.

  ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END

  UC took a 59-game home winning streak into its matchup with 18th-ranked Florida State on December 27, 1977 at Riverfront Coliseum. The Bearcats were playing without starting point guard Eddie Lee, who had been suspended for one game for being late to a Christmas Day practice.

  And this game wasn’t going to end without a lot of drama.

  Ten points were scored in the final 69 seconds.

  A layup by Florida State’s Mickey Dillard with eight seconds remaining tied it at 75. UC had to go the length of the court to prevent overtime. Junior Bobby Sherlock, playing in place of Lee, took the inbounds pass, and dribbled twice. Then he sent a pass from the top of the key on the Florida State side of the court to Collier, who was on the right sideline, about 30 feet from the basket.

  Collier fired up a shot that went in. The Bearcats won 77-75 for their 60th consecutive victory at home—that tied them with UNLV for longest streak in the nation.

  There was controversy, though.

  Florida State insisted the ball did not leave Collier’s hands in time.

  “In my opinion, there was no question the shot was late,” Florida State coach Hugh Durham said afterward.

  “The ball was definitely in the air,” Collier said.

  Replays were not available at the time.

  The Bearcats’ next home game was 11 days later against No. 10 Louisville, which promptly ended the UC home winning streak.

  PARTING OF WAYS

  Catlett coached three consecutive UC teams to 20-win seasons, but in 1977-78 the Bearcats went 17-10. Some UC fans were growing unhappy with Catlett, especially after a first-round loss to Georgia Tech in the Metro Conference tournament.

  He had been at UC six seasons when the job opened at West Virginia, his alma mater; he was a college teammate of Jerry West’s.

  Catlett left Cincinnati to take over as coach at West Virginia and he coached the Mountaineers for 24 years before resigning after the 2002 season. Who would get first crack at that job but UC coach Bob Huggins, another West Virginia alum who ended up turning down the position. (More on that in chapter 10.)

  Back to Catlett.

  He left the UC campus and did not return until 22 years later, when Collier was inducted into UC’s Athletic Hall of Fame and asked Catlett to be his presenter.

  “I’ve been to his house in West Virginia,” Collier said. “He has all the pictures of our time (at UC). I’m sure he enjoyed our team. We had good kids. We didn’t cause him any problems. He had young kids at the time and they hung out with us.”

  Catlett was a major reason Cummings chose Cincinnati over Memphis, Oregon, Pittsburgh, and Florida. While Cummings thought Catlett was a very good coach, there was more to it than that.

  “The thing that impresses me to this day is he’s been a friend, not only to me, but to my family,” Cummings said. “When he went to West Virginia (in 1978), my family would go down there several times a year. And he treated them like they were family. They’re still close friends.

  “He’s from West Virginia. My parents are from Pennsylvania. Maybe he saw something in me or my family that were a lot like his roots. They just hit it off.”

  8

  ED BADGER ERA (1978-1983)

  FROM THE NBA TO DIVISION I

  In 1978, Ed Badger was nearing the end of his second year as head coach of the Chicago Bulls, who would finish 40-42. He had one year remaining on his contract with the NBA club.

  After Gale Catlett left UC for West Virginia, Cincinnati attorney Ron Grinker called Badger and encouraged him to apply for the position. Grinker represented Bulls players John Mengelt and Derrick Dickey, a former Bearcat.

  Badger wasn’t really interested but decided to go through the interview process as a favor to Grinker. He met with a group of school officials, including UC Athletic Director Bill Jenike, at a downtown hotel.

  By the end of the day, the job was pretty much Badger’s if he wanted it.

  Before taking over the Bearcats, Ed Badger coached the Chicago Bulls for two seasons. His 1976-77 Bulls team went 44-38 and advanced to the NBA playoffs. (Photo by University of Cincinnati/Sports Information)

  Badger not only wanted to talk to his wife, he was to discuss a contract extension with the Bulls ownership. That conversation did not go well. Meanwhile, he said, UC had called to officially offer him the job. The Bulls had no problem releasing Badger from the final year of his contract.

  The Bearcats had their new coach.

  He promised to bring a fast-paced, pro style of play to Cincinnati.

  “I didn’t know what kind of a career move it was,” Badger said.

  STRATEGY SESSION

  Soon after he accepted the UC job, Badger was in Doug Schloemer’s house in Covington, Kentucky. The Holmes High School standout, named Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball, had narrowed his college choices to Cincinnati and Charlotte, which had advanced to the 1977 Final Four with Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell.

  At his high school banquet soon after Badger’s visit, a UC booster was pressuring Schloemer into a decision. So he went ahead and announced that he would attend UC.

  In the sixth game of his career, the Bearcats were playing host to No. 6 North Carolina at Riverfront Coliseum. UC led by two points with 3:35 remaining. But North Carolina was ahead in the final minute.

  Badger called a timeout.

  Schloemer, a reserve who did not play much, was thinking, “Wow, this is pretty cool.”

  “I wanted to get up in the huddle and hear what (Badger) had to say,” Schloemer said. “Probably some big-time strategy. He pointed at all five starters and said, ‘Shitty, shitty, shitty, shitty, shitty. . . . You’re making me look bad. Now get out there and win this game.’ That was the extent of the huddle.”

