Bearcats

Far from perfect, No. 5 Cincinnati was good enough to stay unbeaten. Tony Pike threw two touchdown passes in a cameo appearance Friday night, and the host Bearcats overcame a self-destructive first half to beat West Virginia 24-21 for the best start in school history. Cincinnati (10-0, 6-0 Big East) struggled offensively because of uncharacteristic mistakes. Isaiah Pead ran for a career-high 175 yards, and sophomore Zach Collaros threw for 205 yards in his fourth start in place of Pike, who is recovering from an injury to his non-throwing arm. •Three Tennessee freshmen charged with attempted armed robbery will not play Saturday at Mississippi.

This season, UMBC has featured one of Division I's more opportunistic man-up offenses, converting 39.5 percent of its chances (15-of-38) which ranks 14th in the country. The program's strength will soon be tested this Saturday when America East rival Binghamton pays a visit to UMBC Stadium in Catonsville. The Bearcats (5-8 overall and 2-2 in the league) are tops in the nation in suffocating extra-man opportunities, surrendering just four goals on 28 man-up chances and turning away 85.7 percent of those opportunities.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Cincinnati won't mind if you make today's East Regional final against North Carolina out be the boy scouts against the bad boys.UNLV and Oklahoma didn't make the tournament this year, but the outlaw tradition is alive and well in the Queen City. When Bob Huggins took over Cincinnati in 1989, the glory days of Oscar Robertson and repeat NCAA titles in 1961 and '62 were moldy memories, but six junior college transfers and a Proposition 48 sophomore have lifted the Bearcats within one victory of their second straight Final Four berth.

One potential byproduct of the new rules in men's college lacrosse this season: more disparity in offensive efficiency, a stat that looks at goals per offensive possession and adjusts for strength of schedule. In data from Brian Coughlin , a stats expert who has done analysis for Division I programs and contributes to Inside Lacrosse, Denver has the league's highest adjusted offensive efficiency. The Pioneers score at 51 percent (numbers adjusted for strength of schedule). That's markedly higher than last season's best, Massachusetts' 42 percent.

Bob Huggins has a big mouth. He admits it proudly. He speaks in absolutes. He is brash and, above all, he is always right.Just ask the city of Cincinnati.Three years ago, Huggins, a slightly manic, blow-dried, exquisitely dressed young coach from Akron, was hired to revive the University of Cincinnati's once-proud, then-humiliated basketball program. Huggins arrived on a campus that was fed up with players who had trouble with the law and academics and winning."I am," Huggins said the day he was hired, "going to take the University of Cincinnati to the Final Four.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Cincinnati Bearcats are going to the Final Four with an attitude.Attack.Attack on offense. Attack on defense. Attack with your mouth. Attack with your eyes. Attack first. Attack last. And in between, attack.Yesterday, for the fourth time this season, the Bearcats beat Great Midwest Conference foe Memphis State. "Beat" isn't the proper word. The final score was 88-57. And the Bearcats were annoyed about those 57.Cincinnati, a school with a rich basketball tradition that had sort of stagnated since its last Final Four appearance, in 1963, is returning to the national championship chase with a vengeance.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- They lasted longer than Coppin State and New Mexico State, but the Virginia Cavaliers didn't stick around long enough to stop Cincinnati's roll through the NCAA East Regional.Maybe the Bearcats will finally get a severe test from North Carolina East Regionalin tomorrow's regional final, but they've done everything as planned through the first three rounds. The Cavaliers rallied in the second half and led with 11 minutes left before the relentless pressure that is the Bearcats' trademark under coach Bob Huggins produced a 71-54 victory at the Meadowlands Arena and a spot in the Elite Eight.

LEXINGTON, Ky. _ Power beat finesse here twice last night.When Cincinnati shut down Georgia Tech's season with an 87-70 blowout at Rupp Arena, it set up a rough-and-tumble final in the Southeast Region.The second-seeded Bearcats will face No. 5 seed Mississippi State _ the lowest seed still alive in the NCAA tournament _ for a berth in the Final Four tomorrow. Both teams feature a rough, physical style.The Bearcats (28-4) battered Georgia Tech (24-12) with their superior inside strength, and disrupted the Yellow Jackets' perimeter game with suffocating man-to-man defense.

CHICAGO -- They have played six games and flown thousands of miles, and still have another long leg left in their early-season adventure.Just when it seemed as if the top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks had run out of gas last night here at the United Center, they found a second wind against fourth-ranked Cincinnati in the Great Eight Festival.More importantly, they found a way of stopping Danny Fortson. Or, perhaps, the senior All-American found a way of stopping himself. When the 6-foot-7 forward got into foul trouble early in the second half, the Jayhawks got into the game.

Towson will name Mike Waddell , a senior associate director of athletics at the University of Cincinnati, its new athletic director, according to a source. Waddell will be introduced Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Minnegan room of Johnny Unitas Stadium. Waddell replaces Mike Hermann, who resigned after four years at Towson on June 15. Waddell, a 1991 graduate of Guilford (N.C.) College who also has a master's degree in sport administration from Ohio University, spent five years at Cincinnati.

