Bearcats and Huskies Gamethread

Those are the current AAC standings, showing just how imporant this game is going to be for both teams. Neither team can really afford a loss in this contest (for slightly different reasons) and both teams need to get a win in this game, again for slightly different reasons.

The Bearcats are trying to do what no UC team has done in a decade, win back to back conference crowns.* To make that happen the Bearcats need to hold serve at home and hopefully pick off both SMU and Tulsa on the road. It's possible for this team to do that, but dropping home games is a surefire way to end that talk before it begins.

*UC ran off 7 straight regular season C-USA crowns starting with the 1995-96 crew and ending with the 2001-02 group

UConn meanwhile is in desperation mode. As it sits right now they are firmly on the bubble for the NCAA but without many more chances to improve their resume. Losing this game wouldn't be the end of the run for UConn, they would still have four more chances to notch RPI Top 50 wins. But losing this game would drop them to 2-6 against RPI top 50 teams. That's a big hole to climb out of in very limited opportunities.

The fact that both teams really, really need this game should make it very interesting in Fifth Third Arena tonight.