Streetball between Cincinnati and Arkansas Pine-Bluff

            When I watched the University of Cincinnati's home basketball game at Fifth Third Arena last night against Arkansas Pine-Bluff, I thought I accidentally bought a ticket to the And1 tour. You know, the streetball series with AO on the receiving end of half-court alley-oops and The Professor breaking defenders' ankles. And we cannot forget the commentator who walks around the court with a microphone screaming "E mono, E mono, OH BABY!"  In no aspect of the match-up did it resemble typical college basketball.
            The Bearcats won 101-53 in a game in which they had doubled the visiting team's score ever since the opening minutes of the second half. UC managed to finish with a three-point percentage on the heels of the team's free throw percentage. The Bearcats were 15-28 from behind the arc and 18-29 from the charity stripe. If I were Mick Cronin, I would have told my players to step back and shoot jump shots for all of their free throws. They hit almost as many contested three-pointers as they did uncontested free throws, so why not? The typical possession was Arkansas Pine-Bluff dribbling down the court, struggling for forty minutes against Cincinnati's full-court press, a guard would fire a pass to a teammates that would fly out of bounds or they would throw up a bad shot, which would be rebounded by UC. In fact, Arkansas Pine-Bluff might as well have been playing Hot Potatoe, because they had 29 turnovers in the game. UC would then hustle down the court and the Bearcats would start playing H-O-R-S-E from behind the arc. Cincinnati could score at will. Junior guard Cashmere Wright had 17 points within the first twelve minutes and could have made a push for 45+ if he played the entire game. Multiple Bearcats were in double digits in scoring with Ja'Quan Parker going for 17, Sean "Tu Holloway wouldn't start for us" Kilpatrick dropping 12, Dion Dixon scoring 16, and Jeremiah Davis contributing 13 off the bench. The game was enough of a blowout in the first half that UC completed an alley-oop in the final minutes of the half. To make the game more like streetball, the officials stopped calling the majority of the fouls. Basic infractions such as traveling and moving screens were ignored.
            It will be very intriguing to watch Cincinnati play after Yancy Gates and Cheikh Mbodj, the team's centers, return from suspension. For the first time in almost thirty-five years, UC scored over one-hundred points in consecutive games. They have developed a new offense that gives their guards more freedom than ever before. They play a full-court defense the entire game, run the floor, and shoot lights-out from anywhere within twenty-two feet of the basket. Although Cincinnati has won three straight blowouts since the Crosstown Shootout brawl, they have yet to face real competition to see if their run-and-gun style offense is effective. When I first saw Yancy Gates play in high school at Withrow, I could tell he is not a big man that runs the court and hustled the entire time he is in the game. He tends to stand around and jog, as opposed to going all out. His play style will clash with UC's current approach. Does Cincinnati still need Yancy as much as they thought? Or, will they have to re-create their offensive scheme to suit a center that can't run the floor or defend in a full-court press?