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SPOKANE, Wash. — In the wee morning hours after the pairings were announced and the first film was analyzed, Saint Joseph's head coach Phil Martelli came to the conclusion: “I realized how daunting their defensive numbers were. And I didn't realize their size.”
He said Cincinnati has adopted the feisty personality of their coach, Mick Cronin.
“Not in a bad sense, but he demands a certain way on every possession,” Martelli said. “It doesn't happen in every program where the coach's personality is taken out on the court with his players.”
Players for No. 8-seed St. Joe’s insist they will be ready when they hit the court against the ninth-seeded Bearcats at Spokane Arena for a first-round matchup on Friday night (9:57 p.m. on CBS).
“Physical, big bodies, rebound, defend very well,” Aaron Brown said. “We just want to be prepared for that.”
Cincinnati (22-10) plays a zone, which isn't unfamiliar to Saint Joseph's (27-7).
“I saw they play a 2-3 zone and we played against that when we played Richmond,” Isaiah Miles said. “There are spots in the zone where we can find mismatches and we're going to try to attack those mismatches the best we can.”
There have been times when the Bearcats struggle to score, but that still worries Martelli.
“Their size is daunting,” he said. “Missed shots lead to offensive rebounds, which leads to fouls. We can't foul. There are guys on our team that are going to have to play 40 minutes and play 40 minutes on both ends of the floor in order for us to be successful.”
Martelli said his numbers cruncher pointed out that Cincinnati averaged 77 points at home and 63 on the road. However, the Bearcats’ defensive field goal number (39 percent) stayed the same.
“I'm not into [analytics] and all that stuff, but defense is traveling with them. I'll be selfish and say I hope that their offense didn't make the flight to Spokane.”
Exorcising the demons
While St. Joe’s hopes a new level of confidence helps erase a couple of recent bad memories (see story), the Bearcats would like to a do a little exorcising of their own demons.
UConn beat Cincinnati 104-97 in four overtimes in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament last Friday. It was a particularly heartbreaking loss for the Bearcats, as Jalen Adams drained a 70-foot heave at the buzzer of the third overtime after it appeared that Kevin Johnson had won it for Cincy with a three-pointer from the right wing with 0.8 remaining.
And while St. Joe's most recent trip to Spokane resulted in the worst loss in program history, the only time Cincinnati was in town was for the 2014 NCAA Tournament when the fifth-seeded Bearcats lost to No. 12 Harvard, 61-57.