Palm: UC could be in play for Nos. 4-5 NCAA seed
Tom Groeschen, tgroeschen@enquirer.com 11:13 a.m. EST January 25, 2015
Octavius Ellis and the Bearcats could contend for a high NCAA tournament seed, CBSSports.com bracketologist Jerry Palm says. (Photo: USA Today Sports/Aaron Doster)
The Cincinnati Bearcats are projected as a No. 9 seed for the 2015 NCAA men's basketball tournament but could rise to the Nos. 4-5 level, according to CBSSports.com bracketologist Jerry Palm.
Palm attended Saturday's Xavier-DePaul game, and Enquirer reporter Shannon Russell asked Palm about the NCAA tournament outlook for both XU and UC.
Palm on UC, which is No. 30 in Palm's RPI and 13-5 (4-2 American Athletic Conference) heading into Sunday's 2 p.m. game at UCF (9-9, 2-5 AAC):
"They've got some nice wins, especially outside the league. They beat San Diego State, who's probably going to win the Mountain West. They won at North Carolina State, which is like the ultimate home court hero.
"Duke didn't win at North Carolina State but Cincinnati did. So those are big wins. The losses – I mean, Nebraska is not that great. Memphis is not that great. But those are road games.
"If this team can beat the teams that it should and avoid the really bad losses, they're playing for an upper-half-of-the-bracket kind of a seed. If they're competitive near the top of the American this year, which they look like they're capable of that, then they've got the chance to be in the four or five range type of seed. Beyond that it's probably out of reach.
"They didn't get the big enough wins outside the league, and there aren't big enough wins inside the league to really do that. But they could be in the four or five range, especially if they win the league regular season."
Heading into Sunday, UC (4-2 AAC) stood third in the league behind Tulsa (7-0) and SMU (7-1). SMU's one league loss was to UC.
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