The Bearcats Men’s Basketball season really kicks into gear this weekend as they participate in the 2019 Paradise Jam tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Lets take a quick look at who they might see over this three game stretch and for the results I am just guessing at who will win based solely off of the KENPOM current rankings, I personally like KENPOM more than a standard coaches poll because it just uses more data so with that said let’s take a look at the tourney…
ROUND 1
To get things started the Bearcats (Kenpom 23) will open up Friday at 6:45pm against Illinois State who is 2-1 (205), this is not a knockout style tournament so win or lose UC continues to play throughout. Myself and the experts believe UC comes out of the opening game with a victory.
ROUND 2
The second round of the tournament, provided UC wins, will be played on Sunday (Saturday if they were to lose). In the second round they would square off with the winner of Bowling Green (103) and Western Kentucky (84). Since it’s too early in a season to know any of these teams, UC included I’ll just go with rankings and assume UC will be facing Western KY.
TITLE GAME
Provided UC takes care of business and moves on to the Title Game they would be facing 1 of 4 possible teams. Valparaiso (192), Grand Canyon (143), Fordham (198), and Nevada (122). Going purely off of rankings I would expect UC to be facing with Nevada on Monday the 25th. I know UC fans have been torn on this, after all virtually everyone involved in that UC/Nevada tournament disaster have moved on, but as one of the thousands of UC fans who was in Bridgestone Arena that night this is the only outcome I care about. It can never erase the pain of that game, but I think getting Nevada back on a basketball court, although painful, could help to at least close out the memory especially if the Bearcats do it by winning the Paradise Jame Tournament.
Regardless if it’s Nevada or one of those other teams it is important to note that other than Illinois State who they must play to start, every other team is inside the top 200 and this three games in four days stretch can go a long way towards building consistency within a Bearcats team that is still trying to implement a new offensive and defensive style. They are finally healthy and practicing as a full squad for seemingly the first time ever and hopefully whatever issue plagued Jarron Cumberland in the last game is done and over with and everyone can move on and begin to see just how good this UC team can be. A Paradise Jame title could go a long way in preparing the Bearcats for March.
