Cincinnati Bearcats: Contenders or Pretenders?

Mick Cronin's Cincinnati Bearcats (18-5, 5-5 Big East) started the season off hot by winning their first 15 games in a row by an average margin of 20.7 points. The Bearcats did not allow over 72 points during this span and held the opposing team to under 60 points 12 times in those 15 opportunities.

To this point, these teams have a combined 157 wins and 194 losses.

Since then, the Bearcats are 3-5, while having lost two straight. Cincinnati ranks 240th in the nation in field goal percentage at 42.6 percent, so it's no doubt that their Big East leading defense has carried them so far.

In their five losses this season, Cincinnati hasn't once had the lead at halftime, and have scored only 57 points per game. Leading scorer Dion Dixon has been held to 30.1 percent shooting and 9.0 points on average throughout this duration.

It seems that the Bearcats have no trouble scoring against smaller, less-competitive teams, putting up 75.7 points versus teams with losing records. However, when facing opponents with more wins than losses, they struggle to average 64.9 points.

Cincinnati has eight games left on their regular season schedule, and all but one include a team with a winning record. Four of these conference match ups are against ranked teams.

I still believe that the Bearcats are a legitimate contender to make the NCAA Tournament, but only because of their robust defensive play.

On the other hand, a sluggish Bearcat offense needs to be revived if they want any chance of making a strong run come tournament time. Yancy Gates, Cincinnati's 6'9" forward, has to get more involved; in his last six games, he's only shot an average of 8.5 times and has scored just 9.3 points.

The Bearcats will look to rebound against DePaul tonight at 7:00 P.M. ET.

The Blue Demons have lost 23 straight Big East games.