High Hopes For Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Following Kentucky Loss

The Cincinnati Bearcats were bounced from the 2015 NCAA Tournament by what is quite possibility the best college basketball team in my lifetime the #1 seed Kentucky Wildcats. It was a tough pill to swallow watching our beloved ‘Cats end the season so abruptly.

However, looking ahead to the future, UC fans shouldn’t be too distraught.

Coming into this season, we knew this was a rebuilding year. “Reloading” might be more appropriate. Cincinnati lost 20 point per gamer Sean Kilpatrick, impact 5 Justin Jackson, and prolific rebounder Titus Rubles to graduation. Replacing them was a slew of new faces dotting the roster with holdovers such as Troy Caupain being given expanded roles.

So we understood that this season was going to be a bumpy ride (East Carolina) and I even predicted that UC would struggle to make the NCAA Tournament. At best, I had the Bearcats capped as a 10 seed with a NIT birth more likely. I just figured the team had so many moving pieces that it was going to take some time for them to mesh and UC would suffer some difficult losses along the way (East Carolina).

But Cincinnati grossly overachieved based on my expectations, nabbing themselves a 8 seed in the Big Dance after top 25 wins over San Diego State and SMU. They even knocked off Purdue, advancing to that third round matchup with the Wildcats.

Now, the buzz saw that is UK basketball currently halted the Bearcats in their tracks but that shouldn’t discourage UC fans. Not as far as the grand scheme of the basketball program is concerned, as they have grandiose aspirations next season.

Cincinnati returns everyone of significance in 2015-16 (sorry, Jermaine Sanders). That includes 87% of the team’s points, 88% of their offensive rebounds, 85% of their defensive rebounds, and 95% of their made free throws.

For all intents and purposes, Mick Cronin will have himself the exact same team as this past season, except they’ll be one year more experienced, one year more cohesive, and one year more pissed off that they were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament in the first weekend.

Not much will change from a lineup perspective. Troy Caupain will still man the point and it finally dawned on Larry Davis that Farad Cobb is his best shooting guard so he’ll be anchoring the 2 next season. A revitalized Shaq Thomas will have the 3 with Gary Clark and Octavius Ellis holding down the paint.

The bench will consist of Coreontae DeBerry to provide a wrinkle in the low post and Kevin Johnson to create pop from the outside.

One of the main questions will be where the newcomers will fit in. Cincinnati signed another solid recruiting class this past cycle, with lengthy 6’5″ shooting guard Jacob Evans acting as headliner. He could easily step in and take Jermaine Sanders’ minutes next season.

Then there’s high 3-star point guard Justin Jenifer, who might struggle to see the floor his freshman year with the logjam at guard. However, 5 or 6 minutes in garbage time or if one of the three players ahead of him got into foul trouble wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.

Finally, forward Tre Scott appears to be a bit of a project and could be heading for a redshirt year. As mentioned, 98% of the minutes in the front court will go to Ellis, Clark, DeBerry, Thomas, and potentially Evans if UC goes “small”. Scott could be the odd man out next season.

Regardless, the core of this year’s NCAA Tournament team is intact. They’ll be able to further mesh and improve the nuances of their games this offseason to prepare for a potentially historic 2015-16 season. What’s the ceiling for this team? I’m not sure but a Final Four isn’t out the realm of possibility for UC next year.