Cincinnati Basketball will look different for the 2018-19 season after several key departures. Jarron Cumberland remains and will be key to another solid Bearcats campaign.
As a basketball program, Cincinnati is experiencing some of its best years. They’ve won 61 total games in the past two seasons and tied a school-record 31 wins for 2017-18. It was a disappointing end in the most recent NCAA Tournament, blowing a big lead to the Nevada Wolf Pack.
What’s helped the Mick Cronin-led team has been the increased offensive output. The Bearcats have always been stout defensively as a team, but having multiple consistent double-digit scorers has taken the team to another level.
That will be tested for the next season. Three of the team’s top scorers (Jacob Evans, Gary Clark, and Kyle Washington) have either graduated or left for the NBA Draft early. It leaves just a couple of players that scored more than 5.0 ppg, making the offense a potential weakness for the Bearcats in 2018-19.
That puts a lot on the plate for the leading returning scorer Jarron Cumberland. As a sophomore this past season, he averaged 11.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg, and 2.9 apg. Although at times he was the third or fourth offensive option on the court, the 6’5 guard made his presence known in other ways. He dished out more assists than either point guard for Cincinnati (Cane Broome and Justin Jenifer) and improved a great amount defensively.
When Cumberland came out a high school, he was considered to be a combo guard with great ball handling skills. The Bearcats were set at the point guard position so his skill set was better served out on the perimeter. He can defend bigger guards while having the tools to handler small and quicker players. For a program who has struggled at times to recruit great two-way players, Cumberland can check all the boxes on both ends.
As far as what to project for Cumberland, he’ll need to increase his scoring output to keep Cincinnati near the top of the AAC. The returning ball handlers aren’t prolific scorers and neither are Tre Scott and Nysier Brooks. Top Junior College transfer prospect Rashawn Fredericks will provide an immediate impact on the perimeter, but Cumberland is the proven offensive player at the D-1 level.
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Can Cumberland be the leading scorer on an NCAA Tournament-caliber team? That remains to be seen but the local product will have the keys to Cincinnati’s offense. It’ll now be up to him to drive them in the right direction, the same one that the program overall has been on.