Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
The Cincinnati Bearcats are coming off of an NCAA tournament appearance where they were a No. 10 seed. Unfortunately, they lost their first game of the tourney. The team will look a little different in the 2013-14 college basketball season and the Bearcats will also be playing in the new Amrican Athletic Conferece (AAC). So, how does Cincy match up with the rest of the conference?
Cincinnati actually has a good enough team to compete in the AAC. A big reason for that is Sean Kilpatrick returning to the team, who led the team in scoring with 17 points per game.
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With that said, there will be three very talented teams that will likely be ahead of the Bearcats to start the season. Those teams are Louisville, Connecticut and Memphis. All three of those teams will be good enough to contend for national championships, but the Cardinals are definitely the cream of the crop in the conference, since they are coming off of a national title and have plenty of players returning.
Some players will have to step up in the upcoming season because Kilpatrick cannot do it all. Although, he could very well put up 20 points per game.
Temple will be another team to watch out for, but other than that, Cincinnati should have no problems. This conference is very top heavy and the bottom teams do not look as good. Still, the AAC will put some teams into the 2014 NCAA Tournament, and Cincinnati should definitely be one of those teams. This team will really have to get better, though, if it to wants to win a conference title.
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