What happened at the start of the year has been an amazing transformation of a player of Cumberland’s skill level finally having his body at 100% and enough knowledge of a system to be able to become the focal point he was always meant to be. January 1st marked the start of conference play for the Bearcats, a time when you need your best guys to play their best basketball, so how did Cumberland respond to a very pedestrian two months of the season? By averaging 15.2 points and an amazing 5.8 assists per game in the seven conference games played this month, and that includes a UCF game where Cumberland only scored six points. Do you realize what a high level you need to consistently play at to add 6.0 points and 4.0 assists per game to your averages? What he has done in the month of January has been nothing short of fantastic and a lot of it has to do with Brannen trusting his senior leader to now take over a heavy workload at the point guard position. Everyone knew Cumberland can get a bucket whenever he needs or wants to, what people didn’t know is how much he could elevate those around him and Brannen putting the offense and the ball in his hands has been the equivalent to Thanos putting on the Infinity Gauntlet, it has unlocked a Jarron Cumberland at the height of his powers. Per UC he now “ranks among league leaders in six categories during league play: assists (second at 5.9), assist-to-turnover ratio (fourth at 1.8), scoring (seventh at 15.3), 3-point field goal percentage (tied for eighth at .400), minutes played (11th at 32.6) and 3-pointers made (tied for 11th at 1.7)”.
It’s worth pointing out that the Colgate game could have been a defining moment positively or negatively not just on the season, but on the legacy of Jarron Cumberland and I think most would have agreed it was trending towards negative. Walking out of the arena that night I don’t think I would have even blamed him for checking out on the rest of the season or even leaving the team, he looked that out of sync and had that level of backlash from fans, but that isn’t what he did. Instead he turned his game, with it the UC season completely around and I think it’s only fair that those who criticized, myself included, now recognize the level of character and maturity that takes from a 22 year old kid.
This UC team still has everything in front of them, the conference schedule remaining has a lot of big games left, starting this week with SMU and Houston at home. If they are going to make a run at another NCAA tournament birth or make a run at winning the American they are going to to need Cumberland to continue playing at a high level, but he is the exact type of guy who can do just that. UC is poised for a stressful, exciting, down to the wire finish this season and as much as I root for UC to win and advance as I have all my life, I will now do so under the sobering reality that in the end, I just want to see as many Jarron Cumberland games as I can.
