Cincinnati Bearcats Picked To Finish 4th In American Athletic Conference

The Cincinnati Bearcats were picked to finish fourth by the coaches in the American Athletic Conference during the AAC media days that kicked off this morning. The defending national champs UConn led the way, edging out the SMU Mustangs as preseason favorites to finish first. The Memphis Tigers were picked to finish third, followed by Cincinnati, the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes (what?), and the Temple Owls. Houston, South Florida, Central Florida, East Carolina, and Tulane round out the preseason standings.

On the surface this is another narrative involving the Bearcats receiving little to no love from the pollsters. They didn’t receive votes in the preseason Coaches Poll and those in the AAC didn’t favor UC either. But that’s the reality of this year’s Cincinnati basketball team.

Mick Cronin will added a total of seven new players to his rotation this season, a full 58% of the total roster. This is a team that lost all-everything guard Sean Kilpatrick to graduation along with their top two rebounders in Titus Rubles and Justin Jackson. Cronin did a nice job stacking the roster with talented high schoolers and junior college transfers but it remains to be seen just how well and how quickly these pieces mesh into a cohesive unit.

So at this point, it’s not surprising nor deflating to see Cincinnati picked to finish fourth in a very top heavy American Athletic Conference. That should be the same reaction when you don’t see a single Bearcat on the preseason AAC first or second team rosters.

This is a team that hasn’t proven it self nor established a known star. It could be Troy Caupain, it could be Kevin Johnson, it could be Octavius Ellis. They could be good enough to win 25 or bad enough to lose 25. We have no idea. But hopefully those answers are unearthed over the next few months.