2013-14 Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Preview

By Michael Schneid

This is Mick Cronin's most talented roster in his eight years as Cincinnati Bearcats head coach.

2012-13 Rewind: Cincinnati began the season 12-0 and were ranked 9th in the country, before losing to New Mexico. The Bearcats would go on to finish 9-9 in their final season of Big East play. They won their first round game in the Big East tournament, beating Providence, and lost to Georgetown. As a 10 seed, Cincy lost their first round NCAA tourney game to Creighton.

• Returning Starters: Sean Kilpatrick, Justin Jackson 
• Returning Impact Players: Shaq Thomas, Jeremiah Davis III, Titus Rubles
• Incoming Freshman: Jermaine Lawrence, Troy Caupain, Kevin Johnson, Deshaun Mormon, Jamaree Strickland
• Departed Players: Cashmere Wright, Jaquon Parker, Cheikh Mbodj, Kelvin Gaines (transfer)

Head Coach: Mick Cronin (135-99 all-time at Cincinnati)
Mick is back for his 8th season. Cincy has made the NCAA tournament the last three years and Cronin's program has gotten to the point where the expectations are a tourney bid at a minimum. Cincy expects to compete for American Athletic Conference titles now. Bearcats enter the 2013-14 season with their best recruiting class yet. 

Certainly, the positives for Cincinnati is the tournament bid, their third straight season dancing. It was the first time Mick Cronin's team did not win a game in the tournament in those three years. Cincinnati has gotten to the point where the goal every year is to consistently make the NCAA tournament and now expectations will grow more and more. 

Conference Realignment: Cincinnati is no longer in the Big East, long considered the toughest conference in the country, mostly due to its depth. The Big East broke down into football schools and basketball schools. Plus Syracuse and Pittsburgh are now in the ACC. So those two schools are gone, plus Georgetown, Notre Dame and Marquette. Louisville remains in the American Athletic Conference for one year, before moving onto the ACC. 

New additions include Memphis, SMU, Houston, Central Florida, Temple. Competition in the new conference will still be intense. Louisville is the defending national champions and could have a chance to repeat, Uconn has a lot of returning players and will be eligible for the postseason in 2014 after being banned last year, Memphis has long been the top team in Conference USA, Temple is always near the top of the Atlantic-10 and even SMU has a strong recruiting class coached by Larry Brown.

The biggest thing for Cincinnati is people always talked about the grind of the Big East conference. Teams often played consecutive games against ranked teams. The American lacks the depth the Big East had and may not be as physically demanding,  which could allow for a more up-tempo offensive style, rather than a slow, grind-it-out type system.

Best Non-Conference Games: vs. NC State (11/12), @ New Mexico (12/7), vs. Xavier (12/14), vs. Pittsburgh (12/17, NYC)

Projected Starting 5 - PG Ge'Lawn Guyn, SG Sean Kilpatrick, SF Shaq Thomas, PF Titus Rubles, C Justin Jackson
(NOTE: Jermaine Lawrence should start at PF before long but his development is key. Mick may opt for senior Titus Rubles to start the season in the starting lineup)

Current Roster Evaluation:

Sean Kilpatrick is the star of this team. It's his 5th year at Cincinnati, after red-shirting his first year. 

Kilpatrick's scoring average has gone up each year. 9.7 ppg as a freshman, 14.3 ppg as a sophmore and averaged 17 ppg last season as a junior. His assists have remained steady around 1.5-2.0 apg. Last year, he averaged 5.2 rebounds per game, which was second on the team. SK led the team in minutes and scoring, 2nd in rebounding, 3rd in assists, 2nd in steals. After last season, Mick Cronin said Sean would be Cincy's captain for his senior season. His numbers show that he is their best player but as the most experienced, he needs to continue to lead by both example and by helping the young guys get better.

He spent the summer playing for Team USA where he gained very valuable experience playing with some of college basketball's top players. Kilpatrick became a leader for that team and will hopefully use that experience and what he learned to translate into helping his Bearcats.

Kilpatrick, whose from White Plains, NY will have a couple of New Yorkers helping him lead. Shaq Thomas, who also red-shirted his first season, showed flashes of excellence last year and should play a much more prominent role this season.

Thomas' numbers aren't great from a year ago but this dunk shows his athleticism and his talent. With Jaquon Parker gone, expect Thomas to play a big role as a scorer, rebounder, and defender.

