Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball

The Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball program represents the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. The school's team competes in NCAA Division I as part of the Big 12 Conference.^[2]

With over 1800 all-time wins, the Bearcats are the 12th winningest basketball program of all time. The school's merits include 2 National Titles, 6 Final Fours, and 33 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament appearances, including 5 consecutive appearances in the Final Four from 1959 to 1963, and 3 consecutive appearances from 1961–1963, the first school to accomplish both feats. As of 2026, Cincinnati had an all-time tournament record of 46–32. 42 All-American honors have been issued to Bearcats, while 39 Bearcat players have gone on to play in the NBA.^[3]

Cincinnati has been playing its home games since 1989 at Fifth Third Arena, which received an $87 million renovation for the 2018 season. Cincinnati joined the original Big East Conference in 2005, which was rebranded as the American Athletic Conference (AAC) in 2013. In 2023, they joined the Big 12 conference.^[4]

Basketball formally debuted as a selected varsity team in 1901 and played nine games. Cincinnati, in its first season lost to Yale but later defeated a team from the University of Kentucky while compiling a 5–4 record, with the remaining games being against non-collegiate teams. Home games during this time were played in a gym in the basement of McMicken Hall. Pillars on the court gave UC a home court advantage. UC experienced moderate success in the early days, with the main highlights being them winning several conference championships in both the Buckeye Athletic Association and the Mid-American Conference.

Cincinnati opened its new on-campus arena, Armory Fieldhouse, with a 97–65 win over Indiana in 1954. One of the first of Cincinnati's long list of standouts was Jack Twyman, who earned All-America status in 1954–55. He went on to NBA stardom and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Oscar Robertson made his debut in 1957, and quickly emerged as one of the top college players in the country. "The Big O" is still widely recognized as one of the greatest to ever play the sport—college or professional. A unanimous three-time All-American, he was college basketball's all-time leading scorer at the close of his career. His 33.8 scoring average today ranks third on the NCAA career charts, and he has the NBA's third-most career assists. The Bearcats celebrated their entry into the Missouri Valley Conference by winning the league title. Cincinnati made its first NCAA tournament appearance in 1958, losing to Kansas State in overtime at the Midwest Regional.

Sparked by the exploits of Robertson, who became the first player to lead the nation in scoring in three consecutive seasons, Cincinnati advanced to the Final Four in 1958–59 and 1959–60, settling for third place both years. Then the Bearcats, with a rookie head coach (Ed Jucker) and without Robertson, won their first national title in 1960–61. Then to prove that its 1961 championship was no fluke, UC repeated as national champion in 1961–62. Cincinnati made a fifth-straight trip to the Final Four in 1962–63, and narrowly missed capturing a third-straight national crown when Loyola of Chicago overcame a 15-point deficit and defeated the Bearcats by a basket, 60–58, in overtime.

During those five seasons, UC recorded a 37-game win streak and posted a 161–16 ledger. The five straight Final Four appearances is a feat topped only by UCLA. Connie Dierking (1958), Ralph Davis (1960), Bob Wiesenhahn (1961), Paul Hogue (1961, 1962), Tom Thacker (1963), Tony Yates (1963), Ron Bonham (1963, 1964) and George Wilson (1963) were accorded All-American recognition with Wilson playing on the U.S. 1964 Olympic gold medal team.

The Bearcats during the 1970s compiled a 170–85 record (.667). The success was led by flashy-dressing head coach Gale Catlett, who led the Bearcats to the NCAA tournament in the 1974–75 season returning Cincinnati to the Big Dance for the first time since the 1965–66 season. Cincinnati inaugurated the Metro Conference by winning the league's first two tournament championships and made four consecutive post-season appearances from 1974 to 1977, including a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 1975. Catlett was also a skilled recruiter, bringing Jim Ard (1970), Lloyd Batts (1973), Steve Collier (1976), Gary Yoder (1977), Bob Miller (1978) and Pat Cummings (1979) to Cincinnati who all earned All-American recognition. Cummings closed his career as UC's No. 2 leading scorer of all time.

After the 1977–78 campaign Catlett would leave to coach his alma mater West Virginia and Cincinnati hired Chicago Bulls head coach Ed Badger. A month into Badger's first season, the Bearcats were banned from postseason play and live television for two years due to numerous violations under Catlett, including recruiting violations and impermissible benefits.^[5] In 1981, Cincinnati would win the longest NCAA Division I basketball game against Bradley, which lasted seven overtime periods.^[6] Badger would have only two winning seasons during his tenure, and resigned after the 1983 season.

