Before hurting his right knee against DePaul on January 15^th, Cashmere Wright was playing as well as any guard in the Big East.

The senior from Savannah, Georgia had scored 20-or-more points in three of his previous four games and for the season was averaging 15.1 points on 47% shooting - including 44% from 3-point range.

Since returning from the injury, Wright has been mired in the worst shooting slump of his career, going 23-for-95 overall (24%) and 12-for-60 (20%) from 3-point range, while averaging 8.0 points in nine games.

In Sunday's loss at Notre Dame, Wright did not attempt a shot in the first half and finished the game 0-for-2 in 23 minutes.

"He's lost his confidence," said Mick Cronin on his weekly radio show on Monday.  "If you go five, six, seven games and shoot 20%, you would lose your confidence too. 

"It's a mental thing and I have to do a good job of making sure that his mind is in the right place.  Internal pressure that players put on themselves and external pressure that players feel from family, friends, and fans - some let it affect them more than others.  He's a sensitive kid and there's no doubt that he lost his confidence."

So how does Cronin plan to help Wright get it back?  By reminding Cashmere that he doesn't have to make every shot to help the Bearcats win.

"I have to do a better job of making sure that his mind is on defense and leadership," said Cronin.  "He's got to lose himself in the game and give us everything that he can with his steals.  He's not the all-time leading scorer at Cincinnati.  Or the all-time assists leader.  But he is the all-time steals leader and he can give us that.  That's what he has to focus us because if he doesn't give us that we're in trouble. 

"My goal is to get him to realize that he did have a great game (after the injury).  He was 3-for-14 from the field in that game, but he had a great game.  It was the Villanova game.  He had 14 deflections and his energy and defense inspired his team to get 46 deflections and beat a NCAA Tournament team by 18 points." 

Over the next month, Wright is almost certain to set Cincinnati's all-time record for games played.  After watching his senior point guard play through knee and shoulder pain for much of his career, Cronin wants to see Cashmere relax and finish strong. 

"He's a conscientious kid who wants to play well," said Cronin.  "He's unlike me, because I am oblivious to other people's opinion.  If I have one gift, it's that I have tunnel vision on doing my job.  Whether your opinion of me is great or whether your opinion of me is poor, it doesn't really affect me.  Unfortunately, kids can be affected a lot more than you think this day and age.  He is a very conscientious kid who is putting a lot of pressure on himself. 

"He's trying as hard as he can to help his team and I just have to make sure that he does two things:  Worry about defense and stay aggressive.  You can't worry about making mistakes.  I have to get him in an aggressive mindset on both ends of the floor, and whatever mistakes he may make we have to live with.  But he has to be on the attack and he has to be aggressive or we're not going to be a very good team.

"I'd like to get us to where we're playing well, and helping Cash get his confidence back is probably the number one thing that I have get done as a coach."

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You probably know the basic details of the Tim Duncan story.

Grows up a competitive swimmer in the Virgin Islands...eventually takes up basketball as a teenager...gets discovered by Wake Forest...becomes one of the greatest players in history.

But here's a nugget that you might not know:  The coach at Wake Forest that found Duncan was current UC assistant Larry Davis.

"We had a kid abruptly leave that was starting at center for us as a freshman," Davis recalled.  "He walked in one day and said that he was homesick and we couldn't talk him out of it.  Going into the spring, we had no guy on our roster that was bigger than 6'8".  So (head coach) Dave Odom called all of the assistants in and told us to turn over every rock because we had to find a center.  So I started making calls.  I had met a guy by the name of Holman Harley who was working for an agent at that time, and I called him and said, 'Do you know of any big guys anywhere?'  And he said, 'Yea, there's a 6'10" kid in the Virgin Islands.'  He gave me Tim's name so I tracked him down, got him on the phone, and asked who he was being recruited by and he said, 'I got some letters from Delaware State and one letter from Providence.'

