Cincinnati Basketball: Early 2015-16 Outlook

When you think of dark horse teams to win the National Championship out of the American Athletic Conference, the first teams that come to mind are the Memphis Tigers and the Connecticut Huskies. Memphis has a pedigree of being an extremely talented college basketball team, and UConn have won two National Championships in the past five years.

In the 2015-16 season, however, the team to watch in the AAC is the Cincinnati Bearcats, who return nearly every player who played significant minutes last season.

The Bearcats boasted one of the best defenses in college basketball, allowing the sixth least points of any team in the nation at just 55 points per game. Their fatal flaw was their inability to score, especially on the road. Cincinnati was ranked No. 294 in points per game and not one player averaged more than 9.9 PPG.

The good news coming into the 2015-16 season is that Cincinnati’s defense should remain elite and their offensive woes should work themselves out. Octavius Ellis, Troy Caupin, Farad Cobb, Gary Clark, Kevin Johnson and Shaquille Thomas averaged 88.5 percent of this team’s scoring last season and will all return. If just two of these players show offensive improvement which will no doubt happen, Cincinnati could easily win the American Athletic Conference.

Remember, this team is one of the most experienced squads in the country, but that will not matter unless they learn from their mistakes last season. The Bearcats struggled in close games, losing five of their eleven total losses by two possessions or less. Whether those struggles had to do with the lack of a go-to scorer or their youth, Cincinnati must learn to finish games in 2015-16.

I expect the Bearcats to be the type of team to get better game-in and game-out, meaning that they could be a major threat to the so called elite teams once March swings around. Do not be surprised if this team loses a couple early season games on the road, but expect Cincinnati to begin to show signs of dominance in the American Athletic Conference as early as mid-January.

Taylor Sturm is a Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TSturmRS, like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.