Declassified: Cincinnati is a good basketball team, AAC decent league

There are two important things worth noting before we get started. The first being the fact that every single time I talk positively about a team they then poop the bed quicker than a one-year-old who eats lots of chocolate. So for that, I am sorry, teams I write about.

The other is about the perception of the AAC being a second class conference in the realm of college basketball. Which is probably true, but it doesn’t mean Mike Aresco’s group of teams don’t have some that are worthy of praise.

Which brings us to, in the most roundabout way possible, the Cincinnati Bearcats.

Cincinnati is off to a really good start. 17-2 to be exact, perfect in conference play (6-0), with their only losses coming to the good but not household name recognizable New Mexico Lobos and Xavier Musketeers. However, their wins against Memphis and Pitt should more than make up for it.

But if we were to have a time machine (which, in an interest of full disclosure, I am currently working on) and go back to a Cincinnati win against a good Memphis team we would see what people think of this team.

Despite having well over 20 wins a year over the last three seasons, even though Mick Cronin is known to win a slew of non-postseason games (220–125, a .636 win percentage), people called the win against the Tigers an upset. You know, the same people who chastise Josh Pastner for not being able to win games against good teams.

Somehow, though, it can be both. Well, at least for the folks who cover college basketball. Pastner can have a reputation that is always pushed of being a fella who can’t win against good teams, but Cincinnati’s win over the supposed team who can’t win big games can be labeled as an upset. All in the name of neither team having a cache that resonates throughout the casual hoops world or something — really, I haven’t the slightest.

All of that “upset” talk is a little bit older and a new narrative is nearing a start. With AAC play well-underway and there being a slew of legitimately good basketball teams, folks are going to want to know just how good Cincinnati, Memphis, UConn and/or Louisville are because they play in the All American Conference.

I don’t want to get into the semantics about the AAC, Mike Aresco possibly being the devil incarnate or the way we should rank each basketball conference. What I will do, however, is point out that those teams are allowed to be good in a bad league. Maybe, more than possibly even, that those four teams are as good a top-four as any in any conference. I’m not saying better, but saying they aren’t leap-years behind them either.

All I am saying, though, is it’s not like they are playing against high school competition. Even though it seemed like it was Aresco’s intentions during the demise of the old Big East Conference.

All I want you to do when you leave here are a few simple things. Don’t judge the top teams in the AAC because they play in the AAC. Don’t rag on one team in the league only to use them as a way to rag in another, all while both can’t possibly true. Lastly, most importantly, make sure you mail your tears to Mike Aresco — who still uses them as the creamer in his coffee.

What I am trying to say is, really, that Aresco can only function off the tears of others and that the top of the AAC is good. So, um, stop acting like they aren’t just because it is unfamiliar.

Bless your cold and soulless heart, Mike Aresco. Bless it to hell.