"About the fourth time that I called Tim on the phone I asked him if he had ever been to the United States.  He said, 'Yes, I have a brother-in-law in Ohio and I went to Ohio State's basketball camp last summer.'  I said, 'Is Ohio State recruiting you?'  Tim said, 'No.'  I got off the phone and immediately called Holman Harley and said, 'Are you sure this kid can play?  He's 6'10", he was at Ohio State's basketball camp and they're not recruiting him.  How can that be?'  Holman said, 'Larry, I'm telling you - the kid can play.' 

"I went in to Coach Odom and told him that I might have found a kid and he said, 'Where is he at?'  I said, 'The Virgin Islands.'   It wasn't hard to talk him into making the trip.  So Dave went down to see him and I'll never forget - he calls me on the phone and said, 'You're not going to believe this guy.  He's 6'10", he can run like a deer, he's got great hands, and we're bringing him in.' Tim ended up visiting Providence and Wake Forest.  It was 45 degrees when he visited Providence and 80 degrees when he visited us.  That's when I knew that we were getting him."

And that's how Larry Davis helped sign perhaps the greatest under-the-radar recruit in college basketball history.

While the former head coach at Oak Hill Academy (1983-85) and Furman University (1997-2006) hasn't landed the next Tim Duncan at Cincinnati - at least not yet - his relentless recruiting efforts have been instrumental in helping Mick Cronin rebuild the program.

"I've never been around a guy that loves recruiting, evaluating, and working like he does," said Cronin.  "Most guys his age become the resident veteran coach on the bench, but he loves recruiting like a 25-year-old.  He can't get enough of it.  He loves it."

"A lot of colleagues knock recruiting, but I like it," the 56-year-old Davis told me.  "I like meeting people, I like travel, and it's a challenge.  It's competition and I like competition - what can I say.

"It can drive you nuts because kids make decisions based on some of the craziest things that you could ever imagine, and there are always hidden land mines out there.  You have to figure out who is on your side and who is not on your side and sometimes, somebody that you don't even know is in the background either helping you or killing you.  So when you get a kid to commit and sign, it's a great feeling."  

Cronin became aware of his colleague's zest for recruiting nearly 20 years ago when Davis was an assistant coach at Ball State.

"We met when I was a high school coach at Woodward and he was trying to outwork people for Eric Johnson," said Cronin.  "He ended up at Louisville, but Eric would tell you to this day that the best job that was done in the recruiting process was by Larry Davis.  He loved Larry Davis, but it was hard to turn down Louisville for Ball State."

Observing Coach Davis's recruiting persistence made a strong impression on his future boss. 

"My dad taught me to be smart enough to listen to older guys and Larry helped to guide me in the business," said Cronin.  "I've tried to pattern myself after his effort in recruiting."

The key word in the last sentence is effort.

"Young assistant coaches in our business need to spend a week with him in July," said Cronin with a laugh.  "When you're out there in July, he's watching games from 8 am until midnight.  He's not a guy that will watch a few games, get a workout in, and go out to dinner.  He's in the gym when the first game starts and the last game ends.  He'll tell me who I need to see and I'll say, 'Where are you going?'  And he'll say, 'Well, I'm going to see a half of this game and a half of that game and then I'm going to go check on this kid.'  If he lays eyes on 10 kids he might find that guy that wasn't highly-rated - whether it's a Sean Kilpatrick or a JaQuon Parker."

While Davis has inked his share of big-name recruits over the years such as 11-year NBA veteran Bobby Jackson when Larry was an assistant at Minnesota, his ability to find lesser-known recruits has been invaluable at Cincinnati.  

"What I've learned is to be able to rate his tone of voice," said Cronin.  "He call and say, 'I think I've found one,' and I can tell by the way he says it how good that he thinks the guy is.  I can tell by his excitement level that we had better hurry before too many people see the kid." 

