TicketsExhibition Monday: On November 9, Cincinnati will play host in a preseason game against the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers at 7 p.m. in Fifth Third Arena. Among other things, I will be focusing on the team's lack of depth at the forward position. Michelle Jones is the only player on the squad with a lot of experience in the frontcourt, so it will be interesting to see what happens when she gets into foul trouble early. "We've got to be ready to play some young people," said assistant coach Mark Ehlen. "Normally, for a normal team, your freshman can kind of wait their turn, but we can't afford that this year. Our freshmen have to be ready to help us right now. So, if we do get in foul trouble, then one of those people will have to step up."
This will give the Bearcats a look against a team not familiar with their system, as well as provide insight from the officials into what needs work on the defensive end. I will be there with in-game tweets as well as post game impressions on the blog, so stay tuned in here and check out the Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/uc_womens_hoops
The Panthers have already played an exhibition against Illinois State, and they were thrashed 100-51.
Scrimmage tomorrow: Tomorrow night, the Bearcats will host the Northern Kentucky University Norse in a closed-doors instructional scrimmage. The media will not be permitted at this event. The past two years, UC held an exhibition match against NKU and lost both games.
Top 25 Outlook: With the debut of the preseason AP Top 25 last week and the USA Today coaches' poll yesterday, an early hierarchy has begun to form within the Big East. Both polls include five teams from the conference. In the AP: Connecticut (1), Notre Dame (4), DePaul (17), Louisville (23) and Rutgers (25). And in the coaches' poll: Connecticut (1), Notre Dame (7), Louisville (19), Pittsburgh (22) and DePaul (25). Agreeing on four out of five teams, one thing is clear: in a 16-team conference, there will be a lot of jockeying for position among the teams at the top as well as among the rest of the pack.
So what does this mean for UC? For one thing, there are going to be a lot of winnable games for the Bearcats. Does that mean the team will win those games? No. Does the preseason poll decide how good the conference is going to be? No. However, there will be a lot of room for improvement this season. No one expects Cincinnati to crack the Top 25, but it will be discouraging if they don't capitalize on some opportunities to win some games and finish a little higher in the standings.