With March upon us, thus ends another regular season of men’s college basketball. March 9 marks the opening of the Conference USA tournament at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, and the UC Bearcats are coming off a 2004 win over DePaul. The Bearcats join Louisville and Charlotte in the tournament (who both received first-round byes). DePaul, Houston, Memphis, UAB, TCU, and Marquette also will compete, coming in behind UC in the standings. UC’s record, prior to their final two games, stands at 22-6 overall and 10-4 in the Conference.
If UC has any hope of getting the C-USA automatic bid to the national tournament this year, the Bearcats will have to fight off the strangleholds of Louisville and Charlotte.
Louisville is projected to come out on top of the conference and receive the automatic bid, and after a 21-4 run, no one would be very surprised. Cincinnati could very well receive an at-large bid on Selection Sunday (March 13).
CBS Sportsline’s projection bracket gives the Bearcats a 7th seed and a hypothetical first round game versus Notre Dame at number 10. North Carolina, Illinois, Boston College, and Kansas are all projected first seeds in their respective regions.
In this hypothetical realm, if UC gets past Notre Dame, they’ll most likely see Arizona next. The brackets aren’t shaping up in UC’s favor in either the CUSA or the National Tournament, so it will be vital to keep their core bunch together and healthy for the next month, or things could get nasty very quickly.