"Scouting services and ratings are great, but I've always been taught from the first day that I got into this that you should judge with your own eyes," said Davis.  "You try to see what a guy's potential is down the road.  Some of it, quite honestly, is a little bit of luck, but you have to have an eye for it too and know some of the characteristics that you're looking for.  I take pride in trying to do that and I work for a boss who could care less about the ratings.  Mick wants to know if the guy can play or not - that's the most important thing to him." 

"What Larry understands is that good players don't have to be highly-rated," said Cronin.  "He believes in out-working the opponent.  He doesn't just go to a city and see one practice.  He'll talk somebody into working out at six in the morning, so that he can see another kid practice at three, and another kid play at seven.  It's sheer numbers.  In sales, the more people that you get in front of, the more sales that you're going to have.  In recruiting, the more guys that you see means that you're eventually going to see somebody that can play.  That's how you find Hasheem Thabeet in a back gym when nobody else was recruiting him at the time."

The 7'3" Thabeet was a late signee in Coach Cronin's first year at Cincinnati who chose UConn over UC and ultimately became the 2^nd overall pick in the NBA draft - unfortunately in recruiting, you don't always get the guy.  But Davis has won his share of battles and landed Troy Caupain and Jamaree Strickland in this year's early signing period.  According to Rivals.com, Caupain is a 3-star recruit while the 6'10" Strickland received 3 stars from 247sports.com.

But before you put too much stock into the scouting services, you should consider the Wake Forest class of 1993.

"When the recruiting rankings came out that year," said Davis, "we had signed three or four other guys so it listed their names and how many stars they received and ended with, 'and Tim Duncan.'  No comment, no rating, just 'and Tim Duncan.'  In the end, he was the number one guy in the country."

I'd love to hear from you at Dan.Hoard@Bengals.nfl.net

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When I did a podcast this summer with Cashmere Wright and Sean Kilpatrick, we touched on a wide range of topics. Cash's fixation for Waffle House, addictions to chicken fingers/fries and surprising loves for watching golf. But among the topics SK delved into was his favorite moment of last year and his career: the game-winner to beat UConn.

In case you forgot ....



One of the interesting elements SK talked about was how he had no idea the shot went in until he saw Yancy Gates going crazy. You can listen to his description of the moment by jumping forward to the 14-minute mark of the podcast here.

All that said, SK and the Bearcats return to Connecticut on Thursday, though this time they will play in Hartford instead of on the Storrs campus.

Still, Kilpatrick doesn't hide what going back means to him. 

"That whole game it will probably still be playing in my mind," he said.

Only, this year, the game changes a bit for SK. Even as he took over as the leading scorer last year, he never really viewed himself as the depended upon leader in those situations. As a sophomore he deferred to the likes of Yancy and Dion Dixon. You can tell in the way he talks about it how much he takes the pressure on of carrying this team more than he did last season.

"Now is going to be a little different," he said. "Now I am one of the key guys that's in the situation where I need to make more plays like that this time and be able to come up big on the defensive end because we know they have great guards."

Let's eat ...

--- Bill Koch wrote a story on uncalled fouls across college basketball. An interesting read and more in-depth comments on a topic Cronin has been preaching repeatedly about this season.

I've seen some people reacting saying he's complaining about refs limiting UC's scoring and I certainly didn't view it that way. He was speaking generally about the "epidemic" of scoring being down across college basketball. It certainly serves detrimentally to a more finesse scoring team as the Bearcats are this year, but benefits their physical style on the defensive end.

--- SK touched on the fouls topic, but more about the biggest differences as a recognized premier scorer this season. Publicity and gaudy numbers can really be a pain in the Musburgers.

Asked how the grabbing and holding he experiences this year under defensive attention compares to last year, he didn't hold back.

"It's 10 times worse," he said.

He wasn't put off by it, he said he understands it happens because both teams will do whatever they can to win. Although, a few refs "look out for you."

The change didn't come as a surprise.

