Game Preview: Cincinnati Bearcats vs. Tulsa Golden Hurricanes

Well Bearcat fans, it is finally time for some postseason college basketball which is widely considered the best time of the year in sports. Cincinnati finished 27-4 on the season and are ranked No. 2 in the conference behind only SMU. There has been a few articles written in recent weeks from a number of different outlets praising UC's talented, yet hard working group of men under the leadership of Mick Cronin. The Bearcats have the deepest team in the American Athletic Conference and have learned to beat teams in a lot of ways. Lets just hope that they don't let there guard down when they meet up with Tulsa (a team that UC beat twice in the regular season) in the quarterfinals of the AAC Tournament tonight.

Get To Know The Opponent

We know the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes pretty darn well at this point in the year. The Bearcats have played Tulsa twice earlier in the year, beating the Golden Hurricanes by only two points in their first meeting and beating them by 20 the second time around. The Bearcats are the all around better squad by a mile in this matchup, but Tulsa is fighting for its season whereas the 'Catsare already a shoe-in for the NCAA Tournament. Tulsa finished the year with a 15-16 record and need to win the conference tournament to get into March Madness. Needing this win to survive may be the fuel Tulsa needs to pull an upset on Friday. To do so the Golden Hurricane will need big games from Junior Etou (12.7 PPG, 6.7 RPG) and Sterling Taplin (9.2 PPG, 3.8 APG).

Best Time of the Year

If I had to pick my favorite time of the year, it would 100 percent be March Madness. Between conference tournaments and the Big Dance, there is truly no better time for sports. I mean, it is the only time of the year where you can watch basketball games on four different channels from noon to midnight and never get bored. I am super excited for the UC Bearcats this postseason in particular, because I think it is the most talented team in the Cronin era. Being the No. 15 team in the country, the Bearcats are guaranteed a good seed in the NCAA Tournament. So against Tulsa, the Bearcats don’t have as much pressure on them at least in terms of the next steps of the season. However, I’d like to see them advance to Sunday’s title game and knock off SMU.

Prediction

I expect the Bearcats to be playing to win big on Friday night against Tulsa. They could roll over and take a decent seed in the tournament without problem, but rolling over is not part of what a Mick Cronin team is. The Bearcats will win this game on Friday and hopefully get another win Saturday to produce a matchup against SMU for the conference championship.