The college basketball season has officially ended for everyone. It's a disappointing time for yours truly because college basketball is far and away my favorite sport. The teams I've been rooting for my entire life, the teams that I've cared about the most, the teams that have meant the most to me have been college basketball teams. There is something about college hoops that separates it from the the other sports. One part is that it's a 30 game season played over 5 months. At Cincinnati, we've been able to watch these 18 and 19 year old freshmen come in and develop for 4 years. The player who showed up in November is not the player who left in March. At least, that's the plan anyway. We've seen Kenyon Martin, Steve Logan, Lenny Stokes, Danny Fortson, Cashmere Wright, Bobby Brannen and many others develop into Bearcats we will remember for ages. Steve Logan turned from kind of rolly polly freshman into a player of the year gunner who outscored a team. Kenyon Martin went from a guy who blocked shots into winning every award possible and was the first pick in the NBA draft. They started off as role players, then turned into leaders for Cincinnati. They became a part of our lives for 4 years. 

This doesn't happen to this extent in other sports. College football is only 12 games. We are able to see the maturation of players not just from game to game, but of season to season. The past few years have been special when you take a step back. 5 years ago, the Bearcats were 18-14. They played a DePaul team in the Big East tournament that went through the conference slate without a win. That DePaul team was the worst team in Big East history. That DePaul team beat Cincinnati by 10. 

4 years ago Lance Stephenson came to Cincinnati. Expectations were high that UC would be able to make the tournament. After an up and down year, Cincinnati had a 3 game run in the Big East tournament that saw them play so hard and with so much heart. They lost on a buzzer beater to West Virginia to end the miracle run. Cincinnati played an NIT game that allowed Deonta Vaughn to become the all time leader in assists at Cincinnati. Vaughn was forced to carry a horrible team through 4 years of rebuilding. He wanted to do it. He was able to get Cincinnati to a better place by the time he left. Deonta Vaughn was the best player on bad teams, but he did so much for this program. I hope people remember him later. 

3 years ago our dreams started coming true. On the backs of guys like Yancy Gates and Dion Dixon and Rashad Bishop, guys who had grown and matured over the previous few seasons of losing, Cincinnati made the NCAA tournament. Cincinnati basketball was back. The Bearcats beat Missouri before falling to eventual national champion Connecticut. 

Last year, the Bearcats took the next step. With Gates and Dixon as seniors and Cashmere Wright and JaQuon Parker starting as juniors, Cincinnati broke through to the Sweet 16. Cincinnati hadn't been to the Sweet 16 in over a decade. Even with the great teams Bob Huggins had, Cincinnati had only reached the Sweet 16 twice since 1996. Mick Cronin kicked down the door in 2012. A one year tournament run was one thing. Back to back NCAA tournaments culminating in a Sweet 16 appearance was another. Cincinnati made the finals of the Big East tournament. They hadn't made the finals of a conference tournament since Tony Bobbitt was a Bearcat. It had been a dark time for the program. 2012 was the light. 

This season was a step back from that. Cincinnati had surpassed their season win total every year Cronin was the coach until this year. The only way they could have surpassed the win total from last year was by playing in the national title game last night. In a year where Cincinnati was expected to contend for a Big East title, the Bearcats finished 10th in the standings. Cincinnati was bounced in the second round of the Big East tournament. Cincinnati was a 10 seed for the NCAA tournament. They were bounced in the first round of that. 

Things ended with some disappointment, but there are a lot of positive things to point at. Cincinnati won 20 games for the 3rd straight season. They made the NCAA tournament for the 3rd year in a row. Cashmere Wright cemented his place in Cincinnati history by playing the most games out of anyone to wear a Bearcat uniform. He had the most steals in Cincinnati history. Wright started at point guard for 3 years. In each of those 3 years, Cincinnati went to the NCAA tournament.

Having a season full of unmet expectations is also a positive in a way. It takes a lot to start to expect to win. As a fan base, we've reached the point where we know Cincinnati can win, can make the tournament and can win tournament games. Before 2011, those expectations were not there. Mick Cronin has built a good thing. He's built something that can work and that can be successful. You aren't going to have chances to win every year. The window is very small. When you have players that you believe can win and do special things, losing in the first round hurts and is a disappointment. Just making the tournament isn't going to satisfy the fanbase like the first two years of it did. Now that Mick has built a winner, we want to see them win. 

