TicketsNCAA TOURNAMENT SECOND ROUND
No. 2 seed CINCINNATI (31-4) vs. No. 7 seed NEVADA (28-7)
SERIES INFO: First meeting in series history
STREAK: N/A
2017-18 MEETINGS: N/A
Eric Musselman is in his third season at Nevada (80-28); third season overall (80-28)
Mick Cronin is in his 12th season at Cincinnati (268-139); 15th season overall (337-163)
AP/USA TODAY RANKINGS (MARCH 12): Cincinnati (6/10); Nevada (24/25)
RADIO: 700 WLW; Dan Hoard provides play-by-play with color analyst Terry Nelson
TV: TNT; Andrew Catalon provides play-by-play with color analyst Steve Lappas. Jamie Erdahl reports
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By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
NASHVILLE – For two teams that have never squared off against each other and are located in vastly different regions of the country, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and Nevada Wolf Pack are not total strangers.
UC forward Kyle Washington played at North Carolina State three years ago with Nevada's twin stars, forward Caleb Martin and guard Cody Martin, before all three of them transferred to their current schools. UC coach Mick Cronin tried to recruit Nevada's Jordan Caroline when he transferred from Southern Illinois. And UC forward Gary Clark has played against the Martins during the summer in Raleigh, not far from his home in Clayton, N.C.
"I don't want to hype them up too much," Washington said of the Martin twins, "but they are great players. They play extremely hard and they're fierce. I've got a great relationship with them. I'm not going to deny it. We're extremely close. But I'm going to compete against them like anybody else."
No. 1 seed UC (31-4) will be looking to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2012 and the 11th time in school history when it faces No. 7 seed Nevada (28-7) at 6:10 p.m. Sunday at in the second round of the South Regional at Bridgestone Arena.
But familiarity doesn't mean the two teams are kindred spirits when it comes to style of play. The Bearcats are known for defense, rebounding and physical toughness, but believe that their offense is underrated. The Wolf Pack is known for its 3-point shooting and offensive firepower, but is a better defensive team than the numbers indicate.
"In fairness to a team that scores the ball as well as they do, and they can score it fast, their possessions are higher," Cronin said. "So your points per game that you're going to give up are a little higher. They're similar to us in a lot of ways. They fight, they scrap, they front the post. They're a scouting report team. They know every play you run. You're not going to be able to trick them."
The Wolf Pack shoots the three often and showed against Texas that it's not afraid to fire one up regardless of where they are on the court or if they're being closely guarded.
"They spread you out and everyone can make a play or make a shot to where they can really hurt you," said UC forward Gary Clark, the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. "And being that all five guys push the ball, you've got to be on high alert at all times. One guy can't just run back and guard their man. Everybody's got to get back and get set up because their shooters shoot from deep and none of them have a slow trigger.
"Our team is very versatile defensively, adapting to whatever teams throw at us all year. We've seen different things as far as teams throwing at us with no post guys or having one dominant post guy."
The Bearcats would seem to have an edge in depth over a Nevada team with a very short bench because of the loss of junior point guard Lindsey Drew, who ruptured his Achilles' tendon at Boise State on Feb. 14. Five of the Wolf Pack's players logged 40 minutes or more against Texas. Only two UC players logged more than 35 minutes in the Bearcats' 68-53 first-round win over Georgia State in the first round.
But Musselman was quick to dismiss that as a major shortcoming.
"I think the most overrated thing in college basketball is depth," Musselman said. "Having said that, we can't afford to get in foul trouble. And we understand that. We didn't plan on Lindsey Drew, a three-year starter, blowing his Achilles out. We wish we still had Lindsey and our depth would be a little different because he was a guy who played 30-some minutes every single night for us."
Nevada, the regular-season champion of the Mountain West Conference, is led led by Caleb Martin, who averages 19.1 points per game, and Caroline, who averages 17.8. Kendall Stephens, who averages 13.4 points, shoots 44.4 percent from long range. Cody Martin also averages in double figures (13.6) for a team that scores 83.2 points per game. Opponents shoot 43.1 percent from the field against Nevada.
Caleb Martin is the Mountain West Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year; his brother, Cody, is the conference Defensive Player of the Year, and head coach Eric Musselman is Coach of the Year. The Wolf Pack allows 73.3 points per game.
The Bearcats enter this game filled with optimism not only about the way they're playing, but with the knowledge that a major obstacle in their path to the Final Four has been removed. With the loss by Virginia, the No. 1 seed in the South Region, to Maryland-Baltimore on Friday, the Bearcats are now the highest remaining seed in their bracket. The same thing happened when UC went to the Final Four in 1992, with top seed Kansas getting upset in the second round by UTEP.
Terry Nelson, who does color commentary on UC radio broadcasts, remembers the effect Kansas' defeat had on him and his teammates, who entered the tournament with a No 4 seed.
"When we found out that Kansas lost, everybody was excited," Nelson said, "but there also was a heightened sense of awareness. Everybody really started to hunker down on their roles. We knew if we took care of our business, with how the tournament was shaking up, we had a chance to get to the Final Four."
Rest assured these UC players know that, too. They didn't downplay the enormity of the upset Saturday and what it could mean for them, but they also took great care not to make too much of it.
"It just shows that in this tournament, every team is pretty good," said UC forward Jacob Evans III. "No matter what the seeding is or what the record is, you've got to make sure you're always ready to play."
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.