Unusual Calm in Bearcat Jungle

Nobody threw beer or cola at the Cincinnati Bearcats, before or after they mopped up the Sports Arena floor Sunday with USC, 100-81. Such had not been the case at their previous game, at North Carolina Charlotte five days earlier, when a couple of Coach Bob Huggins’ players, angry over being doused, retaliated by throwing basketballs at the fans in the stands.

“This is tame, compared to the last place we were at,” a grateful Charles Williams said, the Cincinnati starting guard having enjoyed a safe trip home to the city where he prepped for Manual Arts. “Some of the fans at courtside talked a little stuff, but nothing too nasty.”

“We’ve seen worse,” teammate Ruben Patterson agreed.

With an announced 3,107 in the house--cheerleaders, band members, school officials and media might have outnumbered the actual crowd--this was a peaceful place for the nation’s ninth-ranked team to spend a Super Bowl Sunday.

Their next game, Thursday night at sixth-ranked Louisville, will be a little wilder.

Huggins twice reached the NCAA’s elite eight (in 1992 and 1993), back when he was coaching Nick Van Exel and Corie Blount. And last season’s team went 28-5.

The coach’s wife and kids flew to Los Angeles a day ahead of the team, simply to catch a game at the Forum before the Lakers left town. Blount is injured, but the family was eager to see Van Exel play.

“Nick called me at the hotel,” Huggins said. “I wish I could have seen him in person.”

Occasionally, in college, Van Exel was a handful. But he was also a big talent. His last two teams went 29-5 and 27-5.

This season, Huggins has his hands even more full. Ever since a national magazine made Cincinnati the team to beat in NCAA basketball this season, ranking the Bearcats No. 1 in a preseason issue, the pressure has been high. They began the season 2-2, but are now 14-3.

In the process, the coach has had to suspend 6-foot-3 senior forward Terrence Davis for a game with Arkansas, suspend starting guard Damon Flint for the Charlotte game and leave sophomore Ryan Fletcher home for the USC game, reportedly because Fletcher was one of those caught on film throwing basketballs at the Charlotte fans.

Huggins doesn’t horse around.

When he sensed Patterson was dogging it on defense Sunday, the coach pulled him and made the 6-6 forward ride the bench for all but seven minutes of the second half. Huggins didn’t blink, even though Patterson had scored 19 points in the first half, practically outscoring USC by himself as the Bearcats pulled away by halftime, 50-24.

“A guy just stands around,” Huggins said later, “I’m just not going to permit it.”

On the other hand, there is Williams, hustling his tail off, even though the junior from Los Angeles is playing in season-long pain, with a back problem that won’t heal until he gets it fixed after the season.

Taking advantage of Flint’s suspension, Williams worked a career-high 37 minutes in the Charlotte game. He hadn’t played 25 minutes in any of his previous 10 games.

He is a defensive stopper who usually leaves the scoring to Danny Fortson, the 6-7 All-America candidate who definitely has the eye of NBA scouts, as he did Sunday with the Lakers’ Jerry West one of the 3,107 on hand.

Fortson, however, scored only nine points.

“I guess their whole game plan was to not let Danny beat them,” Williams said of the Trojans. “Didn’t work.”

Whatever the USC strategy, it was no more effective than it was last year at Cincinnati, when in a rare national TV appearance, the Trojans--coached by Charlie Parker then--were blown away the same way, down by 21 at halftime and later by 38 before eventually falling, 85-53.

Cincinnati beat USC this time worse than North Carolina did, worse than Tennessee, worse than Stanford, worse than UCLA.

“Coach said if you press them, they’ll throw the ball away a lot,” Williams said.

Huggins indeed had come to this conclusion. He said while studying film of last year’s game, it was obvious that pressing was the way to keep the Trojans from getting into their offense.

As a result, USC’s passes looked much like Cincinnati’s did last week.

A lot of them went into the stands.

Cincinnati is the last nonconference opponent on USC’s 1996-97 schedule. Inasmuch as the Bearcats have beaten the Trojans by 51 points over two years, it might be time for USC to schedule somebody else.