Mick Cronin asks senior for more and gets it in Cincinnati win

Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin shared with the media some of his thoughts about what has prevented his underachieving team from reaching its potential prior to a Thursday home game against Memphis.

Two areas of concern Cronin mentioned were a need to get more out of senior forward Shaq Thomas, who had scored in double figures just once in the previous nine games. He also speculated the Bearcats problem in coming up short in close games had something to do with lacking an offensive closer.

[Dunk of the year nominee: Donovan Mitchell’s put-back slam]

The Bearcats heard and read those comments and responded with a 76-72 victory over the Tigers in which Thomas scored a career-best 18 points with six rebounds and Troy Caupain, a candidate to be that offensive closer, finished with a career-best 25 points.

“I think Shaq Thomas has got to produce more for us, and he’s capable of it,” Cronin told the Cincinnati Enquirer before the game. “He’s got to get more offensive rebounds. He’s very capable of rebounding from his wing position and giving us more production, for the minutes that he’s out there.”

Cincinnati didn’t begin the season ranked but it was seen as a team with potential coming off a year in which it won an NCAA tournament game and returned most of that team. The Bearcats started 7-0 and climbed as high as No. 17 in the polls in early December but have now gone 7-6 since, including the win over Memphis, and have struggled to win close games.

Prior to Wednesday’s win, which shouldn’t be seen necessarily as a turning point just yet, the Bearcats had gone 1-4 in their past five games decided by five or fewer points.

[Youthful Washington emerges as surprise team in the Pac-12]

With five minutes remaining in Wednesday’s game, the score was tied 67-67 but the Bearcats gave up only five points the rest of the of the way and two of them came on a meaningless Memphis dunk in the final second of the game.

Meanwhile, Caupain scored Cincinnati’s final six points to close out a victory. Thomas scored 10 of his points in the second half providing exactly what Cronin was looking for from a player whom he should be able to lean on at this stage of his final collegiate season.

– – – – – – –

[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo