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INDIANAPOLIS -- Cincinnati plays Kentucky on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and you know what's coming next.
Stories in the media -- awful stories -- about Beauty and Beast. Stories -- ugly stories -- about the renegade program with the academic deficiencies, arrests and players generally doing stupid things to embarrass the team.
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| All of Tubby Smith's guys aren't exactly angels. (AP) |
Caught you leaning the other way, right? Figures. Everyone leans on Cincinnati and nobody leans on Kentucky, but these programs are not the polar opposites they are generally presented to be. This is not Good vs. Evil, as the Duke-UNLV meeting in the 1990 NCAA championship was (mistakenly) hyped.
Cincinnati is perceived to not graduate its players, but in the first NCAA Academic Progress Report released last month, Kentucky was well behind Cincinnati. Kentucky, in fact, was well behind almost everybody. Of the 65 teams in the 2005 NCAA Tournament, Kentucky was No. 63. Cincinnati was No. 44. The NCAA red-flagged 10 schools in the 2005 field, and Kentucky was one.
Cincinnati was not.
Surprise, surprise.
There are surprises everywhere. Cincinnati has had its share of legal problems in recent years, but you could knock me over with a rolled-up search warrant if the Bearcats have had more problems than Kentucky. The Wildcats haven't had anyone punch a police horse, but their players and/or recruits have been caught using fake ID's (Gerald Fitch and Erik Daniels), charged with DUI or DWI (Desmond Allison and Jules Camara), and arrested for selling marijuana (recruit Michael Southall).
Ex-Wildcats of recent vintage also have been in trouble, with Heshimu Evans charged with vehicular offenses including leaving the scene of an accident, and Wayne Turner being arrested after police found a loaded handgun in his car.
Since Kentucky coach Tubby Smith began cleaning house in 2002, the Wildcats have been mostly trouble-free, and that's the image of Kentucky basketball. Cincinnati, though, fights all kinds of image issues.
Here's another: In recruiting circles, there are two areas to get players: traditional high schools, and everywhere else. "Everywhere else" includes Division I transfers, junior colleges and basketball factories masquerading as prep schools.
Cincinnati's rotation has four players (transfers Nick Williams, James White and Jihad Muhammad; and prepster Roy Bright) that came from "everywhere else." Kentucky's rotation? It also has four (transfer Patrick Sparks and prepsters Rajon Rondo, Ramel Bradley and Lukasz Obrzut).
But this, typically, was one of the questions asked Friday of senior forward Chuck Hayes during Kentucky's press conference: Chuck, Cincinnati recruits from different circles than Kentucky. Do you think they'll come in with chip on their shoulder?