UC lock for NCAAs after Tulsa win, ESPN's Lunardi says
TULSA, Okla. – This may have done it. An NCAA men's basketball tournament bid may well have been secured here Wednesday night by the University of Cincinnati.
In fact, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi responded to a Twitter question after the game by saying UC was now a lock for the NCAA field after beating Tulsa 56-47. Lunardi confirmed via text to The Enquirer that he now considers UC certain to make the NCAAs.
UC (21-9, 12-5 American Athletic Conference) beat league leader Tulsa (21-8, 14-3 AAC) on its home floor, apparently lifting the Bearcats off the NCAA bubble. UC entered with a No. 49 ranking in the daily NCAA RPI, with Tulsa at No. 31.
Junior guard Farad Cobb scored 22 points, and UC took a huge step toward securing its fifth straight NCAA bid with the victory before 5,840 fans at Reynolds Center.
Does this indeed put UC into the NCAA field?
"I hope so," Cobb. "Oh yeah. We should be."
Box score:UC 56, Tulsa 47
UC finishes the regular season at home Sunday against Memphis (noon), followed by the AAC tournament March 12-15 in Hartford, Conn.
UC associate head coach Larry Davis, who has been reluctant to talk about the NCAA tournament, said it will be hard to deny the Bearcats now.
"In my mind, the only way we can guarantee ourselves, and there's obviously no guarantee until the committee picks them, but we've got to go beat Memphis on Sunday," Davis said. "And then I think it's going to be hard for them to keep us out."
CBS Sports Network analyst Pete Gillen, the former Xavier coach who was on hand to do color commentary for UC-Tulsa, was among those saying before the game that his sense was UC would clinch an NCAA bid by beating Tulsa.
"Everybody says 'Oh, you're in the tournament now, you're in the tournament now,' " Davis said. "All I know is if we beat Memphis, that gets us one step closer. This is a big win. Coming here on the road and beating (Tulsa) is huge.
"This is a big win for us. We had to have this win. If we wanted to have a real, real shot to go on to play in the tournament, we had to have this win."
Sophomore point guard Troy Caupain, who backed Cobb with 12 points, also was asked if he thought UC is in the NCAA field now.
"I hope so," Caupain said. "We're really just focused on one game at a time. We've still got a lot of games ahead of us before we get to the dance. We've got one more game in the regular season before we get to the conference (tournament)."
UC already had been projected to reach the NCAA field by forecasters including Jerry Palm of CBS Sports (No. 10 seed), Lunardi of ESPN (11 seed) and Shelby Mast of USA Today (11 seed). And that was before the win at Tulsa.
Palm had listed UC among teams that are, "In for now" entering Wednesday.
Palm had said UC should be OK if it splits its last two regular season games. Step one is accomplished.
"Cincinnati took care of business against Tulane (last Saturday)," Palm wrote in his latest analysis. "With their good wins, the Bearcats are close to getting off this (bubble) page."
Wednesday's victory over Tulsa is as good a win as UC has had this season.
For UC, Cobb's 22 points were two behind his career high. Caupain added 12 points and six rebounds for UC, while junior forward Octavius Ellis had seven points, 13 rebounds and four blocks. Sophomore guard Kevin Johnson had eight points, and freshman forward Gary Clark had seven points and eight rebounds.
UC out-shot Tulsa 46 percent to 34 percent from the field and out-rebounded the Golden Hurricane 40-30.
The Bearcats entered Wednesday also hopeful of landing as high as a No. 3 seed for the AAC tournament. The win over Tulsa clinched a first round AAC tournament bye for UC.
At this point, if UC were to win its last two games (mission accomplished at Tulsa, then Memphis on Sunday), it would be the No. 3 seed in the AAC tournament. If the Bearcats lose Sunday, its AAC seed may depend on how other teams in their AAC standings vicinity fare.
UC has now won four straight games overall, and broke a four-game Tulsa winning streak.
Tulsa would have clinched a share of the AAC title by beating UC. The Golden Hurricane were led by Rashad Ray with 15 points and James Woodard with 12.
NICE HALF: UC led 27-20 at halftime, after leading by as much as 12 points before the break (25-13).
The Bearcats were led by Cobb and Johnson with seven points each in the first half.
DOWN THE STRETCH: UC pushed its lead out to 33-22 early in the second half, and led 35-25 with 13:50 to go.
Tulsa answered with a 6-0 run to come within 35-31 moments later. The Golden Hurricane crowd suddenly was back in it, after sitting on their hands much of the first half.
Cobb banged in consecutive 3-pointers to lift UC to a 43-36 lead with 8:15 left. Tulsa got as close as three points with 6:10 left but could draw no closer.