The UC Bearcat Rebuild

Will the Cincinnati Bearcats basketball team ever recover from the loss of Bob Huggins? The hiring of Mick Cronin was a very good start. They gave a young coach, with previous time in the program, a six year deal to be the head coach. Cronin, who was an unproven coaching commodity, but a very good recruiter was given the challenge of making up a team in just a few months. He had one scholarship player, a junior college transfer that wasn't a Big East calliber player. Mick spent the next months hard on the recruiting trail, and managed to do what some thought impossible, find a team.

He assembled a recruiting class headed by Juco All American Mike Williams, and former Indiana commitment Deonta Vaughn. Vaughn, was the team's long scholarship freshman. The class also included guards Jamaul Warren, Tim Crowell, and Marvin Gentry. The other forwards were Marcus Sikes, Hernol Hall, and Adam Hrycaniuk. Hall never recieved eligibility because he played on a pro team in his native Costa Rica. Hrycaniuk lost one year of eligibility for playing on a semi-pro team in his native Poland. Since he didn't get paid for being on the team, he wasn't completly stripped of his eligibility. The team also picked up former McDonald's All American Mike Williams from Texas, though he had to sit out his transfer season. Even though Hall, and Hrycaniuk were going to make the Bearcats a fairly deep team on the inside, with neither having eligibility the team relied on 6, 8 Marcus Sikes to play center in the very tall Big East.

The first season was one to forget. The year started well, with a weak non confrence schedule. Other than early losses to Wofford and Ohio University, the Bearcats looked to atleast be putting up a very good season after what had happened. The season started going downhill with a bad loss at Memphis. After that, the Cats entered the Big East schedule, and there was no recovery. They struggled with losses to Rutgers, Seton Hall, and USF among others. The year ended with the Bearcats not earning a bid into the Big East tournament. Still, the future looked bright for the Bearcats.

That offseason, Mick Cronin finally got the time to recruit he needed. Early on the picked up the pieces that looked to be the start of a good recruiting class. They picked up some much needed shooting with Larry Davis, some muscle with Kenny Belton, and a very good commitment in Jason Henry. Later, they picked up Anthony McClain, and Alvin Mitchell, two very highly rated recruits. McClain, at seven feet, gave the Bearcats much needed size on the inside. This was the foundation for the rebirth of the Cincinnati Bearcats.

So far this season the Bearcats have been very inconsistent. They started weakly, with losses to Belmont, and Bowling Green in the first three games. Jamual Warren returned, and got the Bearcats back on track. From there on, they seemed to beat the teams that they were supposed to. The schedule wasn't built to help a young team, with one of the best strength of schedule ratings in the country. The Big East confrence schedule started with an upset over Louisville. The schedule continued with a few big upsets, aswell as a few games which the Bearcats should have won that they didn't. Even with the bad late season losses the Cats still earned a bid to the Big East tournament.

It's hard to say how the program will develop with the current players. Certainly it will take a hit with all the Juco players leaving this year. This year's freshmen have been less than impressive so far in limited playing time. I'm confident that with a tireless recruiter like Cronin, and a program with the tradition and facilities that we have, the pieces have been set in place for a major rebuild. Hopefully the investments in the facilities, and the 6 year contract that the university gave Cronin will pay off. Still, even if Cronin doesn't pan out there are certainly no shortage of coaches that would come to this university. For Bearcat fans' sake, let's hope that he does, so that we have a short rebuild, and can get back to being the greatest team in college basketball.