Tales from the Cincinnati Bearcats Locker Room

by Michael Perry

  After a few days of reflection, Kilpatrick ultimately decided to redshirt and put his trust in his coach.

  IN THE CLUTCH

  In the first Big East Conference game of his career, Stephenson and the squad faced No. 10 Connecticut and star Kemba Walker, who would lead the Huskies to the 2011 NCAA title.

  Cincinnati watched a 12-point second-half lead disappear and faced a tie game after Walker made a 3-pointer with 9.4 seconds remaining. Cronin did not call a timeout. Stephenson got the inbounds pass and dribbled up the floor. He made a few moves to try to get open and ended up forcing up a shot in a crowd in the lane. It missed. The buzzer sounded. And Stephenson lay on his stomach on the floor.

  But a foul was called on Gavin Edwards. After officials reviewed the game footage, they put .7 seconds on the clock.

  Stephenson went to the foul line and made both free throws to complete UC’s 71-69 victory.

  “I remember how close and how physical the game was,” Stephenson said. “The whole crowd was into it. It was like a championship-game experience. I got excited about games like that. I like physical games.

  “I felt real comfortable [shooting the free throws]. I felt like I could be one of the clutch players on the team.”

  Stephenson finished with 21 points and sensed a change in how people felt about him.

  “I thought Coach trusted me after that game,” Stephenson said. “It was a turning point of my season. When you hit clutch shots like that with the game on the line, a lot of people have a lot of faith in you.”

  ONE AND DONE

  By the time UC was playing in the Big East Tournament, Stephenson said he knew he was going to declare for the NBA draft.

  Stephenson averaged 12.3 points and 5.4 rebounds in his one year of college basketball with high games of 23 points against Georgetown University and 22 against Xavier University. He had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds against DePaul. He grabbed 11 rebounds against Texas Southern.

  He was named Big East Rookie of the Year and, at times, showed glimpses of why there was so much hype surrounding him coming out of high school. He also shot just 21.9 percent from 3-point range.

  “I felt like I was physically ready,” he said of the decision to turn pro. “It was a family decision. I wanted to get to the NBA and learn as much as possible.”

  The Indiana Pacers selected Stephenson with the 40th overall pick in the second round of the 2010 draft. In 2013-14, his fourth NBA season, Stephenson led the Pacers in rebounding and assists and was their No. 3 scorer; he was second in voting for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.

  “Cincinnati definitely helped me on the court and helped me become a man,” he said.

  Cronin said the decision to leave was harder for Stephenson than people think.

  “Lance is a pretty bright guy,” Cronin said. “He knew that he didn’t dominate college basketball. He knew he needed to improve. He liked Cincinnati. His first year with the Pacers, he was in Cincinnati almost every off day.”

  HELPING HAND

  Despite the fact that the team went 24-38 in Vaughn’s first two seasons, Vaughn said he never considered transferring to another school.

  Six games into his senior year, the Bearcats were ranked for the first time under Cronin, coming in at No. 22. Unfortunately, Vaughn never got a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament.

  “I don’t know how we would’ve scored for a few years without him,” Cronin said. “He was the first rock the program was rebuilt on; no question about it.”

  Vaughn’s role changed somewhat as a senior. He shot fewer times. And at the end of games, it was Stephenson who often had the ball in his hands.

  “It was different because we had somebody else who could create just as good as me,” Vaughn said. “At the same time, it was something that I never focused on. We were a team; it’s not like I had to shoot every shot now for us to win.”

  Vaughn averaged 11.7 points as a senior, shooting 37.8 percent from the field and 33.8 percent from 3-point range. He took and made fewer shots than he had in his previous three seasons.

  “I did everything that I could with the help of my teammates,” Vaughn said. “I liked the way they rebuilt the program. It was a great opportunity for anybody because of the family atmosphere and how everybody treats you there. And we took Cincinnati from nothing back to something.”

  By the time Vaughn was done, he had set school records for career assists (511), minutes played (4,310), games started (123), 3-point field goals (313), and 3-point field goals attempted (913). He left as UC’s No. 3 all-time scorer (he was later passed by Kilpatrick) and was the first Bearcat ever to total 1,800 career points and 500 assists.

