By Andy Furman

Mick Cronin, the University of Cincinnati basketball coach said he’s happy with the effort his team displays. The few fans that seem to show-up at Fifth Third Arena disagree. Those that remained after Sunday’s 71-54 loss to Big East rival Syracuse, were either booing, or wearing orange for the “Cuse. Yes, it’s getting that bad for the 14-9 Bearcats, who dropped to 5-6 in league play. And it doesn’t seem things will be getting better anytime soon. Road games at West Virginia and Georgetown. Villanova at home all may mean no post-season NCAA berth for the fourth-year coach. Wow—four years. How long does it take to build a winning basketball program? I hear the defenders of the program – they’re young they say. Kentucky is young, too with a first-year coach and ranked in the top 5 in the country. Experience? John Wall is a Kentucky freshman and could play in the NBA now. What’s the answer? Time will tell. But then again, Cronin has had four years. Isn’t that enough time?     Ray Maualuga has a fat $859 fine to pay the Commonwealth of Kentucky for his drunken driving charge. And, oh yeah, he can’t drive for three months. That’s OK; he’ll be drying out at Betty Ford’s clinic, so we hear. Players aren’t the only goons – Jets’ coach Rex Ryan got slapped $50,000 for flipping the bird at a fan at a MMA match. He should’ve been fined for attending the match. We hear he responded to the “fan” after he was spit on. The NCAA basketball tournament is one of the greatest sporting events in the land. It gets everyone involved – from big and small schools   -- for four solid weeks. It’s a 64-team field with a 65^th play-in game. Now the talk is pushing the field to 96 – why? Are we rewarding those that compete with losing records now?