The Big East has been hailed as the best college basketball conference, and the second round of the tournament will feature two matchups concerning four of their teams. The first one takes place in the Saturday night cap on TBS at 6:40 PM PT/9:40 PM ET (click here for the schedule).
Ken Pomeroy says 14th best offense, 27th best defense, 205th fastest tempo. Great offensive rebounding and great turnover %. Excellent at forcing opposing teams into jump shots. Excellent free throw shooting team.
The weaknesses of UConn is poor shooting from downtown and bad defensive rebounding. They also have trouble getting to the free throw line, which sort of negates their ability to make free throws.
Ken Pomeroy says 50th best offense, 14th best defense, one of the slowest tempos in college basketball. Good at holding onto the ball and forcing turnovers. Excellent offensive rebounding team and strong defensive rebounding squad overall. Great shooting defense.
The weaknesses of Cincinnati are poor shooting from everywhere on the court. Also, Connecticut won their first matchup with Cincinnati IN Cincinnati, which probably doesn't bode well for their chances on a neutral court. Not very good at shooting threes and worse at shooting free throws.
Prediction: It's a toss-up game, so I can only lean in one direction (in other words, even though I might pick a team, you shouldn't really use it as a barometer). Both teams are evenly matched and familiar with one another, so it figures to be a barnburner. Connecticut is the better offense, Cincinnati is the better defense, but neither team shoots all that well. I'd lean Cincinnati, only because UConn has been playing with fire for over a month now, and eventually hot streaks just end.
Right?