  “It sounds like somebody who worked hard to get to somewhere that no one thought that he could get to,” Vaughn said. “It boggles my mind. I can tell my kids, ‘Your daddy went to college and he became a player people will know later.’”

  LEADING BY EXAMPLE

  Early in the 2010-11 season, Cronin was unhappy with this players because he didn’t think anyone was diving on the floor for loose balls. He called for a drill to help solve that.

  “He rolled the ball down the court,” Wright said. “You had to chase it, and instead of picking it up you had to dive on it.”

  After less than a handful of players did not perform the drill to Cronin’s satisfaction, he stepped to the front of the line. He threw the ball down the court and went and dove on it himself.

  “Once Cronin gets upset, you have no choice but to get into it, or you’re going to do it all day,” Wright said. “It got to the point where the trainer was looking at him and saying, ‘Hey, that’s enough.’ He was like, ‘It’s not enough until I say so.’

  “We thought it was funny, but he was serious. He was full-out Mick Cronin-style-serious and yelling. You can’t laugh then. We waited until we got into the locker room, and then everybody started laughing.

  “It definitely set the tone for the season. I think it more so changed how we looked at him. We realized he may yell a lot, but you have to figure out the difference in what he really means and what he’s trying to say. Once he dove on that ground to show us ‘I’m with you all, and this is how we’re going to play,’ the team kind of bought into the whole system.”

  REVENGE PLUS

  The 2009-10 season ended with a disappointing 81-66 loss to the Dayton Flyers in the National Invitation Tournament at Fifth Third Arena. That UC team had Vaughn, Yancy Gates, and Stephenson.

  No question that game was on the Bearcats’ minds when they faced an undefeated Flyers team on November 27, 2010, at U.S. Bank Arena.

  “Everybody was talking about how they were better than us,” Wright said.

  “I have never seen a team more focused on winning. Details. Knowing everything about the scouting report and everything we had to do. The whole team wanted to win to prove everybody wrong. That showed me what a focused team could do.”

  Before the game, Wright, said, there was complete silence in the locker room. Players were reviewing scouting reports. “A memorable moment,” Wright called it.

  “We really wanted to make sure everything was perfect,” he said. “Not good, but perfect. We didn’t want them to even think they could score.”

  Well, UC won 68-34, leading by as many as 36 at one point. It was ahead 42-19 at halftime. Dayton shot just 20 percent from the field.

  “It was real satisfying,” Wright said. “It shut up all the Dayton fans.”

  The Bearcats started the season 15-0 on the way to their first NCAA Tournament under Cronin.

  YANCY ‘JUST LIKE MICK CRONIN’

  Bob Huggins often said that Herb Jones was the most important recruit he signed.

  Cronin said Yancy Gates, a six-foot-nine power player from Cincinnati’s Withrow High School, was his most important recruit.

  “Yancy was a recruit that I had to sign,” Cronin said. “I don’t think I make it here if he doesn’t come to Cincinnati. I don’t know if we
would’ve been able to get things turned around.

  “The program was a mess. When Yancy signed on, he knew all the things that I knew. He knew the fans were upset. He had read in the paper that Nancy Zimpher didn’t care about basketball. But, like me, he said, ‘I love the Bearcats and I love Cincinnati. This isn’t how I wanted to go to Cincinnati, but I’m coming.’ He was just like Mick Cronin.”

  Gates became the only player in UC history to lead the team in rebounding four consecutive seasons. He finished his career with 1,485 points and 916 rebounds.

  “The program has been rebuilt the right way,” Cronin said. “Our academics are in order. Guys graduate. I don’t believe we get the corner turned if he doesn’t come.”

  All of which made the December 2011 Crosstown Shootout even more upsetting to Cronin.

  CROSSTOWN PUNCH-OUT

  The Cincinnati-Xavier rivalry has included many memorable episodes. Punches thrown. Crutches thrown. Handshakes ignored. Pushing. Jawing. Lots of rhetoric from both sides.