"That's something I've been adjusting to all throughout this summer because coach told me those types of things are going to be happening."

--- If you didn't see my story yesterday on the importance of JaQuon Parker's offense, here it is. I can't stress enough how critical this could be for UC down the stretch. Really think he could be the difference in the extra 3-5 points a game UC needs to get over the hump against elite teams. We shall see.

--- Marquette (10-3) takes sole possession of first place by beating up on Seton Hall last night. Though, it might not last long as the Cuse and GTown can tie with home wins tonight. Watching the Orange against a hot Providence team should be interesting. Look out for PC to provide some nervous moments to the Carrier Dome folks.

--- Andy Glockner at SI produces Bubble Watch every week and it's got a good look at where UC and others in the murky Big East stand.

--- Strong addition to the Fox Sports Ohio staff Kevin Goheen talks about Tommy Tuberville's addition of Vince Suriano, formerly the the head coach at Anderson; he also delves into Urban Meyer's hopes to "smother" Cincinnati.

Old Urb not afraid to break out the fighting words before his spring game takes over PBS in April.

If you aren't following Kevin on Twitter, you should, he'll be tweeting about all things SW Ohio sports, with plenty of Bearcats goodness. You won't regret it, click here to jump on the Goheen Express.

--- For those that didn't know, it appears Jameel Poteat is transferring. The RB fell down the depth chart and never found his drive at UC. He entered as a big name and four-star recruit. Just the latest reminder to stop drooling over signing day stars. Seriously, stop it.

--- Did you miss hearing realignment rumors? I know you did. A few more surfaced yesterday, as they tend to do ... always. This time from Jeff Ermann of Inside Maryland Sports (he was out in front of UM to B1G story, but still ...). Bottom line, as we've been saying, realignment is not over which is why there is no reason to fret around UC. And obviously, as you read in yesterday's Enquirer, the UC administration isn't messing around staying in the conversation.

In case you haven't seen the Nippert renovation video. Here you go.



--- Some randomness ...

--- It's the Ghostbusters HQ in legos. Which is awesome. By the way, if you want to a real-life replica of the outside of Ghostbusters HQ head to Covington and check the building across from Molly Malone's. All that's missing is Ecto1 out front.

--- The RPI is still bogus. As if you needed more proof.

--- Your must read of the day comes from my mentor and good friend Justice Hill, longform piece on taking an unorthodox path through racial stereotypes helping form a coach's identity. As always, incredible from one of the best.

--- This Mariners shortstop is trying to gain about 30 pounds by eating 6500 calories a day.

Don't do it. Signed, my mid 20s.

--- The Bonnaroo lineup was announced, it's ridiculously loaded as always. McCartney, Wilco, Mumford, Petty, Wu-Tang. Heck, even Wierd Al is going to be there.

The National will be at both Bonnaroo and Bunbury here in Cincinnati. Here's a taste of them. If you don't know, now you know. Enjoy the day.

The Bearcats need JaQuon Parker to take over more of the offensive load for UC to make a run in the postseason and of late he's shown he could be the difference-maker needed.

CINCINNATI -- After games you won't find JaQuon Parker scouring the box score for his point totals or seeking out his highlight on SportsCenter. In an era dominated by a quest for stats and stardom, Parker represents a throwback in that respect.

Long dedicated to executing Mick Cronin's gameplan Parker will be defined by a toughness unparalleled in recent Bearcats history when honored on Senior Day in two weeks. He eschews points for small details, splash plays for gritty rebounds. It will be his legacy at UC.

Only, over the next month-plus, Parker knows he must drop the unselfish act and start worrying about his stat sheet. In many ways, fulfilling the expectations of UC's season depends up on it. The Bearcats need more points. Nobody fits the mold to supply them better than Parker.

"I got to help him with that and put him in situations to where he can be aggressive, he's thinking offense, he's thinking shot, he's thinking attack," Cronin said. "For us to win, let's just be honest, he's got to play that way. For us to be a high-level team he's got to be a double-figure guy."

