TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – As a prolific scorer at Wilmington High School, asserting himself came naturally to Jarron Cumberland.
But when he got to the University of Cincinnati, he found himself surrounded by the likes of Jacob Evans III, who would become a first-round draft pick of the Golden State Warriors; and Gary Clark, who would become the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 2018. He also found himself in the unusual position of not being a starter. That didn't prevent him from making the AAC All-Rookie team, averaging 8.3 points per game.
But with Evans, Clark and Kyle Washington all having moved on last year, Cumberland, a 6-foot-5 junior guard, was back in the role he filled in high school as his team's primary scorer. He responded by averaging 18.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.2 steals, and discovered just before practice Wednesday that he had been named the AAC Player of the Year two days after he was a unanimous first-team all-AAC selection.
"It was just changing my mentality and becoming more aggressive on offense," Cumberland said. "When I was younger, I was playing with older guys and I was just playing my role. Now I had to step up and play a bigger role. I knew what Coach was expecting from me."
Cumberland's honor gave UC back-to-back players of the year for the first time since Steve Logan won the Conference USA award in 2001 and 2002. He'll have a chance to duplicate Logan's accomplishment next season as a senior.
"Jarron's always had talent," said UC coach Mick Cronin. "He's always been confident. Give him all the credit. He's changed his body dramatically. His habits have changed tremendously. He had more charges his freshman year than any player I've ever coached. Now he rarely gets a charge. He's learned a lot. He's been very coachable. He's always had the talent. He just had to adjust his talent to who he was playing against at this level."
Cumberland scored 20 or more points 15 times during the regular season and was UC's top scorer in 20 of its 31 games. He ranked among AAC leaders in seven categories: points (third at 18.4), three-point field goal percentage (fifth at 40.4), three-pointers made (sixth at 2.3 per game), free throw percentage (eighth at 78.0), assists (11th at 3.5 per game), assist-to-turnover ratio (13th at 1.3) and minutes played (15th at 32.1).
He scored a career-high 34 points against South Florida on Jan. 14, the most points by a UC player since Troy Caupain scored 37 in four overtimes against Connecticut in the 2016 AAC Tournament. He scored 569 points during the regular season, making him one of three UC players to reach the 500-point mark in a season since Cronin became the head coach in 2006. The others were Sean Kilpatrick and Deonta Vaughn. He enters the post-season with 1,275 career points and currently ranks 28th on UC's career scoring list, four points behind the 2000 National Player of the Year, Kenyon Martin.
Cumberland said his outstanding season was the result of the work he did starting last summer in individual workouts.
"Coach was on me saying I need to improve as a player with my ball-handling, defense, making more shots, drawing more defenders to, me and getting open shots for my teammates," Cumberland said. "This was one of my goals, but I also had other goals that everybody else has like winning the conference, which we didn't do. Now we've got the AAC conference tournament and then March Madness."
Cumberland's work ethic, Cronin said, "has gone through the roof, his commitment to take care of his body, all that stuff. He's a better defender. He's a better rebounder, a better passer.
"I'm extremely happy for him. Whenever you have a guy who goes from sixth man as a freshman to Player of the Year as a junior there's a lot of people who helped him do that. He's a byproduct of your program. Hopefully in his case he'll have two Player of the Year awards in the American.
The Bearcats (25-6 overall, 14-4 in the AAC) finished second in the league, two games behind Houston, and will play in the quarterfinals Friday in Memphis against the winner of Thursday's game between No. 7 seed Tulsa (18-13, 8-10) and No. 10 seed SMU (13-16, 5-12) at FedExForum. UC won the tournament last year, beating Houston 56-55 in the championship game.
No. 2 seed UC beat each of its prospective quarterfinal opponents twice during the regular season, but enters the tournament on a two-game losing streak having lost at Central Florida last Thursday and then getting blown out by Houston at home on Sunday, which prevented the Bearcats from sharing the regular-season title with the Cougars.
"I don't remember the last time that happened since I've been here," Cumberland said. "It was kind of embarrassing. Everybody felt bad. Coach has been on us very hard. We've got to get back to being the old Bearcats, doing all the dirty work, being aggressive, getting rebounds, diving on the floor."
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.
