By Bill Koch
The UC basketball program was going through a difficult time during Eric Hicks’ senior year. Bob Huggins had been fired as head coach by UC president Nancy Zimpher, and associate head coach Andy Kennedy had been named to replace him on an interim basis.
The Bearcats had only nine scholarship players, but they still had a solid core of talented players in Hicks, Armein Kirkland, James White, Chadd Moore, Cedric McGowan, and point guard Devan Downey, with tight end Connor Barwin joining the short-handed team after UC’s football season was over. When they arrived in Milwaukee to face Marquette on Jan. 7, 2006, they were 12-2 overall, with nine straight victories.
“It was us against the world,” Hicks said.
No one took that attitude more to heart than Hicks, a 6-foot-6, 245-pound forward who was often forced to battle in the low post against much bigger defenders in the rugged Big East Conference.
Behind Hicks’ inspiring triple-double, the Bearcats extended their winning streak to 10 games with a 70-66 win over Marquette. He scored a game-high 22 points, with 12 rebounds and 10 blocked shots registering the first triple-double for a UC player since Kenny Satterfield on Jan. 29, 2001 against Tulane.
Hicks made nine of 13 shots from the field and did not commit a foul in 38 minutes. He became only the fifth player in UC history with a triple-double, joining Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson (10 times), 2000 National Player of the Year Kenyon Martin (2), Rick Roberson and Satterfield (one each).
The Greensboro, N.C., product embodied the determined group of players who gave everything they had for Kennedy. Hicks said they were also playing for Huggins, whom they believed had been terribly wronged by Zimpher.
“That was the worst time in Cincinnati basketball,” Hicks said.
Marquette was 11-3 overall, 1-0 in the Big East Conference, and was coming off a 15-point win over No. 2 Connecticut, getting 41 points from forward Steve Novak.
The Bearcats were outscored 14-4 in the final 3:53 of the first half, and trailed 46-36 at halftime. They trailed by 11 three minutes into the second half. That’s when they started to chip away at Marquette’s lead. They went ahead for good on a Kirkland jump shot with 8:38 to go.
Hicks played like a beast around the basket, seizing rebounds, swatting away shots (his 10 blocks tied a school record) and attacking the basket. Late in the game, he rolled his right ankle. He came out of the game just long enough to have his ankle re-taped.
`“It swelled up to the size of a cantaloupe,” Hicks said. “But it was us against everybody. It really hurt. But I was like, man, I’m not giving up for my boys. We’re already with our backs against the wall. We’re UC. We’re supposed to be winning. We’re struggling. I just remember saying, put me back in the game. Put me back in the game. That was my family. I had to protect them. Everybody took care of everybody.”
An Associated Press photo that accompanied my game story the next day in the Enquirer showed Hicks being double-teamed by two Marquette players. He’s crouched low under the outstretched arms of the helpless defenders, with a determined look on his face, as if he’s daring them to try to keep him from scoring. This was the unstoppable force Huggins and Kennedy envisioned when they recruited him out of high school.
But it took him a while to reach that point. During the summer before his freshman year, he was accidentally shot in his left leg while trying to break up a playground fight. When I talked to him about the shot on the day before his final UC home game, he said the bleeding “was like a water fountain. You don’t feel it. You just leak. I looked down and lifted my pants leg. I actually walked back to the car and I was like, ‘Man, guess what? I’ve just been shot.’”
While he recovered, Hicks had a hard time doing some of the drills his teammates were easily executing, which was extremely frustrating for a player who had averaged 30.7 points, 12.3 rebounds and 6.7 blocked shots during his senior year in high school. After his leg healed, he had to learn what it meant to play hard according to Huggins’ definition of the term. He worked in practice to focus on defense and rebounding as the Bearcats prepared to face Clemson on Dec. 22 in Anderson, S.C., and believed that he had done enough to earn additional playing time. But he never got off the bench.
