Jarron Cumberland for American Athletic Conference Player of the Year. Justin Jenifer for First Team All-AAC. Mick Cronin for Coach of the Year. I’m serious about all three of those statements.
After watching the Bearcats men’s basketball team in their last three games, I firmly believe in all three of those predictions possibly becoming a reality. Before the game at Wichita State back on January 19, I thought about how we were going to find out a lot about this Bearcats team in their next three games. Those games included on the road at Wichita State, at home against Tulsa and on the road against Temple. Each game was important. Of course, every game is important, and like I said after the USF game, get used to the close conference games.
But these three games in particular; Wichita State was going to show us whether the Bearcats could win on the road in a tough environment against a team who didn’t look good on paper but has a pedigree of regular-season success. Tulsa was going to be interesting because the Bearcats had played them just two weeks prior on the road, a thrilling come-from behind overtime win. And Temple was going to be a barometer measure of the height of the Bearcats potential as far as being able to beat a formidable opponent. In an overall span of nine days, we found out the Bearcats can win on the road against a team they should have won against and a team we didn’t know if they would beat. The Bearcats also put a beatdown on an opponent they had narrowly escaped exactly two weeks prior.
Well, after three straight wins, all those that are part of Bearcat Nation can, and should, be dreaming big. Yes, dream big. Forget about the fact that this city is under a curse. The only way this curse is going to be broken is by us as fans believing in one of our teams winning a championship (I just hope it’s not that other basketball team in the Queen City that breaks it). Don’t get your hopes up too much, and you can keep in the back of your mind all of Cincinnati’s past devastation. But get excited for the potential that this Bearcats team has. This is a fun team to watch, more so than last year. That’s saying a lot, but the Bearcats were expected to win last year and we all knew what we would feel if they didn’t. This year, there weren’t a lot of high expectations coming in. That’s why this season is more enjoyable than last season.
The win at Temple Sunday was incredible. It doesn’t, though, show how good the Bearcats can be as far as potential, to me. That’s because I knew how good the Bearcats can be before the win Sunday. What the win at Temple showed was that they can use the potential they have into beating a formidable opponent. Great teams win these kinds of games on the road. Maybe this Bearcats team is destined to be great.
The win also showed that this team can come back from any deficit to win a game. I didn’t know going into this season if this team was capable of that, but yesterday proved they are. All they did to dig themselves out of the 14-point deficit was gradually chip away by attacking the rim and pounding the glass. I don’t remember the last time a box score had a team out-rebounding the opposition 46-22 including 16-3 on the offensive glass.
The Wichita State game was a rematch of last year’s regular-season finale where the Bearcats defeated the Shockers by a single point for an outright regular-season title. I knew, despite the Shockers’ mediocre record going in, that Cincinnati was going to be tested with a Shockers team seeking revenge and a loud crowd behind them. All Cincinnati did was handle their business, weathered a few Shockers runs and, with the aid of two Shockers technical fouls, grinded their way to a 66-55 victory. Cincinnati was led by Jarron Cumberland’s 18 points.
Speaking of which, Jarron Cumberland is someone we all need to appreciate having here in the Queen City. In a city that doesn’t experience a lot of winning, there are some stars that we have come to love: A.J. Green, Geno Atkins, and Joey Votto, formerly Chad Johnson, T.J. Houshmanzadeh, Sean Kilpatrick and Brandon Phillips. And now, Jarron Cumberland. He is what Gary Clark was last year, and that’s another bold statement. But how can you not love Jarron? After all, and this is no knock against either of them, but the other stars I mentioned aren’t originally from Southwest Ohio.
Cumberland came in from Wilmington High School and immediately made an impact. Fast forward to this year where he is averaging 18.8 points per game, is shooting over 43 percent from the floor including 41.5 percent from beyond the perimeter and has ten games in which he has scored at least 20 points. Oh by the way, he’s also been named AAC Player of the Week four times this season.
Cumberland also played a big role in the home win against Tulsa last Thursday. After a quiet first half in which he scored just nine points, he rose up in the second half to wind up leading the Bearcats with 23 points. Proof that great scorers don’t stay quiet for long, even if Cumberland is a quiet humble man himself. But it wasn’t just Cumberland putting on a show last Thursday.
Justin Jenifer absolutely torched Tulsa from behind the arc with six made threes. Let’s not forget that he was battling the flu when the Bearcats were at Tulsa two weeks prior. I don’t know if Tulsa forgot to gameplan for him or wasn’t aware that he was among the league leaders in three-point shooting, but Jenifer showed how far he’s come as an overall player in that game. We knew he was a great ball-handler- he’s also among the nation’s leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio. I said last year, though, that Cane Broome should have been the starting point guard because of his ability to provide a spark offensively off the bench. Broome turned the ball over more, but he was a better scorer than Jenifer. All Jenifer has done this year is become not only great at handling the ball and running the offense but also a threat to score, especially from three-point range.
Cumberland’s and Jenifer’s efforts made Broome’s 10-point first half against Tulsa seem like a world away. True enough, though, Broome’s 10-point first half led the Bearcats in scoring, which goes to show that any player on the Bearcats can step up and lead this team in any facet at any time. Players can also step up in other facets not regarded as their strengths when those are held in check on a given night.
Keith Williams had an off night scoring against Tulsa with three points and two rebounds. Cincinnati’s second-leading scorer, though, still managed to dish out five assists, a third of the total number of assists he had coming in. Nysier Brooks was held to eight points, but he still pulled down seven rebounds and stayed out of foul trouble by picking up just two. Tre Scott also recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Like I said, I knew how good the Bearcats potential was before the game at Temple. That game was a barometer measure of the Bearcats being able to beat a formidable opponent. Now that they have, the path to a regular-season title is simple: win out or at least beat Houston once and win the other games. Understand this, though: no game the rest of the way is going to be easy. Mentally prepare yourself for a lot close games, and for the regular-season finale against Houston to be the game that decides the regular-season championship. I already have prepared for both myself.
I’ll also ask a question: should we, in fact, want the Bearcats to win out? It’d be great if they did, but that sounds like a recipe for disaster in the conference tournament or, worse, the NCAA Tournament. The Bearcats lost two games late in conference play last year, but they still managed to win the outright regular-season title and play their best basketball going into the NCAA Tournament. So maybe a loss at Houston would be good. Or, if they win at Houston, a loss let’s say at UConn or at SMU in late February maybe would be a good thing. I hate losing as much as anybody does, especially as a fan. But I also know that sometimes a late-season loss can re-sharpen a team’s focus. So, mentally prepare yourself, as well, for a potential loss to Houston or possibly in late February.
But the bottom line is we found out a lot about this Bearcats team these last three games. They have a chance to have a great season, wherever that takes them. I’m not focused on the end result. I’m focused on the SMU game on Saturday. This is a fun team to watch and be around as sports director of Bearcast Media. I hope you all are enjoying this as much as I am.
Let me be Frank and Cut to the Chase 