#3 – 2017-18 – 31-5 Overall (16-2 AAC)
The best team of the Mick Cronin tenure and the biggest what if since Kenyon Martin comes in at number 3. A team that will forever be haunted by the tournament results in Nashville, but that should be celebrated none the less. This was the most complete team Cronin had with junior guards Justin Jenifer and Cane Broome keeping the offense moving, seniors Gary Clark and Kyle Washington provided the Bearcats with the best low post scorers they have had since Huggins and then they got great leaps in the games of junior Jacob Evans, who would be a 1st round pick that same year, and sophomore Jarron Cumberland. The Bearcats would win the American Athletic regular season conference title and then win the American Conference Tournament as well. They averaged 74 points a game and in a culmination of everything Cronin preached would hold opponents to just 57 points a game that season good for the number 1 defensive rating in the country, depending on which site you check. They would climb as high as 5th in the AP poll and would capture a No. 2 seed for the NCAA tournament. In what will always be remembered as an all time collapse and an all time what if, the Bearcats would fall to Nevada 75-73 in the second round, a game which saw Nevada erase a 22 point deficit with 11 minutes left in the game. To truly add insult to injury this was the same NCAA Tournament Region which featured Virginia becoming the first No. 1 seed ever to lose to a No. 16, No.3 seed Tennessee lose to No.11 seed Loyola Chicago, No.4 seed Arizona lose to No. 13 seeded Buffalo, and No.5 seed Kentucky lose to No 9 seed Kansas St. All of that is to say UC had the absolutely incredible path of potentially making it all the way to the Final Four before ever having to face a team seeded higher than 7th, which was the Nevada team they destroyed for 30 minutes. While this was still a UC team that finished tied for most wins in a season, the way the season ended can always be looked at as what was the beginning of the end of the Mick Cronin era.