After that game, the Bearcats were given a few days off to go home for Christmas. By then, Hicks had had enough and decided to quit the team.
“Keep in mind, I came to school a month after being shot,” Hicks said. “If I shoot you in the leg, can you play two months after? I quit because Huggs didn’t play me against Clemson. We had a long talk. I realized he had my back. That’s the reason you choose schools like Cincinnati. I should have red-shirted (that year). Just imagine me having one more year.”
After the win over Marquette, UC moved into the AP Top 25 for the first time that season, at No. 25. Two nights later, they faced then-No. 4 Connecticut in Hartford. They were giving the Huskies a battle when Armein Kirkland felt something pop in his left knee as he went up for a shot with just under eight minutes left in the first half. Kirkland had been playing the best game of his career, with 14 points in 12 minutes, only to see his career come to a premature end when he was diagnosed with a torn ACL.
UC went on to lose that game, 70-59, the first of five losses in its next six games. The Bearcats lost by one point to Syracuse in the first round of the Big East Tournament and were relegated to play in the National Invitation Tournament, ending their run of 14 straight NCAA Tournament appearances. After they lost to South Carolina in the NIT quarterfinals, Kennedy was hired by Ole Miss. Mick Cronin was announced as the next UC coach. Hicks was named first-team all-Big East after averaging 15.0 points and 9.7 rebounds with a school-record 113 blocked shots. He ranks 32nd in career scoring at UC with 1,231 points.
Following his time at UC, Hicks played professionally overseas for 12 years. He still takes great pride in being the most recent Bearcat to post a triple-double. He ranks 32nd in career scoring with 1,231 points.
“I like still holding onto that triple-double,” he said. “I will not lie. That and having the single-season shot-blocking record. I hold onto that. Hopefully one day I’ll be in the Hall of Fame at UC.
“I love UC. I know schools go through changes. I’m over my grudge because I’m a grown man. I just want to see the school get back to where it was it at. The grudges are gone.”
The UC basketball program was going through a difficult time during Eric Hicks’ senior year. Bob Huggins had been fired as head coach by UC president Nancy Zimpher, and associate head coach Andy Kennedy had been named to replace him on an interim basis.
The Bearcats had only nine scholarship players, but they still had a solid core of talented players in Hicks, Armein Kirkland, James White, Chadd Moore, Cedric McGowan, and point guard Devan Downey, with tight end Connor Barwin joining the short-handed team after UC’s football season was over. When they arrived in Milwaukee to face Marquette on Jan. 7, 2006, they were 12-2 overall, with nine straight victories.
“It was us against the world,” Hicks said.
No one took that attitude more to heart than Hicks, a 6-foot-6, 245-pound forward who was often forced to battle in the low post against much bigger defenders in the rugged Big East Conference.
Behind Hicks’ inspiring triple-double, the Bearcats extended their winning streak to 10 games with a 70-66 win over Marquette. He scored a game-high 22 points, with 12 rebounds and 10 blocked shots registering the first triple-double for a UC player since Kenny Satterfield on Jan. 29, 2001 against Tulane.
Hicks made nine of 13 shots from the field and did not commit a foul in 38 minutes. He became only the fifth player in UC history with a triple-double, joining Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson (10 times), 2000 National Player of the Year Kenyon Martin (2), Rick Roberson and Satterfield (one each).
The Greensboro, N.C., product embodied the determined group of players who gave everything they had for Kennedy. Hicks said they were also playing for Huggins, whom they believed had been terribly wronged by Zimpher.
“That was the worst time in Cincinnati basketball,” Hicks said.
Marquette was 11-3 overall, 1-0 in the Big East Conference, and was coming off a 15-point win over No. 2 Connecticut, getting 41 points from forward Steve Novak.
The Bearcats were outscored 14-4 in the final 3:53 of the first half, and trailed 46-36 at halftime. They trailed by 11 three minutes into the second half. That’s when they started to chip away at Marquette’s lead. They went ahead for good on a Kirkland jump shot with 8:38 to go.
