Re: pre-season polls

[Bentley9999]

       Personally I love it when Cincy is unranked and underrated, they seem 
to play better.  The media doesn't know what to expect from them year in year 
out.  One would assume they'd learn to not bet against them from years past.  
Except for the '99-00 team, (which would have gone pretty deep in the 
tourney, if, well you know the rest) most of Huggins' teams were off the 
radar to start the season, and then slowly but surely, they worked themselves 
into a top 20 team.  Look at all the hype the '96-97 team had, and look where 
they ended up.  There was too much pressure preserving that prestigious #1.  
Not to say that Huggins' teams can't handle pressure, it's just that it's 
easier when there isn't any.  

       I think it's great to see players blossom and turn a mediocre NIT team 
into the tourney.  My favorite Bearcat team was the '97-98 squad.  In the 
media's eyes their only proven player was Patterson, the rest were a 
collective of relative unknowns.  Granted, that squad had some talant, it's 
just that they didn't have a chance to showcase any because of who was on  
the team the past year.  Kenyon was just a raw power player, D'Juan, it 
seemed, was turning out to be a bust, ditto for Levett, and Brannan wasn't 
seen as anything more than a quality back-up.  That had to have been one of 
Huggins' most rewarding years.  But then that season had a sour ending with 
Jarod West's last second heave that banked in.  

       It's unfair to say this team will be as good as last year's, because 
of who was lost, and the youth that will replace them.  But I'm not going to 
count against them.  I'm a die hard UC fan, but I'm looking at next season 
from a realistic view.  What I do expect from them is another trip to the 
tourney, another C-USA ring, and the building blocks for the '02-03 squad to 
run really deep in the NCAA's.  
       

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