3-1 in the Big East

When the UC football team got ranked this year, won 10 games and started to sell out Nippert Stadium, I witnessed something I wasn't sure I would ever see from the Bearcats. It was - and still is - quite a remarkable development. But I think that what the basketball team is doing is even more remarkable. After watching UC lose at UAB, I wondered in print if this team would win another game. I wasn't trying to be facetious. I looked at the schedule and really didn't see any games I thought the Bearcats would be favored to win. I basically wrote that in my story the next day. The next time I talked to Mick Cronin he went out of his way to tell me - without being a jerk about it or complaining about what I had written - that the world wasn't coming to an end. He has the benefit of seeing his players in practice every day - reporters are not allowed that luxury - so he knew that the young guys were getting better. He was right, of course, although I doubt if even Mick believed his team would beat Louisville, Syracuse and Villanova. Can they keep this going? Certainly, after what I've witnessed during the past two weeks, I'm not going to say they can't. It will be fun to watch the rest of the season unfold, don't you think?