Tony Yates, a member of the national championship teams in the 1960s, succeeded Badger as head coach in 1983. In his first season in 1983–84, UC went 3–25 (0–14 in conference), the school's worst season (winning-percentage-wise) since going 1–9 in 1915. That season in a game against Kentucky, Yates had his players go into a four-corner spread and intentionally waste the clock against the No. 2 Wildcats. Boos rang out for most of the game and Kentucky refused to reschedule a series with Cincinnati after the end of the contract. This game was a factor that lead to the introduction of the shot clock for the 1985–86 season.^[7]

After tallying only two more winning seasons, Yates was fired after the 1989 season. The Bearcats of the 1980s failed to make a single NCAA tournament, and only had one postseason appearance in the 1985 NIT. The Bearcats, went 112–142 over the course of the decade and notched only two winning seasons.

Bob Huggins, the former head coach at Akron, was named head coach at UC prior to the 1989–90 season. When Huggins was hired, the Bearcats had not earned a bid to the NCAA tournament since 1977. The Bearcats were invited to the NIT in his first two years, and then advanced to the Final Four of the 1992 NCAA tournament, Huggins' third season as coach. This was the first of 13 consecutive seasons in which the Bearcats appeared in the NCAA tournament.^[8] Overall, Huggins compiled a 399–127 record in his 16 years at Cincinnati, making him the winningest basketball coach in the school's history. Huggins directed Cincinnati to ten conference regular-season titles and eight league tournament titles. The Bearcats appeared in post-season play in each of Huggins' 16 seasons. In addition to their Final Four appearance in 1992, they advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament two other times, in 1993 and 1996.

Fifteen Bearcats had garnered first team all-conference honors during this era with three of those, Danny Fortson, Kenyon Martin and Steve Logan, picking up a total of four C-USA Most Outstanding Player Awards. Fortson, Nick Van Exel, Ruben Patterson, Bobby Brannen, Melvin Levett, Logan, Martin and Pete Mickeal have joined Cincinnati's list of All-Americans. Fortson was a consensus first team All-American in 1996–97 after receiving second team recognition in 1995–96. Martin was college basketball's top player of the 1999–2000 season, making a clean sweep of the national player of the year awards. Logan was a consensus All-American in 2001–02 and a finalist for every national player of the year award. Several Bearcats were NBA draft picks, including Martin being the number one overall pick in 2000.

Huggins was forced to resign by school president Nancy Zimpher in August 2005, following Huggins' arrest for DUI in 2004 and Zimpher's goals to improve UC's academic reputation.^{[9][10][11][12]} The school promoted assistant coach Andy Kennedy as interim head coach for the 2005–06 season.

In the spring of 2006, Mick Cronin was hired as head coach, replacing interim coach Andy Kennedy after the dismissal of Bob Huggins.^[13] Cronin was tasked with picking up the pieces from a depleted program after Huggins was abruptly asked to resign three months before the 2005 season, and a temporary coach in Kennedy for the previous season. Due to the school having little-to-no recruiting going on for around a full calendar year, Cronin was forced to scrounge for players. He even had a couple players on the school's football team play, one being future NFL linebacker Connor Barwin.

Although Cronin's teams struggled early in his UC career, he improved the school's win total each of his first five seasons. After two straight losing seasons, UC began to get back on track under Cronin in the 2008–09 season with an 18–14 record. This was then followed by an NIT appearance and a brief return to the Top 25 polls during the 2009–10 campaign.

Despite the surroundings, Cincinnati began the retooling process, becoming the only program from a major conference to improve its win total every season from 2007 to 2011, building from 11 wins in 2007 to 26 victories and a return to the NCAA tournament in 2011.

Now a fixture at the Big Dance, Cincinnati can include itself among an elite list of six programs appearing in eight consecutive NCAA Tournaments, along with Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Michigan State and North Carolina. This run of nine consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances by Cincinnati would see UC advance to the Round of 32 five times and to the Sweet Sixteen once as of the 2018–19 season.

