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Rude greeting for Bearcats’ former coach

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Cincinnati blasts WVU, 62-39 MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia coach Bob Huggins got a rude greeting from his former school.

Deonta Vaughn scored 18 points and Cincinnati beat the Mountaineers 62-39 Wednesday night, holding West Virginia to the worst shooting night in school history.

West Virginia’s 20 percent (10-of-50) shooting also was among the worst for a Huggins-coached team. Cincinnati also held a season-best 47-26 rebounding advantage.

“We are not tough enough,” Huggins said. “I’ve had teams before that couldn’t shoot, but we rebounded it. It looked like men playing against boys.”

Huggins won 399 games with the Bearcats and led them to the NCAA tournament in 14 of his 16 seasons before being ousted after a 2005 drunken driving arrest. He took a year off and coached last season at Kansas State, then was hired at his alma mater when John Beilein left for Michigan last April.

Mick Cronin replaced Huggins at Cincinnati and considers Huggins his mentor. Huggins hired Cronin as Cincinnati’s video coordinator in 1996. Cronin became an assistant coach a year later and eventually was named the team’s recruiting coordinator.

Cronin looked like a genius in this one. In winning just its fourth Big East road game since joining the conference in 2005, Cincinnati used stifling man defense and interior dominance to force West Virginia away from the basket.

“We were able to hold them to one shot, which was a key,” Cronin said. “They don’t have big guys, they are not the most athletic team on the front line and they’re not the strongest team. In Big East play, it’s tough.”

The Bearcats jumped ahead 21-7 midway through the first half, cruising to a 34-23 lead at the break.

The rout continued after halftime. Cincinnati used a 14-3 run to extend its lead to 50-29 with 10 minutes remaining. West Virginia never got closer than 16 afterward in its most lopsided loss in more than three seasons.

“We’re bigger and stronger, and that’s just the facts,” Cronin said. “I think it showed tonight. They missed six free throws and 40 shots – that’s 46 missed and they only had six offensive rebounds.”

John Williamson added 11 points for Cincinnati (10-11, 5-4).

Darris Nichols scored a team-best 17 points for West Virginia (15-6, 4-4), which made just four field goals in the second half and went 1 for 22 from 3-point range despite leading the Big East in 3-pointers per game.

The Mountaineers routinely hurried shots and never found the offensive rhythm that had enabled them to rank first in the Big East in scoring margin. West Virginia’s previous field-goal percentage low was 23.1 percent against Maryland in 1951, the first year that school records were kept.

“They beat us every way possible,” Huggins said. “Who are we going to beat scoring 39 points? We’re just not tough enough.”

Copyright Associated Press 2008

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