Possible game against Andy Kennedy's Mississippi team?

The University of Cincinnati men's basketball team will compete in the inaugural Emerald Coast Classic presented by Global Sports in November.

The Bearcats will host the first two rounds at Fifth Third Arena, taking on Eastern Illinois on Nov. 23 and welcoming North Carolina Central on Nov. 25.

Cincinnati then travels to The Arena at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Fla., to compete against Middle Tennessee on Nov. 28 before facing the winner of the Creighton-Ole Miss contest on
Nov. 29. All game times are still to be determined.

The event features an eight-team field overall with Northern Arizona and Southern also participating though UC will not face either team.


http://www.gobearcats.com/sports/m-baskb...14aah.html

Here is the venue in Florida - small but nice

http://www.nwfraiders.com/athletics/faci...lery/index

That's our exempt tournament this year? Yuck.

(04-17-2014 03:32 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  That's our exempt tournament this year? Yuck.

Color me underwhelmed.

(04-17-2014 03:32 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  That's our exempt tournament this year? Yuck.

Not the greatest tournament, but still some potential top 100 games. The rest of the OOC schedule is really good though with home games against San Diego State, VCU, and Xavier combined with road games at Nebraska and NC State.

(04-17-2014 03:52 PM)Bearcat04 Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 03:32 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  That's our exempt tournament this year? Yuck.

Not the greatest tournament, but still some potential top 100 games. The rest of the OOC schedule is really good though with home games against San Diego State, VCU, and Xavier combined with road games at Nebraska and NC State.

Love our general non-conference schedule (depending on the "buy games") but I was hoping for a better, more prestigious exempt tournament this year.

(04-17-2014 03:55 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 03:52 PM)Bearcat04 Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 03:32 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  That's our exempt tournament this year? Yuck.

Not the greatest tournament, but still some potential top 100 games. The rest of the OOC schedule is really good though with home games against San Diego State, VCU, and Xavier combined with road games at Nebraska and NC State.

Love our general non-conference schedule (depending on the "buy games") but I was hoping for a better, more prestigious exempt tournament this year.

Well said. I've never understood why these are called tournaments when there is no playoff. Win or lose at home UC still goes and plays in FL. It's time for UC to get back to an early tourney with more sizzle. Let's hope UC or the AAC are working toward that end.

I think this tournament is ideal for how young this team is going to be at the start of the season. Next year I would try like hell to get into the Preseason NIT or Puerto Rico Classic.

The problem with the pre-season NIT, Maui, and Old Spice is that they limit your home game totals. This tournament gives UC two home games. With NC State and Nebraska on the road and the Xavier game likely downtown, UC can't have six road/neutral games and 7 home games to start the year. Watch UC schedule another neutral site game to prove me wrong; however, UC does not want play more road games than home game in the first two months of the season.

(04-17-2014 05:01 PM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  The problem with the pre-season NIT, Maui, and Old Spice is that they limit your home game totals. This tournament gives UC two home games. With NC State and Nebraska on the road and the Xavier game likely downtown, UC can't have six road/neutral games and 7 home games to start the year. Watch UC schedule another neutral site game to prove me wrong; however, UC does not want play more road games than home game in the first two months of the season.

My understanding of exempt tournaments is they don't limit your home games. The neutral site exempt games don't count towards your allotted games.

(04-17-2014 05:07 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 05:01 PM)bearcatlawjd Wrote:  The problem with the pre-season NIT, Maui, and Old Spice is that they limit your home game totals. This tournament gives UC two home games. With NC State and Nebraska on the road and the Xavier game likely downtown, UC can't have six road/neutral games and 7 home games to start the year. Watch UC schedule another neutral site game to prove me wrong; however, UC does not want play more road games than home game in the first two months of the season.

My understanding of exempt tournaments is they don't limit your home games. The neutral site exempt games don't count towards your allotted games.

You can have up to four games. UC gets two home games and two neutral site games with the Emerald Coast Classic. A tournament like the Old Spice Classic in Orlando has three neutral site games and only one home game and sometimes none. Memphis actually played Oklahoma State twice in the Old Spice Classic, the first game was a road game at Oklahoma State. For whatever reason, UC seems to play in tournaments where the home/neutral split is at most 2 to 2 Heck this past season's exempt tournament was all at home, NC State was part of the "tournament" or event.

With NC State, Nebraska, and Xavier likely slotted away from 5/3 arena, UC wasn't going to play in an event that included three or four games away from home. Right now the home versus road neutral split is 8/5, while this past season was 10/3.

(04-17-2014 03:51 PM)chatcat Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 03:32 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  That's our exempt tournament this year? Yuck.

Color me underwhelmed.

Terrible. Cronin himself set higher expectations for this. He said being a top program in the AAC would make us attractive to the "big time" exempt tournaments...Maui, Battle for Atlantis, Wooden, etc. Said being in the Big East hurt us because the exempts always wanted the "big names" 'Cuse, Ville, Georgetown, Villanova, etc. Now we'd get in the chance to be on prime time tv w/ a chance to resume build against big time teams.

We end up in a thing no one has heard of w/ little visibility (is this tournament even going to be on TV?) against either a Tier2 SEC team or a Creighton team that is decimated by graduation and will probably be bottom 1/2 of Big East. Terrible.

