College Basketball Round Up

First things first: A big Cintucky apology to the readers of the site for the lack of content lately. The Bengals sucked a lot of life out of the CintuckyZone writers and this one in particular has been battling a case of bloggers block. That was then, though, and this is now, and there is no better time to be a college basketball fan than late February through the first week of April.

To bring you up to speed on the Cintucky teams we're going to first start in Louisville: The Cards (RPI: 31), after getting embarrassed at St. Johns last Thursday came back on Sunday with a HUGE win over the then number 2 team in the nation, Syracuse. Pitino's Bombinos are currently an 11 or 12 seed depending whose Bracketology you look at. Either way, most experts agree as long as they win the games they are supposed to and put up respectable performances against Georgetown and Syracuse, they should make the tournament. A win or two in the Big East tournament wouldn't hurt things either. Fun Fact: UL shot 30 3's against Syracuse. Gotta love Pitinoball.

Heading north to Cincinnati, the Bearcats (RPI: 49) are planted firmly on the tourney bubble. If the tournament were tomorrow the Bearcats would be out. Luckily for them they have plenty of time left to impress. Their final three games are @ WVU, vs. Villanova and @ Georgetown. Just one of those games mixed with a win in the Big East tournament would be a huge resume booster for the Bearcats. Tonight's game against USF is a must win.

Staying in Cincinnati, the Xavier Musketeers (RPI: 20) are looking good to make the tournament. The recent 12 point victory at Florida will look good on the tournament resume alongside wins over Dayton and UC. If they can pull out the W against Richmond (20-6) at home on Feb. 28th, they can start to look toward a higher seed than the 10-12 range. The thought of a team like this earning an 8 or 9 seed and facing UK in the 2nd round scares the hell out of me.

The Dayton Flyers (RPI: 32) didn't do themselves any favors with the 68-65 OT loss against St. Louis last weekend. The problem for Dayton is there are a lot of teams in the RPI 30-40 range from big conferences, which usually means bigger wins, and flashier tournament resumes. Games at Temple and at Richmond will probably be the key to Dayton's tournament hopes. Win both of those and take care of business against the rest and they are a lock. Another slip up like this weekend? Greg will have to be strapped down.

The Kentucky Wildcats (RPI: 4) have regained their swagger after the upset loss to the South Carolina Oh My God It Went In's. They have won all of their last 5 games by double digits, but will face a very tough opponent tonight in Mississippi State. The match up everyone (especially the 20 something NBA scouts in attendance) will be focusing on is MSU big man Jarvis "Swat Twat" Varnado vs. Demarcus "Boogie Monster" Cousins. Either way the back court of Kentucky should be more than enough to control the game for UK, and if Patrick Patterson shows any signs of a pulse the Cats will be okay. Check back tomorrow for a game recap.

So that is where we stand with a little over two weeks left until the conference tournaments. Out of the Cintucky teams 1 team is defiantly in (UK), 2 should be in (XU, UL), and the other 2 (UD, UC) still have an excellent shot to make it. Going 5-5 would be an amazing task for the Cintucky teams.

In an attempt to show remorse for the lack of posts recently I will treat you with the following. What it has to do with college basketball, I have no idea:












Brian "Go Cats, Musketeers, Flyers, Cards, and Cats again!!!" Reinhart