Cincinnati Bearcats One & Done

Mar 20, 2014; Spokane, WA, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats forward Justin Jackson (5) reacts after a men

That didn’t take long, the Cincinnati Bearcats are out of the NCAA Tournament before it barely even started. Harvard was the hot pick and media darling leading up to their matchup against #5 Cincinnati. The Crimson capitalized on their new found fandom beating Cincinnati 61-57.

Cincinnati started the game slowly, as much as everyone would like to blame an 11:10am local tip time as the reason this is just how Cincinnati starts every game. The Bearcats led for the first 6 minutes of the game before a Brandyn Curry three broke the tie and the Crimson would never look back.

Per usual Cincinnati’s offense failed to show up, after scoring six points in the first three minutes the Bearcats would then go scoreless for seven minutes until Justin Jackson made one free throw. The first half provided nothing of encouragement for the Bearcats or their fans. The fact Cincinnati only trailed by 7 at the half was encouraging considering it felt like a 20 point deficit.

Harvard connected on the three point shots when they needed to. Cincinnati failed to guard the three point shot in the same way they failed to against UConn in the AAC tournament.

The second half saw the Bearcats try to to claw their way back but once again they committed too many mental errors. Turnovers, taking their eye off the ball and failure to make a layup multiple times doomed the Bearcats.

During the last three minutes Cincinnati had a sure fire layup off a Justin Jackson steal that they couldn’t get. A absolute disgrace of a possession that would have given the Bearcats the lead then resulted in a missed Kevin Johnson three pointer. Another missed layup by Titus Rubles and poor ball handling by Sean Kilpatrick sealed the deal for the Bearcats.

Coming into the game Cincinnati beat Harvard in nearly every statistical category. Thursday though Harvard managed to out rebound the Bearcats on defense 24-18, something that never happens. Cincinnati beat Harvard in free throw percentages and turnovers. The Harvard offense was exactly as advertised, although for a team that hardly works the paint Cincinnati let them work the paint all day.

Kilpatrick led the team in scoring again with 18 points. The entire season when games were close Kilpatrick would start charging the lane in the final 5 minutes collecting fouls and sending him to the line. Cincinnati won numerous games that way. Thursday though for some reason unbeknownst to anyone Kilpatrick and the rest of the team only started working the paint in the last 50 seconds, which was too late.

For the seniors this was their final game. Cincinnati will return to the court next year without Kilpatrick, Jackson and Rubles. It was a disappointing end to a season that looked so promising in January and February. The grit and determination to win left this team after they beat Louisville, hopefully it returns next season.