Easier said than done for Parker. To flip from a mentality of attacking the offensive glass and making the extra pass to selfishly creating his own shot requires stepping out of the instinctual way he's always played basketball --- and the instinctual way he implanted his footprint on UC.

"Especially for me, I don't really care about that much (scoring) offense," he said, "but I think when I actually make a conscious effort to do it I can do it."

Such will be the key. Cronin began the latest push to force Parker to think about his offense more following a Pittsburgh game where he only took four shots where one or two buckets would have easily swung the tide to Cincinnati.

Although Parker's thought of as a third option behind Cashmere Wright and Sean Kilpatrick, he's actually become the most efficient of everyone.

He leads the team in shooting 42 percent from 3-point range. During conference play, he paces the bearcats in field goal percentage, also 42 percent.

Yet, he's taken 80 fewer shots than Kilpatrick and 43 fewer than Wright in 13 conference games.

The hesitancy to find shots stems from a number of reasons in Cronin's opinion. The most notable concept Parker's desire to follow through on what coach preaches in practice, much of which centered around making the extra pass. Also, a constant desire to pull down offensive rebounds often pulls him out of positions where he could spot up for a kickout from a teammate's offensive board. The coach showed Parker film of those situations specifically in an effort to create more looks. Of course, to tell Parker not to grind after every rebound would be like telling Cronin not to coach. It's what they do. It's who they are.

"I got to make sure I don't allow him to slip into a mode where he's just trying to go to offensive rebound; where he's looking to be an integral part of our offense," he said. "That's big for us as we go forward. It's going to have to continue to be that for him."

Somewhere along the course of the season, the aggression faded. During the toughest portions of the non-conference schedule Parker stayed involved offensively. Looking at the seven non-cupcake games prior to the Big East slate (Iowa State, Oregon, Alabama, Marshall, Xavier, Wright State, New Mexico), he took significantly more shots than during conference play.

• Time period: FG-FGA per game // Avg Points
• Legit non-conference: 4.4-11.7 // 12.1
• Big East play: 3.2-7.5 // 10.3

Prior to playing Villanova, Cronin placed a renewed effort to keep Parker thinking about attacking the basket. The difference has been noticeable. The last two games he's 10 of 19 from the floor, averaging 17 points. He earned a spot on the Big East Honor Roll for the first time this season.

It didn't come without a friendly reminder at halftime against Georgetown when he'd only taken two shots during another sluggish offensive half for UC.

"I don't know who they think is going to check in and get 20," Cronin said after the game. "I had to yell at him at halftime, he won't look at the rim. I love him but he's got the ball over his head. Sometimes it's everything I can do to get him to look at the rim."

The response showed exactly the type of impact Parker can have. He reeled off 11 consecutive points, the last of which closed a double-digit deficit to a 51-50 UC lead. Unfortunately, he would only be able to get off one more shot over the final 6:53 where the Bearcats went without a field goal until the game was already decided. This came one game after he poured in 19 points against Villanvoa, his highest point total since Dec. 22 against Wright State.

"I was coming into the game thinking I'm going to actually take more shots and try to get better shots and try to drive the ball more and get myself shots in the lane and get my teammates kickouts," Parker said.

Parker understands the importance of adding attack to toughness as his defining characteristic. As UC heads down the critical final five games of the regular season and into postseason play, he plans on continuing his crusade as difference-maker for a team only two baskets per game away from ranking among the elite in the Big East.

"I know my game is basically driving," he said. "On the 3-point if I'm set I can definitely hit that shot and so I just try to drive more and get more pull-ups. I definitely think I can (add more scoring) and from here on, I'm going to try to do that. Get the offense rolling and get it started."

I want to hear from you. Send an email (pauldehnerjr@gmail.com) or hit me up on Twitter (@pauldehnerjr) with any comments or questions. 

