So, here comes Cincinnati native Mick Cronin to help the Bearcats navigate through the tough Big East. With a gutted roster he started a culture that breaded winning sooner than later, but early on it was tough. His first year he went 11-19 overall and 2-14 in the Big East, the second year he went 13-19 overall and somehow went 8-10 on the Big East, in his third year he was able to get his first plus .500 year going 18-14 overall and 8-10 in the Big East. You could see the improvement in Cronin’s teams each year, they always played defense, protected the ball and took the air out of the ball on offense. Limiting possessions and playing tough defense was the recipe for this program to be successful again. This wasn’t Conference USA where the Bearcats were locks to be Top 3 in the conference every year. The Big East constructed of 16 teams was a h*ll of a mine field on a nightly basis.
After his first two years the Bearcats under Cronin have never played sub .500 ball, it took until his fifth year for them to make the NCAA Tournament, in his fourth year they made the NIT, losing to Dayton at Fifth Third Arena in what should be labeled the Lance Stephenson year. In his first year he went 26-9 overall and 11-7 in the Big East and even won a game in the tournament beating Missouri before losing to UConn. In his sixth year at the helm he’s had his best success in March until this date he led the Bearcats to the Sweet 16 where they lost to OSU who eventually made it to the Final Four. Looking at the arc of his first six years it led people to think sky is the limit for Cronin in Cincinnati, this young man took a program that in pure turmoil and gave the fan base pure hope more sunny days were ahead. So, for what he has done he deserves props for that, with an outdated arena and facilities he has and was able to recruit young men that helped the program rise.
With success it breeds more expectations while the Bearcats have made the NCAA Tournament nine times in a row they have only made the second weekend once during that time frame. They have lost in the first round four times, they were the lower seed twice, but a first round loss is a first round loss, they were upset by Harvard in 2014, yes Harvard a school known for academics. Most recent is Iowa and that has made me dig in the crates. I’m not holding second round losses to Kentucky (15) and UCLA (17) against him both of those teams were loaded with NBA talent and the Bearcats went toe to toe against the powerhouses, but game that opens up wounds is Nevada (18) where the Bearcats had a 21 points lead with less than 11 minutes left in the game and lost. Their region was littered with upset after upset and was ripe for the program to make a huge run and it didn’t happen. The team had two current NBA players Jacob Evans and Gary Clark and Kyle Washington who is currently playing in the G-League and spent some time overseas this year. Also add Jarron Cumberland who has NBA potential and a bench that housed Trevon Scott, Nysier Brooks and Cane Broome. 2018 was their year and it passed them by like a kid running for the bus on a dark Monday morning. That loss made the Iowa loss sting that much more, most figured they would lose to Tennessee, but they wanted the shot, maybe it would be the Bearcats time to pull off the huge upset, but it wasn’t meant to be so it wasn’t.
