The Cincinnati Bearcats are officially a 8-seed in the 2015 NCAA Tournament and will face the 9-seed Purdue Boilermakers on Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky. The winner will face the #1 overall seed Kentucky Wildcats in the second round. It’s unclear as of now what time UC will tip off.
The 22-10 Bearcats were bounced from the AAC Tournament in their opening game by the UConn Huskies. But that didn’t affect their NCAA Tournament hopes.
Cincinnati was slotted by many “experts” to be a 8 or 9 seed, even up until an hour before the Selection Show. They certainly got that right but were way off on the opponent. Joe Lunardi at ESPN, USA Today, Fox Sports, and SB Nation all had the Bearcats facing Ohio State in the first round. Jerry Palm at CBS had Oklahoma State. NBC Sports had St. John’s.
WRONG.
The Bearcats wound up facing the Purdue Boilermakers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, which goes to show you how much you should take their predictions to heart.
Cincinnati’s 40th ranked RPI, wins over top 25 SMU and San Diego State, and a 6-3 record against RPI top 50 teams bolstered their resume. The Selection Committee actually tabbed the Bearcats as the highest 8 seed in the bracket, 29th overall. Clearly the respect was there but UC was unable to help themselves in the conference tournament. By that logic, had they won the AAC Tournament Cincinnati could have probably been staring at a 6 seed today, which would have been a major accomplishment for this team in the midst of a transition year.
But beggars can’t be choosers and the 8 seed is still an impressive feat for UC.
We’ll learn more about Cincinnati’s tipoff time over the next couple of days. Stay tuned to Cincy on the Prowl as we’ll share those updates along with breakdowns of the Boilermakers.