TicketsSAVANNAH STATE (0-0) at No. 12/13 CINCINNATI (0-0)
SERIES INFO: Second meeting; Cincinnati leads 1-0 overall; UC leads 1-0 at home.
LAST MEETING: Cincinnati won 54-41 on Nov. 24, 2010 at Fifth Third Arena.
STREAK: Cincinnati - 1
COACHES: Mick Cronin is in his 12th season at Cincinnati (237-135); 15th season overall (306-159)
Horace Broadnax is in his 12th season at Savannah State (156-211); 16th season overall (198-299)
AP/USA TODAY RANKINGS (PRESEASON): Cincinnati (12/13); Savannah State (--/--)
RADIO: 700 WLW; Dan Hoard provides play-by-play with color analyst Chuck Machock
TV: FOX Sports Ohio/ESPN3; Jeff Piecoro provides play-by-play with color analyst Terry Nelson
JOIN THE CONVERSATION (TWITTER, FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM): @GoBearcatsMBB or GoBearcatsMBB
TICKETS: Start at $20; Available on BB&T Arena Website; TicketMaster by calling 1-800-745-3000; Sold at BB&T Arena box office two hours prior to the start (depending on availability)
By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – Not since Kenyon Martin's senior year in 1999-2000 has a University of Cincinnati basketball team started a season with such a high ranking and such lofty expectations.
Eighteen years ago, the Bearcats were ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press pre-season poll and spent nine weeks ranked No. 1 before before National Player of the Year Martin broke his leg in the Conference USA tournament derailing a season that many UC followers still believe would have culminated in the school's first national title since 1962.
This UC team is ranked 12th as it begins its 117th season at noon Friday against Savannah State at BB&T Arena as part of the Cayman Islands Classic. The Bearcats have been picked to win the American Athletic Conference championship, edging out league newcomer Wichita State, the nation's seventh-ranked team. They return their top three scorers from a team that went 30-6 last year and advanced to UC's seventh straight NCAA Tournament before losing in the second round to UCLA.
"The guys are extremely excited," said Mick Cronin, who's in his 12th year as UC's head coach.
As a bonus attraction Friday, fans will likely get to see senior forward Gary Clark become the 51st player in UC history to score 1,000 career points, a milestone that he says he should have reached last season. He needs only two points.
"I missed that dunk against Kansas State," Clark said. "That could have been easily it."
Clark called the 1,000-point mark a "huge accomplishment coming into my senior year to start off right with that kind of bang."
"But at the end of the day," he continued, "all that matters is trying to get the guys ready and to become more of a solid team in all the little things. I see the bigger picture that really matters. Savannah State is coming here ready to shoot a lot of threes and really get after it."
Clark said that when he arrived at UC as a freshman from Clayton, N.C., becoming a 1,000-point scorer was nowhere on his radar.
"I was just hoping to get a couple of minutes a game and to be able to contribute," he said. "Now I try to get our younger guys to understand how they can help and contribute. It's a matter of just listening and paying attention and just being ready to do whatever it takes to win."
About those Savannah State 3-pointers: The Bearcats can expect an onslaught of them. Last year the Tigers launched 1,182 from long range. They led the nation in both 3-point attempts and 3-pointers made (13.5 per game). But they made only 33.2 percent from long range, which ranked 263rd nationally. They haven't changed their approach this year.
"If I was a fan of basketball I'd come to our Businessman's Special on Friday just to watch," Cronin said. "You can't slow them down. We're not really interested (in slowing down) either, to be honest with you. It's not really our style. They went 10-6 in their league. Teams like this, they're not going to change. They're going to press us and they're going to shoot the three. They'd love to get the win and the upset, but they're still going to prepare for what they think is going to be successful in their conference."
The Bearcats are ranked so high based on their apparent depth and their potential to display more offensive firepower than any of Cronin's previous UC teams. The UC coach said he liked what he saw from his team in its two exhibition blowouts against Bellarmine (89-61) and Embry-Riddle (101-68).
"What we tried to accomplish in the off-season was playing aggressive defense, playing full-court defense, and trying to put pressure on our opponent," Cronin said. "I thought that was an area where we could vastly improve this year especially with Tre (Scott) and Nysier (Brooks) in their second year playing with the freshmen that I believe in and having two point guards. You can keep the pace up when you have two guys like Cane (Broome) and Justin (Jenifer).
"I like the pace that we played in both of our games. That's going to continue to be a goal of ours. Can we use that as a weapon to win games, because not everybody plays that way. You can impose your will and keep coming at teams, but you've got to be able to maintain your efficiency when you go to the bench. We were able to do that in the first couple games."
Clark points to the intangible of togetherness when asked why this team might be better than last year's.
"This is the closest team I've ever been on," Clark said. "Everyone leans on Kyle (Washington) and me a lot, especially the young guys. We don't have to pull teeth to get guys to go to the gym to do extra work and treatment. I come in one day and there's literally every one of our players in here and I haven't seen that since I've been here."
It's not that last year's team wasn't close. In fact, after the season, Cronin talked about what a pleasure it was to coach that team. But Clark said this one is even closer "for sure."
That's a good sign as the Bearcats, who rank 16th all-time in Division I victories with 1,757, embark on what Cronin calls a journey, one that he looks forward to every season, but perhaps not as much as he's looking forward to this one. No doubt UC fans feel the same way.
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January 2015.