During the 2014–15 season, Mick Cronin discovered he had an arterial dissection and sat out the rest of the season, last coaching December 17 against San Diego State.^[14] Assistant Coach, Larry Davis took over head coaching responsibilities and lead the Bearcats to a berth in the NCAA tournament and a first round win over Purdue.^[15]

In the 2018 NCAA torunament the #2 Bearcats' led their first round opponent, Nevada, by 22 points with 11 minutes remaining. Nevada mounted a furious comeback, scoring 16 straight points over the next 3 minutes. With 9 seconds left, Nevada took their first and only lead of the game at 75–73, and would hold on to upset Cincinnati. The defeat tied the second largest comeback to-date in NCAA Tournament history.^[16]

In the 2013–14 and 2017–18 seasons Cincinnati were American Athletic Conference regular season champions. In the 2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons Cincinnati won the American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament. During this time many notable players came to Cincinnati with several progressing to the NBA, such as Sean Kilpatrick, Troy Caupain, Jacob Evans, and Gary Clark. The Bearcats also featured consecutive AAC Player-of-the-Year (POY) winners in Gary Clark and Jarron Cumberland.

On April 9, 2019, it was announced that Mick Cronin would be leaving Cincinnati to become the next head coach of the UCLA Bruins after UCLA had fired head coach Steve Alford earlier in the season (ironically, his firing was due in part to a blowout loss to the Bearcats). On April 14, 2019, it was announced that John Brannen was being hired as the new head coach.

In his first year, Brannen would lead the Bearcats to a share of the regular season AAC championship before both the AAC tournament and the NCAA tournament were cancelled due to COVID-19. In Brannen's second season, the team struggled to find its footing and dealt with 5 COVID related opt-outs and a 25-day program pause. The Bearcats would finish 12–11 but enjoyed a surprising run in the 2021 AAC tournament before losing in the final.

On March 26, John Cunningham, the school's athletic director, announced the university would begin investigating allegations against the program.^[17] Soon after on April 3, it was announced that head coach John Brannen was placed on indefinite leave.^[18] Finally, on April 9 the school announced Brannen had been relieved of his duties effective immediately along with assistants.^[19]

On April 14, 2021 Cincinnati hired Wes Miller to become their next head coach, replacing Brannen.^[20] Cincinnati and Miller agreed to part ways after the 2025–26 season, after a fifth straight year with no NCAA tournament appearances.^[21] His tenure ended with a record of 100–74.^[22][23]

Cincinnati's main basketball rivalry is Xavier University. The two schools play annually in the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout. Cincinnati's record in the Shootout is 52–41, last winning the matchup in 2024.

UC and Louisville were rivals, first playing in 1921, until the 2010–13 NCAA conference realignment put the contest on hiatus, as Louisville moved to the Atlantic Coast Conference on July 1, 2014.^[24] The rivalry has stretched over the span of four conferences from the Missouri Valley Conference, to the Metro Conference to Conference USA, and more recently in the Big East Conference, which in 2013 was renamed to the American Athletic Conference. The teams have faced off 101 times in series history, with Louisville leading the all-time series 53–43. Most notably, Louisville and Cincinnati faced each other twice over the course of the 2011-12 season. UC would upset then No. 17 ranked Louisville at home before facing off again in the 2012 Big East men's basketball tournament championship game, where Louisville would prevail 50–44.^[25]

First playing in 1968, Cincinnati and Memphis have been longtime conference rivals from the Missouri Valley Conference, to the Metro Conference, Great Midwest Conference, Conference USA, and currently in the American Athletic Conference though Cincinnati is scheduled to leave for the Big 12 Conference in 2023.^[26] The teams have faced off 86 times in basketball series history, with Cincinnati leading the all-time series 47–38.^[25]

Famously, Cincinnati beat Penny Hardaway's Tigers four times in the 1991–92 season, including in the Elite Eight on the way to the program's sixth Final Four appearance.

UC and Dayton have faced off 91 times, with UC leading the all-time series 60–31. The teams first played in 1907 and would face off regularly, last playing each other in 2025.

Cincinnati also has a longtime rivalry with Miami (OH) having played a total of 148 times since 1904, with UC leading the series 97–52. Similarly to Dayton, the series was played frequently until it came to a halt in 2011.^[25] However, for the 2021–22 season the Bearcats announced they would travel to Oxford to play Miami (OH), resuming the series for the first time in a decade, winning 59–58.^[27]

The Bearcats have appeared in the NCAA tournament 33 times. Their combined record is 46–32. They have been to six Final Fours, including five in a row from 1959 to 1963, and are two time National Champions (1961, 1962). UC has been to the Sweet Sixteen six times since 1967, with its last Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2012.^[28]

The Bearcats have appeared in the NIT 12 times. Their combined record is 12–11, most notably placing 3rd in 1955.

