Cincinnati Basketball: UC’s Health Is The X-Factor Against Saint Joseph’s

The 2016 NCAA Tournament has already tipped off but the Cincinnati Bearcats will have to wait a little while before they can get things going. UC is of course set to play the very last game of the second round, against Saint Joseph’s on Friday night at 9:57 ET.

As we look forward tip off, which seems like eons away, we turn our attention to the one X-factor for the Bearcats in this game. Normally this post would spotlight one player or a position group. For example, you could easily name Troy Caupain the X-factor for Cincinnati considering he is Troy Caupain and dropped a 37 spot on UConn in the AAC Tournament. Or you could focus on UC’s front court as the pivotal position group that leads them to victory or defeat since Saint Joseph’s forwards Isaiah Miles and DeAndre Bembry are such menaces to opposing defenses.

Instead, we’re talking about the general health of the Bearcats. I know that’s a bit abnormal but if you recall during overtime of the UConn game, Cincinnati had more injured players on the floor at one time than healthy ones.

Mick Cronin kept his same five during those four extra periods but only Caupain and Kevin Johnson were relatively healthy. Gary Clark played the entire game with a sore ankle that he injured severely in the practices leading up to the AAC Tournament that forced him to play at a fraction of the speed and intensity that we normally see from him. Octavius Ellis had his foot stepped on twice and tweaked his knee, which kept his play at a pedestrian level. Finally, Farad Cobb tweak his hip when he hit the floor hard in the second half and couldn’t get any height on his jumpers.

That doesn’t even include Shaq Thomas, whose groin prevented him from playing more than the first 13 minutes of the game.

So as we approach the 24 hour countdown until Cincinnati tips off with Saint Joe’s, getting all four of those critical components back and close to 100% will be imperative if the Bearcats want to have any hope at victory. As of Tuesday, Mick Cronin was optimistic that all of them will suit up on Friday night but just how “better” have Shaq Thomas and Gary Clark gotten? Is Farad Cobb’s hip still dogging him? Will Coreontae DeBerry need to play significant minutes for Octavius Ellis if he’s still running on one and a half legs?

Those are the kinds of questions facing the Bearcats right now and if the answer to any of those aren’t “it’ll be like we didn’t know he was injured in the first place”, that might be a cause for concern.

The problem lies in the fact that Cincinnati’s strength comes in it’s deep rotation and getting consistent production from each contributor. Sure you might have Gary Clark nabbing himself a double-double or Troy Caupain going for 20+ but by and large the Bearcats share the wealth offensively. But injuries drive a stake through those plans, shorting a rotation that was expected to be eight or nine deep back in November.

If Shaq Thomas can’t go then UC will have to rely on Jacob Evans to shoulder the load in their most crucial game of the season. To be clear, Evans has been excellent in his first year as a Bearcat but the problem with the true freshman is simply that he’s a true freshman. He’s prone to make mistakes and currently leads all UC guards in personal fouls. The one that caused him to foul out against UConn late in the second half was especially costly due to all the injuries Cincinnati had sustained and considering the fact that they were about to play four straight overtimes.

That’s but one of the issues facing Mick Cronin if several Bearcats are at less than full health tomorrow. He needs to use his deep, experienced bench. He needs the them to play at full speed defensively. He needs his bigs to dominate inside. But if several of them are on the mend, that creates headaches for UC’s head coach when drawing up a strategy against the Hawks. Hopefully we can get most of the Bearcats back to 100% tomorrow night.