KIDD LIVES UP TO HIS REPUTATION -- CAL BEATS CINCINNATI  2/20/94

By JOHN FAY
Cincinnati Enquirer

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Bob Huggins used a little sarcasm to make his 
point.

''It was a total team effort,'' he said. ''All our guys let them 
shoot it wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted to, which is 
what you want. If you're going to (stink) on defense, everybody 
might as well. That was as poor a defensive effort I've had a team 
give this year.''

Huggins was analyzing Cincinnati's 89-80 loss to California Sunday 
in the 7-Up Shootout.

Suffice it to say, he was not happy.

The Bearcats are once again a team searching for itself. 
Cincinnati, ranked No. 23, falls to 17-8. Huggins says playing 
freshmen is no longer an excuse.

''People keep telling me that it's youth,'' he said. ''But I don't 
know what that has to do with it because it's widespread. If it's 
youth, it's infected our upperclassmen because they don't guard, 
either.''

The players plead guilty.

''We were real sluggish,'' Curtis Bostic said. ''We couldn't get 
into anything. We didn't sit down and guard like we have been.''

No. 19 California improves to 18-5.

Jason Kidd, California's All-American point guard, lived up to his
reputation. He finished with 22 points, eight assists, seven 
rebounds and three steals. He also completely controlled the game 
once California opened a healthy lead in the second half.

Cincinnati is at St. Louis Wednesday, and Huggins promises a better 
effort.

''We're going to practice a little bit with intensity tomorrow 
(Monday),'' he said.

The Bearcats did not play badly on offense. Damon Flint led 
Cincinnati with career-high 26 points, 15 in the first half. 
Dontonio Wingfield had 17 points and 10 rebounds, his 11th double 
of the year. Bostic added 10 points and eight rebounds.

But, as Huggins said, the defense was indefensible. California had 
beaten Top 25 teams its last two times out largely with aggressive 
defense. 

''It's disappointing because I thought we were making progress,'' 
Huggins said.

But the Bearcats allowed California to shoot 57.6 percent -- the 
best an opponent has shot against Cincinnati since the North 
Carolina game in November.

But Cincinnati led by as many as eight early (21-13), and they blew 
a four-point lead in the last 90 seconds, but still went in tied at 
36-all.

They came out clicking on offense in the second half, making seven 
of their first eights shots.

''We make a couple of shots, then we get the illusion we can 
score,'' Huggins said. ''The only reason we win is because we guard 
people and make things happen. But we decided after we made a 
couple of shots that maybe we could win with our offense. We could 
score 89 points in an empty gym.''

The Bearcats kept even through the first five minutes of the half. 
Then California went on a 9-0 run -- the last two came on great 
assists by Kidd -- to take a 62-53 lead with 11:29 to go. That was 
pretty much the game.

Cincinnati would get it back to six -- at 69-63 and 79-73 -- but 
that was it.

Once the Bears got the lead, they simply gave the ball to Kidd and 
let him dribble away the 35-second clock until he found someone 
open underneath.

''We wanted to pound the ball inside to get them in foul trouble,'' 
Kidd said. ''Once we did that it opened things up outside.''

It opened things so much that California shot 71 percent in the 
second half.

California's big guys lived off Kidd's passing. Lamont Murray had 
22 points, Ryan Jamison 18 and Michael Stewart 10.

''We let the big guys catch it so deep that all they had to do was 
turn around and drop the ball in,'' Flint said.,  Said Huggins: 
''That's what happens when 6-4 guys try to guard 6-11 guys by
standing behind them and letting them catch the ball.''

Cincinnati knew all about Kidd and Murray, but Jamison and Stewart 
killed the Bearcats in the second rally. 

''People sometimes label us as a two-man team,'' California coach 
Todd Bozeman said. ''But you can't possibly win with just two guys. 
You always need guys to step up.''

Part of Cincinnati's problems was early foul trouble. Mike Harris 
fouled out with 11:05 to go, and Bostic played most of the second 
half with four fouls.

''We couldn't play as aggressively as we usually do,'' Bostic said. 
''The way they were calling them, we had to ease off a little 
bit.''