  Xavier’s 76-53 victory on December 10, 2011, at Cintas Center involved perhaps the ugliest moments in Crosstown Shootout history. But there were so many variables that led up to the fight at the end of that game:

  • December 13, 2008: XU won by 10. Six technical fouls were called—two on UC and four on Xavier. XU freshman center Kenny Frease and Gates each received a technical foul. Xavier’s Derrick Brown was ejected after his second technical for trash talking after being fouled with 1:20 left. Xavier’s C.J. Anderson received a technical foul for taunting UC’s Rashad Bishop. Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty wrote that night: “It was a sloppy, chippy, ill-mannered game. The better team won, without distinguishing itself. Recent wisdom has had it that the Shootout has lost some luster, some interest. The players didn’t get that memo.”

  • December 13, 2009: The Musketeers won in double overtime. Xavier guard Jordan Crawford and Bishop were each called for technical fouls after jabbering at each other. Bishop even went after Crawford and had to be restrained. During a TV timeout, players from both teams confronted each other. There was pushing, shoving, and lots of talking. The officials brought Cronin and Xavier coach Chris Mack together to try and calm things down. “My guys lost their cool, no doubt about it,” Cronin said that night. “The intensity of this game is unique,” Mack said.

  • January 6, 2011: The Bearcats won by 20. Xavier’s Tu Holloway, held to a season-low five points, received a technical foul with 13:11 remaining for throwing an elbow at Cincinnati’s Ibrahima Thomas.

  • December 10, 2011: In the days leading up to the game, this was the exchange in a radio interview between UC guard Sean Kilpatrick and host Andy Furman on WQRT-AM 1160:

  Furman: “Are you better than Tu Holloway?”

  Kilpatrick: “I’ll let the fans decide.”

  Furman: “I need to know. No one’s listening. Just between you and me.”

  Kilpatrick: “Yes, I am.”

  Furman: “Would Tu Holloway start for UC?”

  Kilpatrick: “Would he, with the players we have now? I would say no.”

  Cronin said Furman “stirred the pot” and instigated the exchange, which became a focal point of the pre-game buildup. Cronin did not talk to Furman for more than two years after that.

  “The questions I asked were inbounds and fair questions,” Furman said. “I think the general public probably loved to hear the answers.”

  Any way you look at it, a solid foundation was in place for an intense showdown.

  “We had a meeting the night before the game,” Cronin said. “I told my guys that we are walking into the fire. We won easy last year; they’re going to play the best game of their lives tomorrow. I said that no matter what happens, we are not getting in a fight. If they beat us, then we’re going to go to the locker room, get our stuff, and get back to Clifton.”

  If only ‬

  The Musketeers led by 23 points in the final seconds. Then Holloway got in the face of UC freshman guard Ge’Lawn Guyn and was yelling at him not far from the Bearcats bench. Holloway slapped Guyn. Xavier’s Dez Wells shoved Guyn to the floor. Gates threw the ball at Holloway.

  Both teams’ benches emptied. There was plenty of pushing and several punches thrown. Gates threw a punch at Frease that connected, knocking Frease to the ground. Frease was bleeding from under his left eye. As he tried to get up, he was kicked by UC’s Cheikh Mbodj. More pushing. More punches. More trash talk.

  The officials ended the chaos and the game with 9.4 seconds still on the clock. It took several minutes before the teams left the court and headed back to their locker rooms.

  “It was a national humiliation for the Queen City, and a blow for two great schools and fine basketball programs,” The Cincinnati Enquirer later wrote in an editorial. “Their programs’ reputations have been tarnished.”

  CRONIN’S FINEST HOUR

  For the first five minutes of his postgame press conference, Cronin answered questions about the game itself. But as the topic turned to the fight at the end, Cronin started to get worked up. He was upset with the Xavier players, his own players, as well as the officials. He instructed his players to take off their jerseys in the locker room immediately after the game and said that he physically removed jerseys from some players.

  Excerpts from his press conference:

  “‬there is no excuse for any of it. On our side. On their side. Guys need to grow up.”

  “I’m not blaming anybody from our standpoint. We accept full responsibility, and it will be handled. There is zero excuse for that in basketball. You’ve got to learn how to win on one side, and you’ve got to learn how to lose on the other side.”

  “The fact is guys are here to get an education. They represent institutions of higher learning. Xavier’s been a great school for years. We’re trying to cure cancer at Cincinnati. I [work at a] place where they discovered the vaccine for polio and created Benadryl. I think that’s more important than who wins a basketball game. And our guys need to have appreciation for the fact that they’re there on a full scholarship, and they better represent institutions with class and integrity.”

  “‬If my players don’t act the right way, they will never play another game at Cincinnati. Right now I just told my guys I will meet with my AD and my president and I’m going to decide who’s on the team going forward; that’s what the University of Cincinnati is about. Period. I’ve never been this embarrassed. I’m hoping President [Gregory] Williams doesn’t ask me to resign after that.”

  “I made everybody take their jersey off—and they will not put it on again until they have a full understanding of where they go to school and what the university stands for and how lucky they are to even be there—let alone have a scholarship, ’cause there’s a whole lot of kids that can’t pay for college and don’t get to go.”

  There was more. Plenty more.

  Cronin said he has been told by “a thousand people,” including Xavier fans, that he was viewed differently after that press conference.

  “I have never listened to it,” he said. “What I don’t understand is, I didn’t become a different person all of a sudden. It wasn’t hard for me; I was pissed off. I guess people got to see who I am and how I view the whole situation. I didn’t just develop those opinions walking down the hall.”

  AFTERMATH

  Over the next few days after the game, UC suspended Gates, Mbodj, and Octavius Ellis for six games each and Guyn for one game. Xavier suspended Wells and Landen Amos for four games, Mark Lyons for two, and Holloway for one.

  In June 2014, Bearcats coach Mick Cronin signed a seven-year contract extension that extended through the 2020-21 season. In his first eight seasons, Cronin’s team went 162-107, making him the second-winningest men’s basketball coach in school history behind only Bob Huggins (399-127). (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

  There were lots of apologies from both sides—from the presidents, Athletic Directors, coaches, and players. Frease texted Gates; Gates
texted back and apologized. All involved agreed it was one of the most embarrassing episodes in the storied history of the rivalry and for college athletics as a whole.

  At a UC press conference, all the suspended players apologized. Gates said that as a senior he should have been the one holding back the freshmen—not throwing punches. He said his parents didn’t raise him like that and he has to show he’s a better person than he did at the game. He said he thought his college career might be over.

  Then he said: “I’m not that type of person. A lot of people have been calling me a thug, a gangster ‬”

  And with that, tears started flowing. Gates stopped talking, lowered his head, and cried, rubbing his eyes.

  “I want to apologize really to the whole city of Cincinnati for my actions because I’m homegrown. I’m from here,” Gates said that day. “A lot of people expect me to represent not just the University of Cincinnati but everybody—my family, kids back in Madisonville running around, from downtown. Everywhere I go a lot of kids look at me and say, ‘There goes Yancy Gates.’ The actions that I displayed are not what I’m about. This is not what the University of Cincinnati is about. It’s not what my family’s about.”

  What saddens Cronin—to this day—is the way Gates was perceived after that game.

  “It was the end of him,” he said of Gates. “I care about Yancy. It’s just sad for me ‬ I know he’s a great guy. Obviously he’d love to have it back. We all would; not just him. He didn’t start it, and he’s not the only guy who threw a punch. Yancy’s a great guy, and I’m not talking about Yancy as a player.”

  After that game, Cronin said, Gates received some of the cruelest hate mail the coach had ever seen.

  “Racist beyond belief,” Cronin said. “He showed me some stuff that was just unbelievable. I told him, ‘You go to college to learn to get ready for the real world. Let’s look at this as a positive. What did you just learn? Everybody’s not forgiving. Everybody’s not a good person. Everybody doesn’t love all humanity.’ Young kids don’t understand all that. They’re innocent. He learned a lot about the real world through that incident.”