A win last Saturday night against Binghamton would have put UMBC in the conversation for the America East regular season championship and the top seed and homefield advantage in the conference tournament. Stony Brook's 12-11 decision against Albany made that discussion moot as the Seawolves finished with a 4-1 record in the league and clinched the aforementioned rewards. That left the Retrievers with a 3-2 conference mark and the second seed in the America East Tournament. UMBC didn't exactly help its own cause with a 15-8 loss to the Bearcats.

Salisbury is the Capital Athletic Conference champion for the 17th time after defeating Stevenson, 12-9, on Saturday at Sea Gull Stadium.   The Sea Gulls (19-0) used a six-goal run that lasted from 7:57 in the first quarter until 5:31 in the second quarter to take a 7-2 lead over the Mustangs (14-4). Sam Bradman scored all three of his goals in the second half to keep the Sea Gulls on top for the remainder of the game. Binghamton 15, UMBC 8: The host Bearcats (4-9, 1-4 America East)

No. 3 Johns Hopkins (7-2) Coming up: vs. Albany, Friday, 7:30 p.m. Comment: The Blue Jays have won eight of nine meetings in this series, with the Great Danes' only victory occurring in 2007. No. 6 Maryland (7-2) Coming up: at Navy, Friday, 7 p.m. Comment: The Terps lead the series, 51-33-1, but they have dropped five of the past seven meetings. Loyola (5-3) Coming up: vs. Fairfield, Saturday, 1 p.m. Comment: The Greyhounds own a 10-1 advantage in the series and have won all eight meetings at home.

It wasn't enough for Cincinnati to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time in six years. The sixth-seeded Bearcats (26-8), who are rebounding from probation and an NCAA-mandated scholarship loss, wanted to return in style. Cincinnati handled Missouri's pressure defense in a 78-63 victory that was its first in the tournament since Bob Huggins coached the team in 2005. "I'm never going to be Bob Huggins," Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. "He had a great run. I'm real comfortable being Mick Cronin.

Towson will name Mike Waddell , a senior associate director of athletics at the University of Cincinnati, its new athletic director, according to a source. Waddell will be introduced Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Minnegan room of Johnny Unitas Stadium. Waddell replaces Mike Hermann, who resigned after four years at Towson on June 15. Waddell, a 1991 graduate of Guilford (N.C.) College who also has a master's degree in sport administration from Ohio University, spent five years at Cincinnati.

Virginia Commonwealth handed visiting Towson its worst loss in program history, 112-53, Wednesday night. The 59-point margin was the biggest since Old Dominion beat the Tigers by 56 points, 107-51, in 1958. The 112 points were the most surrendered in a game since a 120-73 loss at Maryland in 1994. The Rams scored more than 100 points for the first time since Feb. 3, 2007, when they defeated Georgia State, 100-71. VCU (14-5, 6-4 CAA), which set a school record with 20 3-pointers, had five players score in double figures, including Bradford Burgess with 22. Josh Thornton and Jarrel Smith scored 12 points apiece for Towson (4-16, 1-9 CAA)

SAN DIEGO -- By the time Friday's news conference was over, the Cincinnati men's basketball team had had enough of the chiding over its past failures in the NCAA tournament. Four times the Bearcats had earned top-three seeds in the NCAAs, and four times they had been upset in the second round. This wouldn't happen against Kent State. Forward Jamaal Davis hit eight of nine shots for 16 points to go with 10 rebounds as No. 5 seed Cincinnati (25-9) cruised into next week's West Regional semifinals in Anaheim, Calif.

LAHAINA, Hawaii - -At worst, Maryland's full-court press serves as a life preserver, an effective means of evening the playing field on a night when its opponents hold critical advantages. At best, it is a tool capable of causing a foe to self-destruct. Against a Cincinnati squad fortified with an abundance of physical, athletic weapons, the Terrapins' press fell into the former category - prolonging No. 21 Maryland's hopes for as long as it could, but eventually succumbing to circumstances out of its control.

There's a reason compiling a coaching staff is a fluid business - because someone always can swoop in and make a better offer. That's what Buffalo did, anyway, announcing Sunday that it has hired Cincinnati offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn as its head coach. He will be introduced Tuesday. Quinn had coached alongside new Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly for 22 seasons and was almost certain to join Kelly's Irish staff after the Sugar Bowl. Quinn will replace Turner Gill , who took over at Kansas, after he serves as Cincinnati's interim coach for the Jan. 1 bowl against Florida.

Northwest Missouri State running back LaRon Council says he'll never forget the feeling of losing a national championship game. Now, he has something to take the place of that bad memory. Council rushed for 172 yards and two touchdowns to lead Northwest Missouri to the NCAA Division II championship with a 30-23 win over Grand Valley State (13-2) on Saturday in Florence, Ala. The Bearcats (14-1) won their first title since 1998 and ended a string of four consecutive losses in the national title game.