Cincinnati Remains in Joe Lunardi’s First Four Out After UCF Win
We’ve officially reached the point in the 2023-24 college basketball season where Cincinnati fans question if ESPN’s Joe Lunardi hates their team.
Despite the Big 12 Conference getting more respect than any other league in America, Cincinnati appears to be the odd team out, remaining in the same spot in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology update for multiple weeks.
Cincinnati has been fighting for a bubble spot in the field after a mixed bag of outings against some of the league’s best teams. While the team currently sits in 10th place in the Big 12 Conference, the Bearcats 76-74 road win over UCF only moved Wes Miller’s group up one spot.
The Bearcats have already recorded four Top-25 wins this season in conference play after taking down No. 12 BYU, No. 19 TCU, No. 15 Texas Tech, and No. 24 Oklahoma. The team’s fourth conference win came against UCF, with opportunities to win against No. 14 Baylor and No. 25 Texas being stripped away on last-second, buzzer-beater losses.
Despite Lunardi electing to leave Cincinnati out of the tournament field for the likes of Providence, Ole Miss, Gonzaga, and Butler, the Bearcats will have a favorable schedule ahead, only facing ranked teams in two of their final six games with a chance to become the 10th representative from the Big 12 Conference.
Wes Miller’s squad will take the court next with another opportunity to catch the eye of Joe Lunardi on Wednesday, February 21st, against the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