The Bearcats have appeared in the College Basketball Invitational once. Their combined record is 0–1.

Cincinnati has appeared in the College Basketball Crown once. Their overall record is 1–1.

This table reflects the results of match-ups between Cincinnati and Big 12 Conference opponents.

Updated through the end of the 2023-24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season.

Source^[29]

• 1959, 1960 – Oscar Robertson, USBWA College Player of the Year^[30]
• 2000 – Kenyon Martin, Consensus National Player of the Year (USBWA, AP, Naismith, Wooden, Rupp)^[31]

Cincinnati has had 31 different players receive All-American honors while at UC. The award has been given to a Consensus 1st-Team All-American 8 times.^[32]

• 1958, 1959, 1960 – Oscar Robertson
• 1963 – Ron Bonham
• 1963 – Tom Thacker
• 1997 – Danny Fortson
• 2000 – Kenyon Martin
• 2002 – Steve Logan

The following Cincinnati coaches and players have been enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The following Cincinnati players have represented their country in basketball in the Summer Olympic Games:

The following were McDonald's All-Americans in high school that committed to, and played for, the University of Cincinnati.

(**) Originally played collegiate basketball elsewhere, but transferred to Cincinnati.

The following were Mr. Basketball winners in high school that committed to, and played for, the University of Cincinnati.

The Bearcats currently have 58 players in their 1,000-point club.^[34]

The Bearcats have had 40 players play in the NBA, spanning seven decades, as of 2023.^[35]

• Gary Clark player for Yokohama B-Corsairs of the B.League
• Troy Caupain player for UCAM Murcia CB of Spanish Liga ACB
• Octavius Ellis player for BC Uralmash Yekaterinburg of the VTB United League
• David DeJulius player for Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. of the Israeli Basketball Premier League
• Adam Hrycaniuk player for Arka Gdynia of the Polish Basketball League
• John Newman III player for Kortrijk Spurs of the BNXT League
• Landers Nolley II player for Aris B.C. of the Greek Basketball League
• Ibrahima Thomas player for AS Douanes of the Basketball Africa League

The Bearcats have played their home games in Fifth Third Arena since 1989. The arena is on-campus and has a capacity of 12,012 (with room for overflow). It is located in the Myrl H. Shoemaker Center, which was also the name of the arena until 2005, when it was named for Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank. It is still popularly known as "The Shoe". The Bearcats held a 42-game home win streak from 1997 to 2000. In the 1999–2000 season, every Bearcat home game was sold out. During the Bob Huggins era, it was known as one of the most hostile arenas in the nation due to the high decibel levels typical of his tenure.

On December 15, 2015, The UC Board of Trustees approved an $87-million, privately funded renovation of Fifth Third Arena.^[36] Proposed improvements to the facility, include the creation of a 360-degree seating bowl, new HD scoreboard, ribbon boards, sound system, an LED lighting system which will allow for enhanced gameday presentation, new restroom and concession facilities, a new upper-level concourse with its own fan amenities, expanded food and beverage options and a new main entrance and plaza with centralized ticketing and guest services. Construction began in April 2017 and was completed in fall 2018.^[37] During the 2017–18 school year, men's basketball home games were moved to BB&T Arena at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky, while women's basketball and volleyball home games were moved to the campus of St. Ursula Academy.^[38] The Bearcats began play in the newly renovated arena with a home game against Ohio State on November 7, 2018.

The Bearcats have a 439–92 (.827) overall record in Fifth Third Arena as of the 2021–22 season.

• University of Cincinnati
• Cincinnati Bearcats
• Fifth Third Arena
• Wes Miller
• NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by coaches

• Niesen, Joan (November 6, 2017). "Cincinnati Bearcats". Sports Illustrated. Vol. 127, no. 14. p. 59.
• Zampini, Matt (January 29, 2016). "Men's Basketball: Bearcats claw their way to victory in final minute". The Daily Campus. University of Connecticut. ProQuest 1761031239.

• Official website
• Cincinnati Bearcats on Sports Reference