BET GAME PREVIEW: DEPAUL VS. CINCINNATI

March 10, 2009


The biggest Big East Tournament ever tips off today at noon in Madison Square Garden with Cincinnati, the conference's 9th seed, battling DePaul.

The expansion of the conference tournament to include all 16 teams gives the Blue Demons a chance to compete in the Garden Party despite their 0-18 conference record. Jerry Wainwright and his crew have been bad in every aspect of the game this season. They completed their 0-18 conference on Saturday evening with a 48-40 loss at Georgetown. Guard Will Walker led the way for the Blue Demons with 20 points on 9-23 shooting. In 39 minutes, Walker also added 6 steals, but zero assists. Leading scorer Dar Tucker was 3-18 from the floor and added one assist. As a team, DePaul registered three assists and big man Mac Koshwal was 1-2 from the field in 32 minutes. He did have a game-high 12 rebounds, but with Walker and Tucker gunning away from the perimeter, Koshwal goes ignored in the paint.

One month ago Cincinnati was 17-8 overall and 7-5 in the Big East. With a few solid non-conference win, the Bearcats were appearing on the right side of several 2009 NCAA Tournament bubble projections. However, losses in five of their last six, including NCAA crushing defeats to South Florida and Seton Hall last week has left the Bearcats once again limping into the post-season. Last season, UC was 8-5 in the Big East before losing their last five conference contests and closed the season on a seven-game losing streak.


Here are some pregame stories and previews on today's game:

DePaul vs Cincinnati Match-up (Chicago Tribune)
Opportunity at Hand (Cincinnati Enquirer)
Will DePaul Cure UC? (Cincinnati Enquirer)
A Victory in the Big East Would Make DePaul's Season (Chicago Tribune)

These two former Conference USA rivals met in mid-January with Cincinnati escaping with a 59-55 win at Allstate Arena. DePaul lost 16 of their 18 Big East contests by 8 points or more, so the earlier match-up with UC was one of their better chances to win.

Dar Tucker led DePaul with over 18 points a game, but Will Walker has been hot of late, scoring 51 of the Blue Demons'103 total points in the last two games. Over the course of his last 10 games, Walker is averaging 18.8 a game while connecting on 37 three's in that span.

But, after Tucker and Walker, nobody else seems to get many scoring opportunities. Six-foot-10 Mac Koshwal is seldom used in the paint, despite averaging 12.6 points and 10 rebounds a game while shooting 53% from the field.

Cincinnati comes limping into New York City as they continue to look for their first win in the conference tournament since joining the Big East. Their lone win in their last six games came against West Virginia in the emotional return of Bob Huggins to Cincinnati. However, they were unable to gain any momentum from that win as they turned around to be blown out at Syracuse just a few days later and then lost to USF and SHU to close the regular season.

Junior Deonta Vaughn is the UC leading scorer at 15 points a game and doubles as their point guard. That double duty seems to be taking a great toll on him as his scoring has dipped to just 10.5 points a game in their six-game slump.

UC did get a little healthier for the SHU game as Mike Williams returned to the line-up and added 11 points while playing 39 minutes after missing two weeks of action with a knee injury.

college basketball betting odds have UC as an 8 1/2-point favorite in the opening game. I would be surprised if there is a lot of energy in the building as neither team is likely to draw much of a crowd, so look for DePaul to stick around and put up a good fight.


NBE Blogger Prediction:

Cincinnati 61
DePaul 56