For most of this season, Cincinnati basketball was falling well short of expectation. A month ago, Wes Miller was apologizing to fans in the tunnel after a home loss to West Virginia as his Bearcats fell to 11-12 on the season.
A month later, Miller is leading one of the hottest teams in the country. Cincinnati has surged back onto the NCAA Tournament bubble after winning six of its last seven games, losing only a road contest against Texas Tech in which it was very competitive. On Tuesday night, the Bearcats made their biggest statement yet, crushing an NCAA Tournament team in BYU 90-68 to get to 17-13 on the season.
During this recent hot streak, Cincinnati also has a road win over Kansas and a blowout win over UCF, another tourney-bound program. The numbers show just how dominant Miller and company have been, as they rank fifth in the nation according to Torvik, a predictive metric.
The four teams in front of the Bearcats are Duke, Michigan, Florida and Arizona, the group that many would consider to be the best four teams in the nation heading into March.
It's unclear at the moment if Cincinnati will get into the NCAA Tournament. It was still just outside the Next Four Out in ClutchPoints' latest Bracketology, and most Bracketologists still have the Bearcats on the outside looking in for now. They are just 3-10 in Quad 1 games and have an ugly Quad 4 home loss to Eastern Michigan back in non-conference play.
However, there is still plenty to play for heading into the final game of the regular season, a Quad 1 road game against an NCAA Tournament team in TCU where the Bearcats will have a chance to impress the selection committee.
If Miller and company can get a win in that game, they will head to Kansas City for the Big 12 Tournament even closer to the bubble and with a ton of confidence.
It seems likely at the moment that a few more wins could get Cincinnati very close to the cut line, and its recent play could get it into the field on Selection Sunday. If the Bearcats are in the final bracket playing this way, nobody will want to see them on opening weekend.