Everyone wants to win and win right away. As fans, it's easy to look down the road at a program like Louisville. They are winning the national title. They won the Sugar Bowl. They are a comparable program to Cincinnati. If you grew up in the 90s, Louisville was a sagging program in basketball. Denny Crum's era ended with a whimper. Cincinnati was making the tournament every year. Louisville cycled back towards the top of college basketball like all good programs do. Cincinnati had a cycle the other way. The good news is that Cincinnati is cycling back towards the top. UC doesn't have the fancy, NBA style arena. They don't have the Hall of Fame coach. But we know Cincinnati basketball is special. We know that Cincinnati basketball can hang banners. We know Cincinnati can be #1.

I don't think it's unrealistic to think that those things can happen again. A season like 2012-13 might be evidence to the contrary to opposing minds. Sometimes you have to have the bubble of expectations popped. It can be a necessary step in moving forward. It's impossible to improve your win total every season as a coach. It's very hard to win in the NCAA tournament. It was very hard to win in the Big East. Mick Cronin said that he never had a team that worried as much as this team. While that bothers some people who hear that, I think it's not unreasonable to say that this won't be a problem for another Mick Cronin team. I hope to hell that he knows how to handle it now. Expectations can be hard for the players. They read the same things we read. They read the things we write on twitter. This club was not good at channeling their energy towards winning. That's something for Mick Cronin to work on in the future. 

The 2013-14 Bearcats are not going to a favorite to win their league. Not with Louisville and Memphis and Connecticut. I don't mind though. Cronin has gotten the most out of the teams that people didn't believe in. He's made them buy in. I think next year's team will compete. It's not unreasonable at all to start expecting Cincinnati to contend for league titles every year. Not with our league being a normal league instead of a monster league. Last season was a misstep. The good news for the program is that our misstep season resulted in 22 wins and an NCAA tournament berth. This next season is a bit of a rebuilding effort, but the future is bright, my friends. The future is bright. 

The old Big East has decided on a new name. Instead of the great, great option of Conference Scott, the presidents have agreed on the American Athletic Conference, AAC for short. Dan Wolken just tweeted that the preferred name for the league will be "The American." 

The AAC is a million times better than the America 12. The American is something that I could get use to, although they just said that will be the brand and not the ackronym. AAC, the American, it doesn't matter. I just didn't want the A12. Conference Scott though, it really got the shaft. 

I asked a source how they felt about the new league name. They replied "That's whack." 

The league might have just announced the name, but they already released a league wide fight song that will play before the national anthem at every conference game. 

With the season over, I'm thinking of things to start for the offseason. There will be a basketball season in review coming in the following weeks. There will be some things about football and a lot of general nonsense. Like today for instance. There are a couple of topics that I want to talk about, but none of them deserve a full post. So I'll touch on them all at once. Well, I'll touch on them all separately but in the same post. Let's get to it. 

Mike Rice

As a lot of you know by now, Mike Rice was fired by Rutgers for the horrible practice video that was released to the public yesterday. When Rice was suspended earlier in the season, I remember there was some talk about him being more severely disciplined. But without seeing the video, it was hard to be outraged. Until yesterday, Rice was probably going to skate by and be the coach as Rutgers moved to the Big 10. The outrage about Rice was warranted. Not just because Rice slammed his players by dropping f bombs, no the other one, on them, but he also slammed them with basketballs. I forget who pointed this out, but one of the most disturbing things about the Rice video was that he fired basketballs at his players and the assistants handed him a new ball instantly. Things like this were happening for his entirety at Rutgers judging by things like that. Some of the former Rutgers players have said that it wasn't that bad and the tape was taken out of context. But just because they didn't think it was that bad doesn't mean that it wasn't bad.

Acting like an asshole in any capacity is still acting like an asshole, no matter how much respect or regard you hold the person with. Mike Rice was an asshole. I think that even if Rutgers made the final four, Rice would have been fired for this. Winning and losing has a difference on perception. Mike Rice was a losing coach at Rutgers. He was an asshole. 1 + 1 = 2 in this scenario. People can talk about tough practices and players getting cussed at, those things are fine. There is a line in sports. When you cross it, you deserve to GTFO. I hope that Mike Rice can get his life in order. He'll probably get another chance in coaching. I hope that he doesn't succeed because I don't like him, but I also hope he gets over his issues. 