Mick's recruiting class is ranked in the top 25 nationally , led by Jermaine Lawrence, New York City's number one prospect. Lawrence is a 5 star recruit, currently ranked 35th by ESPN. Lawrence is Mick Cronin's best recruit since Lance Stephenson, another NYC #1 player.

Kevin Johnson is ranked 7th in all of Ohio, and Mick Cronin has stated publically he feels KJ might be UC's best in-state prospect in a long time. Deshaun Mormon, Jamaree Strickland, and Troy Caupain round out Cincy's incoming class of freshman. Strickland measures at 6'10, 270 pounds and with thin depth in the front court, will be expected to play early. Caupain is a combo guard who can run point or spell Kilpatrick. And Mormon should be able to play all over the floor as a two-guard and wing player. It's possible all five freshman play a role on this season's team.
  

Junior Ge'Lawn Guyn will be responsible for replacing Cashmere Wright. Cronin likely won't throw Johnson or Caupain into the fire immediately and while both will play, the more experienced Guyn will start. Guyn is not the shooter that Wright was and may not even be as good of a passer. But the one thing he will need to do is simply protect the ball. There will always be other scorers on the floor, Guyn's job is to manage the offense - make sure Kilpatrick can get open looks or feed it down low. Don't force anything that isn't there. Guyn played just 10 minutes per game last year, averaging 2 ppg and 0.4 apg. Obviously the biggest thing for Guyn is the assist number.

If Guyn can't handle the role, Caupain or Kevin Johnson will. Both men have experience handling the ball in high school and once they learn the offense and get more and more confortable, they could assume more responsibility.

As mentioned above, Titus Rubles could start the season at PF, while Jermaine Lawrence learns the systems. Rubles enters his senior season after transferring from junior college last year. He averaged 6 ppg and 6 rpg. Rubles is a solid, hard-working player but he needs to stay away from the free throw line. Rubles shot 4-43 from behind the arc, and went 3-6 in one game early last season. Meaning if you take that game away he was 1-37 from three...

Justin Jackson is projected as the starting center and was named co-captain (with Kilpatrick). Jackson had a rough junior season, getting bench for Rubles and playing through an injury. But if Jackson can channel his sophmore-self, Cincy will be in good hands. Jackson's greatest quality is his energy and passion. He plays extremely hard and it often rubs off on his teammates and on the fans too. He is always up and clapping and cheering from the bench and brings so much energy to the arena. Blocking shots, rebounding, and energy is what Jackson brings to the floor.
   

The return of Jeremiah Davis III will be nice for Cincy. Davis redshirted last season due to a wrist injury. He did play 4 games and averaged 5 ppg before sitting out the rest of the season. As a freshman in 2011, Davis showed potential to hit threes and could be another ball handler for Cincy.

JD3 can be a valuable piece off the bench as a shooter and another ball handler.

David Nyarsuk brings size to this team. At 7'1 he is one of the tallest players in school history. But Nyarsuk really needs to produce at the rim. The 7 footer averaged 2.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg, and 0.9 bpg. The blocks and rebounds need to improve and a guy with his height should probably score more, even if it is by accident.

Jermaine Sanders is another New York kid for Cincy. Sanders is a lefty three point shooting specialist, but will need to grow more as a well-rounded player to contribute to this team.

Sanders was part of a 2011 recruiting class that included Shaq Thomas, Ge'Lawn Guyn, Jeremiah Davis, and Kevin Gaines, who transferred to North Texas this summer. Gaines wasn't going to be a big part of the future and Cincy needed another scholarship. This class hasn't produced much and it's a big year for a pair of juniors and two sophmores who have both redshirted. Guyn is a starter now and Davis and Shaq should both benefit from sitting out seasons to learn and develop more. 

David Nyarsuk will need to play better.

New Cincinnati Basketball jersey 
for 2013-14 season

Looking ahead to 2014-15: Not to overlook this coming season, but in two years the Bearcats will have these five freshman, plus Shaq Thomas but another three recruits.

Quadri Moore is a 6'8 forward from New Jersey, another ESPN top 100 player. Gary Clark is another forward who has a high motor, is a tough defender, and can play multiple spots on the floor.  Coreontae DeBerry is a 270 pound, 6'9 center who will transfer from JuCo.





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