Busting Brackets
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AAC Basketball: Preseason rankings for 2019-20 season

By Pan Karalis

ORLANDO, FL - MARCH 11: during the final game of the 2018 AAC Basketball Championship against at Amway Center on March 11, 2018 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
ORLANDO, FL - MARCH 11: during the final game of the 2018 AAC Basketball Championship against at Amway Center on March 11, 2018 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /
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COLUMBUS, OHIO – MARCH 22: Jarron Cumberland #34 of the Cincinnati Bearcats reacts during the second half against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Nationwide Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OHIO – MARCH 22: Jarron Cumberland #34 of the Cincinnati Bearcats reacts during the second half against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Nationwide Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

. Bearcats . 3. team. 449. .

The conversation in Cincinnati starts and ends with defending AAC player of the year Jarron Cumberland. The senior is coming off a year in which he led the team in points and assists, and was third in rebounding. No one else on Cincinnati’s roster averaged in double digits last season.

But the Bearcats did lose a lot of Cumberland’s supporting cast with the departure of long-time coach Mick Cronin. Justin Jenifer and Cane Broome graduated, and Nysier Brooks’s transfer to Miami is probably the biggest thing that’s left Cincinnati out of the conversation for the AAC title this preseason. Trey Scott and Keith Williams are back and joined by graduate transfer Jaevin Cumberland – Jarron’s cousin – who averaged over 17 points last year with Oakland, and they should provide enough support to the reigning player of the year to help the Bearcats make a case for a strong seed in the NCAA tournament this season.

Mick Cronin’s gone, and there are plenty of question marks around former Northern Kentucky coach John Brannen that won’t be answered until he’s succeeded at this level, but Cincinnati has second-weekend level talent. And if the Bearcats do manage to make a run this year, fans in Cincinnati will be left wishing Cronin and his track record of March failures had left the program a long time ago.