Cincy on the Prowl
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Season Ticket Renewal Deadline Nears, But Still No Schedule For Cincinnati Basketball

By Bearcat Jones

Mar 8, 2015; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats guard Troy Caupain (10) against the Memphis Tigers at Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats won 77-65. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 8, 2015; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats guard Troy Caupain (10) against the Memphis Tigers at Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats won 77-65. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports /
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Luckily for you, COTP has compiled small bits of information from the vast reaches of the internet to piece together a partial schedule.

The deadline to renew Cincinnati basketball season tickets for the Bearcats’ upcoming 2016-17 campaign is Monday, August 15.  There happens to be one small problem with that deadline, though: the team still hasn’t released a schedule of any kind.  With the season starting in about 90 days, that’s kind of a problem.  It’s tough to ask people to commit to buy something when you haven’t told them exactly what they’re buying.  It’s a trust fall of sorts, except that you have to pay the UC athletic department money and hope they catch you.

In years past, UC has at least released the non-conference schedule, including exact dates, before season ticket renewals were due.  I expected that to happen about a month ago, again, based on what has happened done in years past.  But this year, UC has left it’s fans completely in the dark.  I, for one, am pretty frustrated about this.  Not knowing what I’m buying when I pay for it irks me.  For all I know, when the schedule comes out, I could only end up being able to make less than half of the home games, due to other evening time commitments for work.

Most other teams have already announced their non-conference schedules, and the West Coast Conference (home of Gonzaga and our bitter Twitter rivals BYU), has already announced it’s full league schedule, complete with dates and times.  So how can UC get their act together here?  It’s a fair question.  Hopefully the AAC isn’t far behind with a league schedule, but if past years are any indication, we might not see that until September.

I understand that the Bearcats can’t control the AAC, and the league office will release the league schedule when it’s ready, but I don’t understand why the athletic department is being so secretive with the non-league schedule.  By combing Twitter and various articles no the internet, I have been able to find confirmed dates for multiple games this season.  Why not release what you know at this point, UC?  Why make it so hard on your fans?  Maybe they’re waiting to finalize the date for the Crosstown Shootout before they do – I don’t know.  But that’s the most frustrating part, because that’s the biggest reason most people are going to renew their season tickets.  Xavier has already released their schedule, with the Shootout currently as a TBA – at least Muskie fans have some info.

For whatever reason, UC and Xavier have decided to move this year’s Shootout into January or February, instead of the traditional Dec. 10-17 time frame that we’ve seen for so many years.  So I can only assume that both schools now have to wait for league schedules to come out from the AAC and Big East before they can set a date.  That’s only one of the reasons why this game shouldn’t be scheduled during conference play.  The more obvious reason is that it will undoubtedly hurt both teams in their efforts to win their respective conferences.  The Crosstown Shootout is the biggest game of the year for both teams.  In fact, it’s the biggest sporting event of the year in all of Cincinnati.  The physical nature of the rivalry and the time spent preparing and recovering from such an intense game don’t belong within the confines of conference play.  Conference play is hard enough as it is.

Okay, I digress.  If you’re renewing your mens’ basketball tickets this week, here’s what I’ve been able to find out about the Bearcats’ 2016-17 schedule.  Hopefully more information is forthcoming sooner rather than later – especially about the Xavier game.

  • Fri., Nov. 11 – Brown
  • Mon., Nov. 14 – Albany
  • Sat., Nov. 19 – vs. Rhode Island (@ Uncasville, CT)
  • Sun., Nov. 20 – vs. Duke -or- Penn State (@ Uncasville, CT)
  • Wed., Nov. 23 – Samford
  • Sat., Nov. 26 – Lipscomb
  • Thu., Dec. 1 – @ Iowa State
  • Sun. Dec. 4 – Bowling Green
  • Sat., Dec. 10 – @ Butler
  • Thu., Dec. 22 – Marshall
  • TBA (Jan. or Feb.) – Xavier
  • Mar 9-12 – AAC Tournament (@ Hartford, CT)