TicketsECU (8-10, 2-5) at No. 12/11 CINCINNATI (16-2, 5-0)
SERIES INFO: 13th meeting; Cincinnati leads 11-1 overall; Cincinnati leads 6-0 at home;
Cincinnati leads 5-1 in Greenville
LAST SEASON'S MEETING: Cincinnati won 55-46 on Jan. 15, 2017 at Minges Coliseum in Greenville, N.C.
STREAK: Cincinnati- 3
COACHES: Mick Cronin is in his 12th season at Cincinnati (253-137); 15th season overall (322-161)
Michael Perry is in his first season as interim head coach at ECU (6-5); Sixth season overall (68-81)
AP/USA TODAY RANKINGS (JAN. 15): Cincinnati (12/11); ECU (--/--)
RADIO: 700 WLW; Dan Hoard provides play-by-play with color analyst Terry Nelson
TV: ESPNews; Will Flemming provides play-by-play with color analyst Mark Adams
JOIN THE CONVERSATION (TWITTER, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM): @GoBearcatsMBB or GoBearcatsMBB
TICKETS: A limited number of $25 general admission seats in the lower-level bleachers are available at the BB&T Arena ticket office beginning two hours before tipoff. Arena doors open 90 minutes prior to start time.
By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – The longest home-court win streak in the country belongs to a team that doesn't play on its true home court. Or even in its home state.
The University of Cincinnati Bearcats, who temporarily shuttered their on-campus home of Fifth Third Arena last March 2 with a victory over Houston to extend their home winning streak to 26 games, haven't missed a beat this season playing their home games at Northern Kentucky University's BB&T Arena. They've won all nine of their games there to extend the streak to 35, the longest in the country. Their smallest margin of victory at home this season is 15 points over Mississippi State, which was unbeaten at the time.
UC has succeeded in creating the same winning environment at BB&T Arena as it had at Fifth Third, which is undergoing an $87-million renovation, mostly by not making a big deal about the inconvenience, if in fact it even does seem like an inconvenience to them. NKU officials have gone out of their way to be accommodating, Cronin said.
"We've never discussed the winning streak at home as a team and we never discussed playing at Northern Kentucky," said UC coach Mick Cronin. "I let (director of operations) Mark Berger give the logistics to the guys of how we were going to handle it. We haven't had one shoot-around there. We haven't had one practice there. We've never been there other than to play the games."
The 12th-ranked Bearcats (17-2 overall, 5-0 in the American Athletic Conference) will look to extend their streak to 36 when they play East Carolina (8-10, 2-5) at 4 p.m. Saturday at BB&T. UC has won nine in a row overall.
ECU, under interim head coach Michael Perry, is coming off a 90-52 win over South Florida on Wednesday night. The Pirates are led by B.J. Tyson, who ranks 10th in the American in scoring with 15.3 points per game. They lead the league in 3-point field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot 31.6 percent from long range. The win over USF ended a 3-game losing streak. UC is 11-1 vs. ECU all-time, 6-0 at home.
It may seem odd that the Bearcats don't have an occasional practice at their temporary home or even shoot-around the day of the game, but Cronin says he sees no logical reason to do either.
"I just don't think it has anything to do with how you play," Cronin said. "The dimensions of the court are the same. We always have shoot-around here (on UC's practice court). Why would we bus over there? For what? The rims aren't a different size. The court's the same length. It's the most overrated thing in basketball. It's going to be different when you put people in the stands – the background, the depth, all that stuff."
As Cronin said, the home winning streak is not something the Bearcats talk about, but it does mean a lot to them. Their last home loss was to Temple on Dec. 29, 2015.
"There's a lot of proud home courts around the nation," said senior forward Kyle Washington. "For us to have that, we don't take it for granted. We feel good about it and we want to keep it."
Five of UC's current players – Cane Broome, Trevor Moore, Keith Williams, Eliel Nsoseme and Mamoudou Diarra – are newcomers and have never played at Fifth Third Arena, so it's not like they feel as if they're missing something. And UC fans have done a good job of making the trip across the river to support their team. They've averaged 7,477 fans at BB&T, which has a seating capacity of 9,400. UC's largest home crowd of the season was the 9,109 they drew for the SMU game on Jan. 7.
UC officials have done their best to make the court look like it belongs to the Bearcats, installing their home floor for as many games as they can.
"We take a lot of pride in (the winning streak) because we know our fans are a big reason for us winning at home," said junior swingman Jacob Evans III. "They always come out and they're always loud and always supportive. We know we've got that confidence and support behind us.
"A lot of people probably expect us to have shoot-around there and practice there but we get there early enough on game days to go through our routine and get a good feel," Evans continued. "It's a little different (from Fifth Third). The lights are brighter. Fifth Third was a little dimmer. We went over (to NKU) during the summer. We played a couple of open gyms with their players. It was nice of them to let us come over during the summer."
Taking their cue from Cronin, the Bearcats have taken the move in stride. They understand that ultimately it's the players who make a team difficult to beat, regardless of where the game is being played.
"It's been a little bit of an adjustment, but I think people are giving it a little more credit than it really deserves," Washington said. "It's NKU. It's really only 15 minutes away, so it's not that big of a deal. It's a little different just because it's smaller. This court is a a little more closed in, but it's fine. We feel the same energy."
Besides, Evans said, the Bearcats have no choice but to make NKU's arena feel like home before they return to their spiffed-up new arena next fall.
"We're undefeated there so far this season," Evans said of BB&T. "We want to keep it going."
UC still has a long way to go to break the school record for consecutive home wins. The Bearcats won 72 straight at Armory Fieldhouse from 1957-58 to 1963-64 and 18 during that period at Cincinnati Gardens, for a home winning streak of 90.
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.