  UC lost 62-59.

  TOUGH START

  Badger inherited a heckuva schedule from Catlett. In 1978-79, the Bearcats played in Long Beach, California, Boston, Atlanta, New York City, and Chicago. Perennial power North Carolina came to Riverfront Coliseum. UC played Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s Michigan State team at the Pontiac Silverdome in front of 31,683 fans; at the time, it was the second-largest crowd to see a college basketball game. “I thought I was back in the NBA,” Badger said. (By the way, Magic had just nine points and five turnovers in the fifth-ranked Spartans’ 63-52 victory.)

  While in St. Louis to play the Billikens on January 2, Badger received a phone call in his hotel room at 3:30 a.m. He was summoned to the lobby, where he found some of his players in handcuffs.

  They were accused of breaking into the hotel gift shop and stealing more than $2,000 worth of merchandise. “It started out as a joke, but then it wasn’t a joke anymore,” a player anonymously told The Cincinnati Enquirer. Lionel Harvey and Keith Hemans were permanently suspended from the team.

  A few days later, Cincinnati had a game at Virginia Tech. The Hokies were undefeated and playing host to a prominent recruit, Ralph Sampson, who watched the game from midcourt.

  Well, UC won 72-68 and Badger was in
a celebrating mood. He ran to the locker room and was jumping up and down.

  Student manager Neil Bendesky was icing down some pop and Gatorade in a pail that he placed just inside the locker room door. When Badger came jumping in, he landed right in the pail. His shoes, socks and pants were soaked. “Everything was wet,” he said.

  SORRY, GALE

  Perhaps the most rewarding victory of that season, however, came January 24, 1979, at West Virginia. The Mountaineers were coached by Catlett and came into the game with a 10-4 record. In December, nine months after he left UC for West Virginia, the Bearcats were placed on two years probation by the NCAA for violations that occurred during Catlett’s tenure.

  The Bearcats beat the Mountaineers 79-65. Catlett barely spoke to Badger, wishing him luck before the game and saying, “Good job” afterward. Catlett refused to speak to reporters after the game, leaving the arena after his postgame radio show.

  ROCKY ROAD

  Pat Cummings was part of a much-heralded freshman class that arrived in 1974, but he didn’t get to end his career with the group.

  He broke his left ankle at South Florida 18 games into his freshman season and had to watch as the Bearcats went 23-6, losing to Louisville in the 1975 NCAA Tournament.

  During preseason of his junior year, 1976-77, Cummings broke the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot. It would “pop again” while he was walking through campus. He had pins surgically inserted in his foot, sat out the season and spent months on crutches.

  Cummings averaged 18 points and 7.6 rebounds as a redshirt junior. Because he had been in college four years, he was eligible for the 1978 NBA draft. The Milwaukee Bucks selected him in the third round. Rather than turn pro, Cummings opted to return to UC for the 1978-79 season, the Bearcats’ first under Badger. Milwaukee retained his rights. It was the same move made that year by Indiana State’s Larry Bird, who was drafted by the Boston Celtics but returned for a final year of college ball.

  “I didn’t even watch the draft,” Cummings said. “I was in the gym shooting. I found out about it a few hours later.

  “Would it happen today, I would turn pro. But it was a different climate back then. The money’s different. I was probably a little naïve and really enjoyed college life. I wanted to graduate, which I did. I’m glad I stayed another year. I never regretted it. Evidently it worked out.”

  It didn’t hurt that Badger came right from the NBA to the Bearcats and brought a pro-style offense that ran through the forward position. Badger had been an assistant for the Chicago Bulls when Dick Motta was head coach; Motta would later coach Cummings in Dallas.

  Badger also had the ears of NBA personnel who were interested in Cummings, who averaged 37.5 minutes a game as a senior. The Bearcats started two freshmen, a sophomore, a junior and Cummings.

  “It was going to be a tough year no matter what, with all the seniors leaving,” Cummings said. “It was a transitional period. I enjoyed playing for Ed.”

  “He wanted to be an NBA player,” Badger said. “He was pretty receptive to me. He was a little wild at times, but he was coachable. You could get on him. He was a good 6-9 kid who could shoot outside.”

  HITCHING TO A HIGH SCHOOL

  One of Badger’s favorite recruiting stories involves Doug Kecman from West Mifflin, Pennsylvania.

  Two aunts raised Kecman; his mother died of cancer when he was 12, and his father was killed in a steel mill accident when he was 16.

  The first time Badger went to see Kecman play, he flew in a private airplane to Allegheny County Airport. It had started to snow, and Badger did not bring a jacket. He went into the terminal and asked how to get a taxi. “We haven’t had a cab here in 10 years,” he was told.

  Badger said he had to walk about three quarters of a mile to get to a highway.

  “Here I am coaching a major college team,” Badger said. “I can’t get a cab. It’s snowing. I don’t have a coat. And I’m hitchhiking.

  “All of a sudden, some kid comes along and picks me up.”

  Badger asked the boy whether he knew where West Mifflin High School was. Turned out the kid went there.

