UC has grown up as team since opening loss to OSU

When Ohio State christened the newly renovated Fifth Third Arena on the campus of the University of Cincinnati with an upset win to open the season, Bearcats men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin didn’t have the experienced lineup that guided the team to a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament the previous season.

For those in central Ohio who haven’t watched Cincinnati since, don’t expect the same team from Nov. 7 to show up Friday at Nationwide Arena when it plays Iowa in the first round of the NCAA Tournament’s South Regional.

This team has the experience it was lacking then.

“The only way to grow is to get experience,” Cronin said. “I’ve tried to be sure I injected that I believe in what they could become from the time we started spring workouts last year. I think that’s important.”

In that opener against Ohio State, the Bearcats shot just 27.4 percent and made just four shots in the first half. Cronin said just about all of his starters were playing in roles they hadn’t played before.

Cincinnati’s leading scorer, Jarron Cumberland, didn’t know how to play as the star. Sixth man Cane Broome wasn’t looking to be a main scorer when Cumberland was out of the game. Starting point guard Justin Jenifer was looking to pass more than shoot.

For the other starters — Trevon Scott, Nysier Brooks and Keith Williams — just being a starter was an adjustment.

Cincinnati turned its season around to win 28 games and earned the automatic bid out of the American Athletic Conference by beating regularseason champion Cincinnati guard Jarron Cumberland averaged 18.8 points on his way to winning American Athletic Conference player of the year.

Houston in the tournament final.

This is the ninth consecutive season the Bearcats have reached the tournament and the first time they’ve played in Columbus since 2005.

“We’ve grown in all areas, in all aspects from the first time we played Ohio State,” Scott said. “We made a lot of changes, individually and as a team. But in every area you can think of in basketball as a team, we’ve grown in those areas.”

The last time the NCAA Tournament was in Columbus in 2015, Dayton was selected to the site and drew the largest crowd of the week.

A team spokesman for Cincinnati said the team quickly sold its 450-ticket allotment provided to each team by the NCAA and the athletic department bought additional tickets online because they were in such high demand. Cincinnati is expecting nearly 5,000 fans, which would surpass the roughly 3,500 fans who traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, last year.

“When they said we were in Columbus,

we called it backyard basketball,” Jenifer said. “Just having all the fans wanting to come and support us is going to be a great atmosphere, great energy for the game.”

The Bearcats will lean on Cumberland, who shined on this stage a year ago, scoring 17 points in the second-round game against Nevada. He scored 22 points against Ohio State in the opener and averaged 18.8 per game on his way to winning conference player of the year.

Cincinnati has grown considerably since the opener, but the experience at this stage isn’t like it was for the 2018 team. Cronin said that doesn’t matter as much. It’s March Madness for a reason.

“I think the teams that have any advantage are the teams that think they can win the whole tournament,” Cronin said. “You might look at me and say, ‘You guys at Cincinnati are a 7 seed,’ but I think that’s the mentality.”