Bearcat of the Week: Yancy Gates

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With his second appearance in this illustrious circle, Yancy Gates has won this week’s BOTW award. He has been a rebounding machine in his last two games against Marquette and Providence tallying a combined 21 boards. He had 12 against the Golden Eagles alone and lead all players in rebounds that game. Gates had a pretty ho hum line against Providence (16 pts, 9 boards) but the UC big man was playing out of his mind in that game. He absolutely dominated on the inside against Friars players who were a pretty good size matchup with Yancy. To put an exclamation point on his play, Gates opened the 2nd half scoring by posterizing Providence’s Brice Kofane:

Not only has Yancy has been playing like a man on fire in the past few games but he has established himself as only reliable post man night-in and night-out. That makes him much more valuable to this team and shows what UC will be losing after this season. Until that happens, Gates will be a key figure in helping the Bearcats return to the NCAA Tournament.