  “It’s only a few miles away,” he said

  “I’ll give you 10 bucks to take me,” Badger told him.

  After the student dropped off Badger, he said, “You want a ride back afterward?”

  Sure, said Badger. He watched the game sitting between Kecman’s aunts, then got his ride back to the airport. Kecman eventually signed with UC.

  BAD OMEN

  It maybe shouldn’t come as a big surprise that Myron Hughes ended up having an injury-plagued UC career given the way it started.

  Hughes, who led Colbert County High School to an Alabama state championship as a senior, chose Cincinnati over Tennessee. He liked the talent Badger was bringing in, and he liked UC’s business college and the kinds of companies that were in Cincinnati. His goal was to be an Academic All-American, and UC gave him the best chance to do that, he felt.

  While warming up for his very first game, the 1981-82 season opener against Bellarmine at Riverfront Coliseum, Hughes accidentally ran into teammate Mike Williams and broke the ring finger on his shooting hand.

  Hughes played anyway, mostly using his left hand. He nailed his first shot and finished with eight points. After the game, X-rays revealed that his finger was dislocated and broken in three places. He had surgery and missed the next eight games.

  THEY DID WHAT?

  Hughes traveled to Peoria, Illinois, for the December 21 Bradley game, but he was so frustrated about not being able to play, the coaching staff let him fly home to Alabama for a long Christmas break.

  Hughes left the morning of the game and was traveling all day. He had no idea what happened. When he arrived home, his family told him UC and Bradley had played an NCAA-record seven overtimes before the Bearcats prevailed 75-73.

  MUCH MALIGNED

  From 1979-83, the Bearcats went a combined 55-57 under Badger and never played in the postseason. Nobody heard more from frustrated fans than Junior Johnson.

  The six-foot blond guard from Lexington, Kentucky, who spoke with a “Kentucky accent,” was a first-team all-state player as a senior when he led Lexington Lafayette to a high school state championship. He scored 1,665 career points and handed out 750 career assists. He set single-game school records for points (42) and assists (15).

  “Junior is a star of the future,” Badger proclaimed.

  Over his four-year UC career, Johnson would never average more than 6.4 points in a season, and that came his sophomore year.

  “Everybody in the school thought they were a better player than he was,” teammate Derrick McMillan said. “He was a guy who was never well respected by fans and other teams but . . . Junior knew how to run a team. His intelligence on the floor was very eerie.”

  Johnson experienced more than his share of booing from fans. It was the students who were hardest on him.

  “I wasn’t supposed to shoot, and then when we didn’t score, you had the coaches saying that we’re not getting enough scoring out of our guard position,” Johnson said. “My responsibility was not to score points. It was to break pressure defense and get us into our offense.”

  “He had a lot of pressure on him,” McMillan said. “Maybe it was self-inflicted pressure because he had such high expectations.”

  In one stretch during his junior season, UC lost seven straight games, including to Xavier (53-51) on January 27, 1982. In that game, Johnson had no points, two assists and five turnovers in 13 minutes. Fans at Riverfront Coliseum targeted Johnson. What they didn’t know was that for months, he had been driving back home to Lexington after practice four or five times a week.

  His grandfather was terminally ill with cancer—and, in fact, died before the season ended. Johnson’s mother had been diagnosed with “a bad form of diabetes,” and he didn’t know how that would affect her. Johnson was close to his family and had a hard time balancing basketball, school and his personal con
cerns.

  “Obviously, I wasn’t at the peak of my game,” he said. “That’s probably when I caught the most flak. We started losing, and I just wasn’t playing well. If the point guard’s not playing well, it’s not good for the team. We had a bunch of injuries, too. Nonetheless, I was trying to do a lot as far as supporting my mom.

  “I could understand people being irritated and mad, but it was hard to be stepped on when you’re going through the toughest time of your entire young adult life. That was the first time anyone close to me was really, really sick.”

  Johnson was benched after the Xavier game. He hesitated to go public with his family problems. A month later, when he entered a home game against Florida State, he was booed again. He ended up making two free throws that secured an 84-83 victory.

  “I didn’t want to make any excuses,” he said. “I wasn’t mad. It hurt my feelings. There’s a difference.”

  That said, Johnson said he left UC with great memories and remained involved with the program. He lived in Cincinnati and Lexington until 1996 and owned six Picture Show Video stores, three in each city. His Cincinnati store managers often hired UC players to work in the off season.

  “I had nothing but good times,” Johnson said. “I went to the right school. Every one of my memories is positive. Not winning more was frustrating, but we had a number of factors that contributed to that. I got a great education. I graduated on time. I met a lot of great people. I love Cincinnati. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have come around so much after I got out of school.”

  IF ONLY ‬

  During Badger’s last season at UC (1982-83), he worked hard to recruit a player out of Toledo Bowsher High School named Dennis Hopson. Badger said he saw Hopson play about 18 times and had a great relationship with his family. Hopson said that on a visit to UC to see a game, he committed.

  “I was going to come there,” Hopson said. “I loved Coach. Coach Badger was the man. I wanted to play against Louisville and those types of teams. I was ready to go.”