Mick Cronin is going to Las Vegas, but don’t worry, he’ll still be the head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats. Jon Rothstein of FanRag Sports reported that the Bearcats and the UNLV Rebels will take part in a home-and-home series starting this coming season. The first leg of the series will take place in Las Vegas on Dec. 1, 2018 with the next portion coming at an unannounced date during the 2019-20 season in Cincinnati.
Sources: Cincinnati, UNLV to start home-and-home series next season in Las Vegas. STORY @FanRagSports: https://t.co/B2sEJl76Lh
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) May 31, 2018
Cronin was once courted by UNLV, but made the (right) decision to stay at UC. Since then, the Bearcats have been incredible, winning 61 of their last 72 games after UNLV came calling.
Not only did UC lay the proverbial beatdown on the Rebels during the 2016 offseason by retaining Cronin, it has also continually defeated them on the hardwood, with a 5-0 record all-time against UNLV. The last meeting was a bit dicey, with Deonta Vaughn scoring 19 points and Yancy Gates adding 16 to lead the Bearcats to a 67-65 win during the Global Sports Classic in 2008. However, even when you take that into account, UC’s average margin of victory against UNLV is 17.2 points, powered by a 40-point shellacking in 2000.
The addition of UNLV continues the construction of UC’s out of conference schedule for the 2018-19 season, which includes dates against Ohio State, Xavier, UCLA and George Mason. Now let’s get that rematch with Nevada going.