Women's Basketball

I've watched under 10 women's basketball games in my life. I got sucked in the other night with the Louisville-Baylor game. Some of it was because of Baylor's historic streak, Brittney Griner and Game of Thrones didn't start until 9. What I saw was very different. I know the rules between women's and men's hoops were different. There is a shorter shot clock for the ladies, there is no 10 seconds call, set shots are encouraged, and so on. The shorter shot clock was interesting. Why do they have 30 seconds for the women but 35 for the men? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I think a 30 second shot clock is coming sooner rather than later. The sport needs it. That's another topic completely. 10 seconds should be a thing though, get on that, women's hoops. 

The thing that jumped out to me about women's basketball had nothing to do with the actual games. Those were just women playing basketball. What stands out is the officiating. People joke about men's officials being awful, being biased and being the worst, but good lord does women's basketball take it a whole new level. The seemingly random whistles, calling touch fouls that went uncalled the whole game, the technical on Louisville's coach, the non technical on Baylor's coach when she tore her jacket off like she was in biblical times and her first born had died, the awful charge call that led to that call, the seemingly random nature of the games makes it hard to watch. It's also hard to watch if you aren't use to the game. There are some people who can't watch college basketball because it is inferior to the NBA. I feel this way about women's basketball. Trying to get into it with the officials being picked from the local YMCA makes it even harder. 

College sports are a big enough money making industry that it is time to sink some of the money back into officials. Just like the pro sports are going to full time officials, college should do this as well. Incompetence at all levels seems to be at an all time high. With the technology we have to see what's right and wrong in half a second, this is something that can be fixed. The thing I never understood about the human element argument in baseball was that if we can help the humans get the calls correct, wouldn't that help them get the calls correct more often? It doesn't in some parts, because like the NBA and NFL, the officials can rely on replay to help bail them out. Getting things correct is important. College officials do not do this. Especially in women's basketball. I gave women's hoops the ol' college try, but unless I one day have a daughter that plays college basketball, I will not be partaking in this sport very often as a protest about the officials. Taking a stand. 

Baseball

Something happened to me between October and Monday where watching the game of baseball live did not satisfy my interests. I was not really looking forward to Opening Day, that could have had something to do with it. My interest in baseball itself hasn't waned because I have watched a handful of games the past 2 days. What has happened is that I have become spoiled by my DVR. Baseball is the ultimate DVR sport. 

Before I get into this topic, I will acknowledge the people who hate watching sports on their DVR. It can be very hard to ignore score updates, especially in the age of twitter. It can be hard to not just fast forward to the end to see what is happening live. I have done that before. Most recently when Homer Bailey threw his no hitter. I was not watching that game live, but heard about the no hitter so I skipped right to the end. That's more of an issue for other sports. With football and basketball, the end is the most important part. The first 58 minutes don't matter as much when Peyton Manning has the ball down 4. The first 43 minutes of an NBA game are nice, but you want the last 5 minutes when LeBron or Kobe or Durant is going to take over. The end is the most important part of those sports. 

Baseball is different. If you miss the first inning, you could miss all of the scoring. I suppose you could miss all the scoring in a football game if the score after the first quarter was 42-0, but that is very rare. No first quarter lead is safe in basketball. The other events are timed. Baseball is not. That really helps with the DVR case. The game could be 3 hours, 3 and a half hours, or even roughly 4 hours like opening day, you never know what to invest in baseball. It's not the 3 hours 10 minutes of NFL action. It's not the 2 and a half hours of basketball. That could be one of the reasons that someone loves watching it live. I enjoy DVRing baseball because I know that the time of the game doesn't matter, I'm getting that puppy watched in about 40 minutes.

There is a lot of dead time in football, but at least they are huddling. In baseball, all the dead time is spent standing. The pitcher stands, the batter stands, the catcher squats. The fielders get ready for the pitch. Sometimes all of this happens for 20 seconds and the pitcher steps off the rubber or the batter steps out. The reason the crowd boos when these things happen is not because of the flow of the game, but because they are wasting our lives with this. Do you know what the most boring time on earth is? It's the time between when a batter gets ready for the next pitch after he hits a foul ball that makes him start running towards first base. He walks back to the batters box, picks up the bat, does practice swings, steps back in and waits on the pitcher. It seems like this takes an hour. 

This could be a sign that I'm becoming ADD and I'm a product of the technology overload that we are all experiencing. When I watch off the DVR though, I don't look at my phone, I don't check twitter, I just watch the game. If anything, I'm becoming more focused. I've used some weird justifications today, but that one might have been the biggest stretch. 