Hicks played like a beast around the basket, seizing rebounds, swatting away shots (his 10 blocks tied a school record) and attacking the basket. Late in the game, he rolled his right ankle. He came out of the game just long enough to have his ankle re-taped.
`“It swelled up to the size of a cantaloupe,” Hicks said. “But it was us against everybody. It really hurt. But I was like, man, I’m not giving up for my boys. We’re already with our backs against the wall. We’re UC. We’re supposed to be winning. We’re struggling. I just remember saying, put me back in the game. Put me back in the game. That was my family. I had to protect them. Everybody took care of everybody.”
An Associated Press photo that accompanied my game story the next day in the Enquirer showed Hicks being double-teamed by two Marquette players. He’s crouched low under the outstretched arms of the helpless defenders, with a determined look on his face, as if he’s daring them to try to keep him from scoring. This was the unstoppable force Huggins and Kennedy envisioned when they recruited him out of high school.
But it took him a while to reach that point. During the summer before his freshman year, he was accidentally shot in his left leg while trying to break up a playground fight. When I talked to him about the shot on the day before his final UC home game, he said the bleeding “was like a water fountain. You don’t feel it. You just leak. I looked down and lifted my pants leg. I actually walked back to the car and I was like, ‘Man, guess what? I’ve just been shot.’”
While he recovered, Hicks had a hard time doing some of the drills his teammates were easily executing, which was extremely frustrating for a player who had averaged 30.7 points, 12.3 rebounds and 6.7 blocked shots during his senior year in high school. After his leg healed, he had to learn what it meant to play hard according to Huggins’ definition of the term. He worked in practice to focus on defense and rebounding as the Bearcats prepared to face Clemson on Dec. 22 in Anderson, S.C., and believed that he had done enough to earn additional playing time. But he never got off the bench.
After that game, the Bearcats were given a few days off to go home for Christmas. By then, Hicks had had enough and decided to quit the team.
“Keep in mind, I came to school a month after being shot,” Hicks said. “If I shoot you in the leg, can you play two months after? I quit because Huggs didn’t play me against Clemson. We had a long talk. I realized he had my back. That’s the reason you choose schools like Cincinnati. I should have red-shirted (that year). Just imagine me having one more year.”
After the win over Marquette, UC moved into the AP Top 25 for the first time that season, at No. 25. Two nights later, they faced then-No. 4 Connecticut in Hartford. They were giving the Huskies a battle when Armein Kirkland felt something pop in his left knee as he went up for a shot with just under eight minutes left in the first half. Kirkland had been playing the best game of his career, with 14 points in 12 minutes, only to see his career come to a premature end when he was diagnosed with a torn ACL.
UC went on to lose that game, 70-59, the first of five losses in its next six games. The Bearcats lost by one point to Syracuse in the first round of the Big East Tournament and were relegated to play in the National Invitation Tournament, ending their run of 14 straight NCAA Tournament appearances. After they lost to South Carolina in the NIT quarterfinals, Kennedy was hired by Ole Miss. Mick Cronin was announced as the next UC coach. Hicks was named first-team all-Big East after averaging 15.0 points and 9.7 rebounds with a school-record 113 blocked shots. He ranks 32nd in career scoring at UC with 1,231 points.
Following his time at UC, Hicks played professionally overseas for 12 years. He still takes great pride in being the most recent Bearcat to post a triple-double. He ranks 32nd in career scoring with 1,231 points.
“I like still holding onto that triple-double,” he said. “I will not lie. That and having the single-season shot-blocking record. I hold onto that. Hopefully one day I’ll be in the Hall of Fame at UC.
“I love UC. I know schools go through changes. I’m over my grudge because I’m a grown man. I just want to see the school get back to where it was it at. The grudges are gone.”
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