What To Watch For In Cincinnati’s Bahamas Exhibition Game Tonight

The Cincinnati Bearcats basketball team has spent the better part of the last week enjoying some fun in the sun in the Bahamas before facing the PJ Stingers in exhibition play tonight. While we can’t actually watch the game, even though ESPN carved out a time slot to show Kentucky’s exhibition match in the islands (blech), it doesn’t hurt to talk about the major storylines for this team as it approaches its first live game together.

As has been mentioned ad nauseam, the 2014-15 version of the Bearcats basketball team is basically brand new. Mick Cronin added a whopping five new players, over 38% of the entire roster, this past offseason. Even more so, the UC head coach made a point of ensuring that those newbies could make an impact right away. Farad Cobb could start at point guard or shooting guard, Octavius Ellis and Coreontae DeBerry could start in the front court, and Gary Clark and Quadri Moore might get their feet wet as true freshmen. There’s a potential that one of the new ‘Cats will redshirted but as of now, it’s simply too early to figure out Mick’s best 9-10 guys to eat up most of the minutes.

But we might be able to get a better idea when UC takes on the PJ Stingers this evening. Now, these guys are obviously no where near the level of competition the Bearcats will face in the AAC (East Carolina aside), these 40 minutes will hopefully unveil something about this very unrecognizable team we didn’t know before 7 pm tonight. Something’s better than nothing, right?

So here are the burning questions that I hope get at least partially answered during tonight’s game.

1) Who’s Running Point?

Logic tells you Troy Caupain. Intrigue tells you Farad Cobb. Jon Rothstein tells you Ge’Lawn Guyn. My money’s on Caupain with a spattering of Cobb. Mick Cronin, and history, has suggested Guyn would be better suited if he moved off the ball to the shooting guard position and split time with Kevin Johnson/Deshaun Morman. But you never really know what’s going through the UC head coach’s head and if he wants to continue to have a defensive stopper at point guard while sacrificing offensive flow, he might stick with his depth chart from last season. Now would be the time to try something new, though.

2) Gary Clark, Just How Good Is He?

The incoming freshman was a double-double machine in high school. Gary Clark threw in the occasional triple-double and even dropped a quadruple-double once (for the ladies). But exactly how his proficient slashing abilities translate to the collegiate level remains to be seen. I think it’s also worth looking closely at how Mick utilizes Clark in his offense. Will it be as an outside-in 3 or a floating 4? Likely the latter but you never really know what the coaches have planned for him.

3) Will The Front Court Be An Area Of Strength Once Again?

Ever since Yancy Gates graduated, the Cincinnati Bearcats have experienced a steady decline in talent and productivity at the power forward and center positions. Part of that was due to attrition with Kelvin Gaines transferring and Octavius Ellis getting booted from the team. Part of that was attributed to Jamaree Strickland getting the brunt of the NCAA’s illogical wrath. But Ellis is back, Strickland is eligible, and Cronin added a hulking JUCO center in Coreontae DeBerry to anchor the front court for the Bearcats. The pieces are in place for UC to once again hang their hats on their big men. Let’s hope we get a glimpse of that against the Stingers.

Quite honestly, if the skill differential is as large as we expect, we probably won’t find out a whole heck of a lot about Cincinnati’s front court, Gary Clark, or the prospective point guards tonight. That’s fine. I think at the end of the day just if we find out that all thirteen guys in fact do exist and can at least resemble a cohesive team, I’ll be happy.