Two former Big East rivals meet Tuesday for the first time since 2013 when Cincinnati takes on DePaul in a first-round game of the inaugural College Basketball Crown tournament in Las Vegas.
The Bearcats (18-15) qualified for the unique tournament as one of two automatic bids for Big 12 teams not selected for the NCAA Tournament. Cincinnati last played on March 12 in a 76-56 Big 12 tournament second-round loss to Iowa State.
The underdog Blue Demons (14-19) are coached by Chris Holtmann in his first year in Chicago. DePaul last played on March 13, losing an 85-81 double-overtime battle with No. 2-seeded Creighton in the Big East tournament.
The Cincinnati-DePaul winner advances to play Thursday night against the winner of the Oregon State-UCF contest.
The Crown champion school will receive $300,000 in NIL earnings while the runner-up receives $100,000. The other semifinalists receive $50,000 apiece. The first two rounds will be played at the MGM Grand Garden Arena before moving to the larger T-Mobile Arena.
The Bearcats were anticipated to make a run at the NCAA Tournament under fourth-year coach Wes Miller. But a 2-8 start in Big 12 play doomed their chances and they could never string together enough wins at the end of the season to impress the selection committee.
In its 20-point loss to Iowa State, Cincinnati was plagued by the same issues they struggled with all season — physicality in the paint and rebounding. The Bearcats were outrebounded 41-23 and outscored in the paint by a 36-16 margin.
“The teams that are in the top half of this league, it’s a different deal,” Miller said. “That’s where we expect to be. So there is just one example. We have to make sure that we have the right level of size and physicality when we put lineups out on the court.”
Jizzle James, who hit double figures in 11 of his last 12 games, led Cincinnati in scoring (12.8 ppg) and assists (3.6 apg) to earn all-Big 12 honorable mention status. Dillon Mitchell led Cincinnati down the stretch, including an 18-point, 15-rebound effort in a win over Oklahoma State in the first round of the Big 12 tourney. Josh Reed also had 19 points in that first-round win.
DePaul was chosen as one of 10 at-large selections to The Crown to claim its first postseason bid since 2019 — when the Blue Demons lost to South Florida in the College Basketball Invitational finals.
Despite losing point guard Conor Enright to shoulder surgery and center David Skogman to foot woes, DePaul won three of its last four games and set the school single-season record with 309 3-pointers.
“We are really looking forward to continuing our season in the postseason,” Holtmann said. “Our team really grew and evolved throughout the season and weathered some tough injuries. We truly felt like we were playing our best basketball in the past month, so continuing to play is exciting.”
