UC Is On A Roll!!!!

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Well the Bearcats just kicked Georgetown's ass again and are clearly one of the top 25 teams in the nation, I don't care if they're ranked or not. Georgetown was ranked 17th going in to this game and UC is a better team than they are. The Bearcats are better than a lot of teams that are going to get a higher seed than them in the NCAA Tournament.

The depth really showed in today's game as even though UC was ahead for most of the game they really blew it open in the last seven minutes. This is the same depth that I said could carry them to winning the Big East Tournament. They regularly play nine players double digit minutes. That gives them an advantage over most teams, especially in a tournament where you play every day, no days off. The only other team that plays that many players in this conference is Pittsburgh. Playing this many players has this team fresh over a long college basketball season as well. In today's game alone you could tell Georgetown's players were wore out coming down the stretch and Cincinnati's players were fresh.

This team has a ton of momentum heading into Championship Week and the NCAA Tournament. It has won five of it's last six games and four of those games were against ranked teams, and another against Marquette who is a likely tournament team and it was Senior Night at Marquette in a game they needed. So five of those games were against quality teams and the other was against a Providence team that is tough to beat at home. This was the time of year many had UC pegged to fall apart and not make the Tournament again. They did just the opposite, dominating the competition and are guaranteed to be in. None of these wins against ranked teams came down to the wire either. They handily beat Louisville, Marquette, and Georgetown twice. They did blow a 16 point lead at Providence, but then crushed them in overtime. This team is on a roll, and is playing about as well as anyone in the country right now! There's not a single team in college basketball that UC couldn't beat on a given night, not one! That could make for a very interesting March.

With all of this happening, it's time to give Mick Cronin some credit. Things were looking down and I was about ready to write them off after the loss to West Virginia. They stepped up to the challenge and have been playing excellent lately, give the credit to Mick as well as the players. The job he has done taking this team from nothing to where it is right now over five years is a remarkable job. Yeah we would have liked to see it happen quicker, but this program was in disarray when he got the job and it was going to take time. Well he has it turned around now and he deserves a ton of credit. I have no doubt that Mick is the man for the job now and it's time for this city to embrace him. He is a hometown guy, paid his dues as an assistant, went to a smaller school, and now is the right man for this job. It's time to start filling the stands at fifth third arena again. Ladies and Gentleman, Cincinnati basketball is back! It's officially the end of the rebuilding process and now the start of being one of the top programs in the country once again!