Final Note

I've been thinking of starting a podcast. If anyone knows a good host, drop a comment or leave me a note on twitter. Thanks. 

With Cincinnati eliminated from the NCAA tournament, UC fans that are going to watch need someone else to cheer for. Unless you are the weird person that can watch sports without cheering for a team, then you are fine watching the games because you are weird. Since I am nothing but a man of the people, I will help the rest of you come up with a team to throw your support behind for the Sweet 16 games tonight and tomorrow. Some would say lists are the sign of a hack, so let's do a list. 

16) Duke

No one should ever root for Duke under any circumstances. 

15) Arizona

Ain't a way in hell I'm rooting for Mark Lyons to go to the Final Four. 

14) La Salle

The Explorers are one of many underdogs left in the tournament. They have an exciting player with Ramon Galloway. But, they are La Salle. I can't think of one exciting thing La Salle has ever done. I don't know one fun fact about La Salle. I do know that spacing between the La and Salle is annoying as shit. They are the Explorers. That's not a nickname that I can get behind. Let's go Explorers! Nah. Have fun with that, Dora. 

13) Wichita State

They just beat Gonzaga to ruin brackets all around the land. Or not, depends on how much you trusted Gonzaga. The Shockers have the fun nickname. They have the coach who wears women's glasses. They are a very solid team. But there is nothing exciting about them. I don't know anyone who wants to see them in the Final Four. Wichita State and La Salle is the Sweet 16 game with the lowest appeal. There's a reason it's going on at 10:30 on a Thursday night, the latest start time of the 8 tournament games remaining. Not feeling the Shockers. 

12) Miami

The Hurricanes have a couple of strikes against them. First, they are playing a team that I like more than them. They come from a conference that I don't really care for. They got a lucky break to help secure the win over Illinois. They are Miami. Reggie Johnson being injured takes away the matchup of the fat big men. I didn't mind rooting for Miami against Duke or Carolina, but outside of the ACC I can't make myself go there. 

11) Oregon

While I might cheer a little more for Oregon just because I wrote back in November that I liked their team and they would be good, I would understand why the rest of you yawned. The Ducks did some work by taking out overrated teams UNLV and St Louis. I don't know of too many interesting things for Oregon basketball though. I don't think anyone is picking them to beat Louisville. They were under seeded, but that's not really a reason to root for someone. Oregon is blah. 

10) Michigan

I was raised an Ohio boy. I find it hard to root for Michigan in any sport. The Fab Five ruined the 1992 season. The Wolverines have a likable team this season which keeps them out of the bottom few spots. The bad thing about the Michigan players is that they are all sons of famous basketball players like Tim Hardaway and Glen Robinson. They make me feel old. I remember when Big Dog was at Purdue. I'm old as shit. I can't justify rooting for Michigan, no matter how much I loved watching them take VCU apart. Muck Fichigan. 

9) Kansas

I've never met a Kansas fan. It seems rather odd to have all of the #1 seeds remaining not in the bottom of the list of teams to cheer on, but I don't think any of them are necessarily automatic hate teams. Indiana probably will be in a few years. Louisville probably is for some of you. Kansas seems to evade the hate because they are Kansas. I said I have never met a Kansas fan a couple sentences ago, I've also never met someone who hates Kansas. If they are playing a team I don't like, I'll root for Kansas. Case in point, I rooted for Kansas against North Carolina. When Kansas plays almost anyone else, I root against Kansas. But if Kansas wins, it's not that big a deal because there is no hate in my heart for Kansas. I'll be rooting for them to beat Michigan. 

8) Florida

Florida should be ranked a lot lower on this list just based off who they are playing tomorrow night. The rest they are in the middle is because pretty much everyone in their bracket pool picked Florida to go to the Final Four. Brackets give you someone to root for, even if you don't really have an opinion on them. I happen to like this Florida team quite a bit. It seems weird to wonder how great a coach Billy Donovan is because he's won 2 national titles, but is he really a great coach? Would you rather have him as your coach instead of Bill Self? 

7) Michigan State

Under different circumstances Michigan State would be towards the bottom of the list. They play Duke tomorrow,which is a huge bounce. They would also (probably) play Louisville on Sunday. The Louisville haters would be rooting on Michigan State. That gives Sparty some rooting power that I just can't ignore. Tom Izzo has to be one of the greatest tournament coaches of all time. It doesn't matter how good Michigan State was during the regular season. You know they are going to make the tournament. You don't want to see them come up in your region. You automatically have them winning a game. You have a hard time finding a team that will bounce them out because Izzo is a magician. 