You know how Monday morning really sets the tone for the week? Well, I'm currently experiencing a tone-setting much like Johnny Cueto hurting his back eight pitches into the playoffs. Only, gloomier.

Went to write this blog today and my computer didn't turn on. Just won't. Anyway, much thanks to the folks at Best Buy who were able to figure out the problem and stop all the nightmare scenarios from running through my head.

As for the basketball Bearcats, here's much of Mick's message from Saturday night that I wrote in my column and another great entry from Dan Hoard about missing Dion Dixon's offense and the staggering numbers behind turning defense into offense.

As for today's Breakfast, let's eat ...

--- Time to take stock of the Big East landscape as we enter the final few weeks of the regular season. With five games remaining, the Bearcats are 2.5 games out of first place, two games back of Louisville for the fourth spot (and final double-bye in Big East tournament) and one win shy win No. 20.

Every weekend in the Big East turns into a confusing mess. The latest involves the emergence of Providence, who has now won four in a row (one of those over UC) after punishing Notre Dame on Saturday.

As far as seeding and the NCAA tournament goes, most places have UC currently sitting around a 7 seed. As far as the Big East Tournament goes, they only need to avoid being caught by Providence, who is one game back, or they could end up playing on Tuesday with the different tournament breakdown this year.

There will be two games on Tuesday in New York, the 14 vs. 11 and 13 vs. 12. With UConn ineligible for postseason play, there are only 14 teams in the tournament.

More than likely, it appears UC will be somewhere in the Wednesday mix of teams seeded between 5 and 10. And games between all of those teams have been a crapshoot all season.

--- UC plays at UConn on Thursday at 7 p.m. Two of the next three games will be against the Huskies (17-7, 7-5) who surprisingly lost at home to Villanova this weekend.

The road has been a comfortable place for UC and perhaps what they need after losing two of three at Fifth Third last week.

At 5-2 in true road games, they lead the Big East in road winning percentage. Throw in the perfect 3-0 record in neutral site games and the lead grows even more.

A successful road trip, which has been at the core of the rebuild of this program the last few years, feels like a great remedy for the sting of Pittsburgh and Georgetown.

--- People need to stop suggesting to me UC change the offensive style at this point in the season. Stop it. You can't learn an entirely new system with five games to go before the postseason. Find a way to get better at what you are doing and create more shots.

--- Mick Cronin Show tonight at 8:05 from the Montgomery Inn and on 700WLW. Should be a good listen. You've obviously got questions, Mick always allows thoughtful answers.

--- An interesting look at if blowout losses spell tourney doom from the guys at CBS. UC's worst loss is the 10-point margin against Pitt. In the last 20 years, only five teams who won the tournament didn't suffer at least one double-digit loss during the season.

--- Tough weekend for the baseball team. They were swept in their opening series by Florida Atlantic, Sunday's finale being of the extra-inning walk-off variety. Justin Glass made his presence known though with a home run and RBI double to start off his anticipated junior season.

--- This is from last week, but in case you haven't been following ESPN's countdown of the top players from the Big East in 2012, they posted Travis Kelce (No. 10) and George Winn (No. 8).

--- James White didn't win the Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday, but he did break out a flight crew and dunk from just inside the free throw line with two hands.

Some randomness ...

--- Being bald isn't a big deal, coming to terms with it is. This dude sang a song about coming to terms with it while actually coming to terms with it having his head shaved. Kudos to you, sir, the bald community grows by one. (Disclaimer: some bad language in video)

--- When life imitates Monty Python, I pay attention. Apparently bunnies are attacking cars in Denver. "Runaway! Runaway!"

--- Stevie Franchise has not been doing well.

--- When doing the Harlem Shake goes wrong.

That did not happen at UC, where they broke out likely the first Harlem Shake with a live Bearcat. Props to everyone that organized this before Friday's game.