Works for me. Let the youngsters build up some confidence. Next year lets hope for somethin a little bigger, but relative to this year, it works nicely.

(04-17-2014 05:58 PM)mbl95 Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 03:51 PM)chatcat Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 03:32 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  That's our exempt tournament this year? Yuck.

Color me underwhelmed.

Terrible. Cronin himself set higher expectations for this. He said being a top program in the AAC would make us attractive to the "big time" exempt tournaments...Maui, Battle for Atlantis, Wooden, etc. Said being in the Big East hurt us because the exempts always wanted the "big names" 'Cuse, Ville, Georgetown, Villanova, etc. Now we'd get in the chance to be on prime time tv w/ a chance to resume build against big time teams.

We end up in a thing no one has heard of w/ little visibility (is this tournament even going to be on TV?) against either a Tier2 SEC team or a Creighton team that is decimated by graduation and will probably be bottom 1/2 of Big East. Terrible.

Most of those tournaments have their fields set at least 5 years in advance. The time we went to Maui, it was because Louisvile withdrew late in the process. I know Xavier has preseason tournaments set until 2018 at least. It's gonna take some time to get invited.

Anyone who was expecting a better exempt tournament must not have looked at the fact that all the bigger ones already had their teams selected.

UC basketball team to compete in Emerald Coast Classic

University of Cincinnati Athletics 7:28 p.m. EDT April 17, 2014


Mick Cronin says he's excited for the opportunity to play in the Emerald Coast Classic.(Photo: Joseph Fuqua II/The Cincinnati Enquirer)

The University of Cincinnati men's basketball team will compete in the inaugural Emerald Coast Classic presented by Global Sports in November.

The Bearcats will host the first two rounds at Fifth Third Arena, taking on Eastern Illinois on Nov. 23 and welcoming North Carolina Central on Nov. 25.

Cincinnati then travels to The Arena at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Fla., to compete against Middle Tennessee on Nov. 28 before facing the winner of the Creighton-Ole Miss contest on Nov. 29. All game times are still to be determined.

The event features an eight-team field overall with Northern Arizona and Southern also participating though UC will not face either team.

Cincinnati, Creighton and North Carolina Central all played in the 2014 NCAA tournament while Middle Tennessee and Southern either won or shared their respective conference regular-season titles.

"We have assembled a great field in this inaugural year of the event and we hope to make this one of the top preseason college basketball events annually," said tournament director Maury Hanks, who is also chief executive officer for Global Sports.

UC head coach Mick Cronin was named both the American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and was nominated for national coach of the year honors after guiding the Bearcats to a 27-7 overall record and a share of the American's regular-season title. The Bearcats are one of only 16 teams to advance to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four seasons.

"We are extremely excited about being in the Emerald Coast Classic this November," Cronin said. "We have been in a number of multi-team events with Global Sports in the past and I am sure that Maury and his staff will put together a tremendous event."

Global Sports has produced 25 multi-team college basketball tournaments in the past seven years with four more coming during the 2014-15 season.

Cincinnati's game against Eastern Illinois will mark the first in series history. The Bearcats are 1-0 against North Carolina Central after earning a 74-61 victory in last season's opener. UC leads its series with Middle Tennessee 3-0, including a 69-48 home win last season.

UC leads its series with Creighton 2-1 all-time, but dropped a 67-63 decision to the Blue Jays in the second round of the 2013 NCAA tournament. The Bearcats own a 1-0 lead in their series with Ole Miss.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/ucathlet...c/7845175/

I am still stunned there is a place called "Niceville" and that it is big enough to host a tournament.

(04-17-2014 08:14 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  I am still stunned there is a place called "Niceville" and that it is big enough to host a tournament.

The original name was Valparaiso, but they split with them and became "Boggy", later changed to Niceville. It is next to the huge Eglin Air Force Base, and right across the way from Fort Walton Beach and Destin.

(04-17-2014 07:29 PM)subflea Wrote:  Anyone who was expecting a better exempt tournament must not have looked at the fact that all the bigger ones already had their teams selected.

For the past 3-4 years?

(04-17-2014 08:38 PM)ctipton Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 08:14 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  I am still stunned there is a place called "Niceville" and that it is big enough to host a tournament.

The original name was Valparaiso, but they split with them and became "Boggy", later changed to Niceville. It is next to the huge Eglin Air Force Base, and right across the way from Fort Walton Beach and Destin.

Just got back from the emerald coast. Stayed about 30 miles east of destin (rosemary beach/seagrove). It is aptly named with emerald green water and white sand. Drove past Elgin on the way in and couldn't believe how big it was and some of the cool military aircraft flying in and out.

(04-17-2014 09:29 PM)Murph29 Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 08:38 PM)ctipton Wrote:  

(04-17-2014 08:14 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  I am still stunned there is a place called "Niceville" and that it is big enough to host a tournament.

The original name was Valparaiso, but they split with them and became "Boggy", later changed to Niceville. It is next to the huge Eglin Air Force Base, and right across the way from Fort Walton Beach and Destin.

Just got back from the emerald coast. Stayed about 30 miles east of destin (rosemary beach/seagrove). It is aptly named with emerald green water and white sand. Drove past Elgin on the way in and couldn't believe how big it was and some of the cool military aircraft flying in and out.

They have some beautiful beaches there.