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – As a prolific scorer at Wilmington High School, asserting himself came naturally to Jarron Cumberland.
But when he got to the University of Cincinnati, he found himself surrounded by the likes of Jacob Evans III, who would become a first-round draft pick of the Golden State Warriors; and Gary Clark, who would become the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 2018. He also found himself in the unusual position of not being a starter. That didn't prevent him from making the AAC All-Rookie team, averaging 8.3 points per game.
But with Evans, Clark and Kyle Washington all having moved on last year, Cumberland, a 6-foot-5 junior guard, was back in the role he filled in high school as his team's primary scorer. He responded by averaging 18.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.2 steals, and discovered just before practice Wednesday that he had been named the AAC Player of the Year two days after he was a unanimous first-team all-AAC selection.
"It was just changing my mentality and becoming more aggressive on offense," Cumberland said. "When I was younger, I was playing with older guys and I was just playing my role. Now I had to step up and play a bigger role. I knew what Coach was expecting from me."
Cumberland's honor gave UC back-to-back players of the year for the first time since Steve Logan won the Conference USA award in 2001 and 2002. He'll have a chance to duplicate Logan's accomplishment next season as a senior.
"Jarron's always had talent," said UC coach Mick Cronin. "He's always been confident. Give him all the credit. He's changed his body dramatically. His habits have changed tremendously. He had more charges his freshman year than any player I've ever coached. Now he rarely gets a charge. He's learned a lot. He's been very coachable. He's always had the talent. He just had to adjust his talent to who he was playing against at this level."
Cumberland scored 20 or more points 15 times during the regular season and was UC's top scorer in 20 of its 31 games. He ranked among AAC leaders in seven categories: points (third at 18.4), three-point field goal percentage (fifth at 40.4), three-pointers made (sixth at 2.3 per game), free throw percentage (eighth at 78.0), assists (11th at 3.5 per game), assist-to-turnover ratio (13th at 1.3) and minutes played (15th at 32.1).
He scored a career-high 34 points against South Florida on Jan. 14, the most points by a UC player since Troy Caupain scored 37 in four overtimes against Connecticut in the 2016 AAC Tournament. He scored 569 points during the regular season, making him one of three UC players to reach the 500-point mark in a season since Cronin became the head coach in 2006. The others were Sean Kilpatrick and Deonta Vaughn. He enters the post-season with 1,275 career points and currently ranks 28th on UC's career scoring list, four points behind the 2000 National Player of the Year, Kenyon Martin.
Cumberland said his outstanding season was the result of the work he did starting last summer in individual workouts.
"Coach was on me saying I need to improve as a player with my ball-handling, defense, making more shots, drawing more defenders to, me and getting open shots for my teammates," Cumberland said. "This was one of my goals, but I also had other goals that everybody else has like winning the conference, which we didn't do. Now we've got the AAC conference tournament and then March Madness."
Cumberland's work ethic, Cronin said, "has gone through the roof, his commitment to take care of his body, all that stuff. He's a better defender. He's a better rebounder, a better passer.
"I'm extremely happy for him. Whenever you have a guy who goes from sixth man as a freshman to Player of the Year as a junior there's a lot of people who helped him do that. He's a byproduct of your program. Hopefully in his case he'll have two Player of the Year awards in the American.
The Bearcats (25-6 overall, 14-4 in the AAC) finished second in the league, two games behind Houston, and will play in the quarterfinals Friday in Memphis against the winner of Thursday's game between No. 7 seed Tulsa (18-13, 8-10) and No. 10 seed SMU (13-16, 5-12) at FedExForum. UC won the tournament last year, beating Houston 56-55 in the championship game.
No. 2 seed UC beat each of its prospective quarterfinal opponents twice during the regular season, but enters the tournament on a two-game losing streak having lost at Central Florida last Thursday and then getting blown out by Houston at home on Sunday, which prevented the Bearcats from sharing the regular-season title with the Cougars.
"I don't remember the last time that happened since I've been here," Cumberland said. "It was kind of embarrassing. Everybody felt bad. Coach has been on us very hard. We've got to get back to being the old Bearcats, doing all the dirty work, being aggressive, getting rebounds, diving on the floor."
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.