Big 12 Basketball: Ranking all 16 programs after adding Arizona, ASU, Colorado and Utah
By Joey Loose
8. Cincinnati
After winning a pair of national championships in the 1960’s, Cincinnati finally became a perennial Tournament team after hiring Bob Huggins way back in 1989. The Bearcats appeared in fourteen consecutive NCAA Tournaments before falling off after Huggins’ departure. They’d become a perennial contender again in the 2010’s under Mick Cronin, making nine straight trips to the Big Dance.
But enough of this history lesson; what do we really know about the current state of this program? Things haven’t been great after Cronin left for UCLA in 2019, but there’s hope on the horizon. John Brannen’s two-year stint was atrocious but Wes Miller has started to turn things around in his first two seasons leading the program, including a 23-win campaign this past year.
We don’t know how competitive Cincinnati will be long-term in the new-look Big 12, but this was a great program at times in Conference USA, the Big East, and the AAC, and certainly has the potential to match that in another new conference. Miller is an inspiring young head coach who did wonders at UNC Greensboro and has Cincinnati trending in a great direction for the future.
On the other hand, that run of Tournament appearances is nearly half a decade ago. Cincinnati remains a solid place for basketball and may just have a bright future ahead, but it’s way too early to call Miller a successful coach for the Bearcats. Four years of missing out on postseason glory in the AAC doesn’t exactly inspire confidence for the Big 12, though we’ll find out a lot about this team this season.