6) Marquette

You could make the case rooting for Marquette is easier than rooting for Indiana, but my niece went to Indiana so bias. Buzz Williams has made himself an ultimate love him or hate him coach due to his antics. I'm on the love him side. His dancing, his hopping up and down on the sidelines, his gesturing, I love them all. I would want him to coach my team. I don't really like the actual team that much. Vander Blue is a great player. The rest is a mixed bag. Marquette should be rocking the blue uniforms tonight. That's a crowd pleaser. 

5) Indiana

The Hoosiers are an interesting team to rank on this list. On one hand, Indiana is fun to watch. They have some great players. I don't know how you can watch IU play and not be taken by Victor Oladipo. On the other hand, Tom Crean. Indiana is kind of a local team if rooting for local teams is something that interests you. The Hoosiers were near the top of the rankings all season long, they are a 1 seed and that's a good reason to want them to lose. I think the reasons to cheer for them, like the program's rise back to relevance, outweigh the bad. That's why they are in the top 5. 

4) Syracuse

I have liked watching Syracuse play for many, many years. There was a time in my life that I considered going to Syracuse for college. Some of my favorite people on twitter are the Syracuse guys like Sean from Nunes Magician and Brian from Orange 44. I find myself rooting for the people of whom I'm friendly. I'm no different than any of you. Your Syracuse hate can vary. From being one of the reasons the Big East fell apart, to playing exclusively zone, to Otto, to the fact they are Syracuse, I can see where your hate is coming from. But are you really going to cheer for Indiana ahead of them? I don't think so. 

3) Louisville

I'll have my rooting interests behind the Cards, so you probably should as well because you want to be just like me. The Cards were former hardwood rivals with Cincinnati, but that only goes for football these days. There was more buzz when Louisville was UC's opponent for the final regular season football game than there was for the basketball game. Some people are never going to root for Louisville. The Cards can play any style. Their defense is one of the best in years. They completely smothered Colorado State. There are a vocal few who don't like Peyton Siva's dad. I don't know how they can't considering his story and what watching his son means to him, but to each his own. 

2) Ohio State

People on twitter love to bitch about Ohio State. The reality is that Ohio State has a huge fanbase. Some would say there are more Ohio State football fans in Cincinnati than there are UC fans. Ohio State basketball isn't quite as loved as OSU football, but OSU fans jump on that bandwagon whenever the opportunity presents itself. They are the most local team. If you cheer for the local squads, you are jumping on Ohio State. If you are a person who wants to see what it's like rooting for evil, root for Ohio State to find out what it's like cheering for Aaron Craft. Let's face it, a lot of you are rooting for Ohio State anyway. 

1) Florida Gulf Coast

I know that some people are starting to get tired of Dunk City. I know that FGCU has been exploited big time this past week. But they are a 15 seed in the Sweet 16. They are called Dunk City because they are a crazy team that dunks the ball a lot. The Timeshares have been the most exciting team in the tournament. They could lose to Florida by 20, which I expect to happen, and they will throw halfcourt lobs anyway. If you aren't rooting on the Timeshares, you have no soul. 

Whit Babcock was teasing a big name opponent to add to the future schedules yesterday. After much speculation, we have our answer. Cincinnati will be facing 

Michigan is paying UC $1.2 million for a football game at the Big House on September 9, 2017. Michigan and Cincinnati will also meet on the hardwood in a home and home basketball series that will take place between 2015 and 2018. 

In a statement, Whit Babcock had this to say: 

“It is ideally our preference to sign home and home non-conference games. However, the chance for our fans to have a relatively short drive to see us play a great opponent, plus the men’s basketball scheduling component above and beyond the single football game in Ann Arbor, made it a good one-off decision for us. I want to thank Deputy Director of Athletics Bob Arkeilpane for his creativity in getting this deal done from our side and to thank Michigan’s Dave Brandon and his administrative team for their collaboration. We will continue to look at the best scheduling opportunities for UC moving forward, and for the chance to promote the Bearcats on a national stage." 

Cincinnati and Michigan have never played football. The last time they played basketball was the 1992 Final Four. Whatever Cincinnati's conference affiliation in the next couple years, it's wonderful to see that Whit Babcock and the leaders of the university are going to find quality opponents. This is awesome.