Cincinnati picked 4th in the American

The American media released the preseason AAC poll for the 2014-15 season. Cincinnati was predicted to finish 4th. The Bearcats are behind the National Champion Connecticut Huskies, SMU and Memphis. That’s really no surprise. UConn and SMU are thought of to be two top 30 or so teams this season. Memphis has the best returning front court in the league with Austin Nichols and Shaq Goodwin. Cincinnati has a ton of young pieces that we haven’t seen in action yet. The highest ranked newcomer was Tulsa at number 5. The other two, East Carolina and Tulane, were picked 10 and 11.

What was kind of curious were that no Bearcats made either of the all-conference preseason teams. Ryan Boatright was your preseason player of the year. UConn also has the rookie of the year in Daniel Hamilton. Neither one of those is a major surprise.

USF had two players make the second team, though. Maybe their only two good players for this season. Forward Chris Perry and guard Anthony Collins made the team. Perry was good as a freshman. Collins barely played at all last year and I’m surprised he made the team. The second team was made up of two players from USF and two players from Temple. Take that for what it’s worth.

Here is the AAC blurb about Cincinnati, followed by the conference predictions and the all-conference teams.

Cincinnati was fourth in the preseason poll with 71 points. The Bearcats, who tied for the American Athletic Conference regular-season title last year, look for their fifth straight NCAA tournament appearance, but will do so without All-America guard Sean Kilpatrick, who is one of three starters lost from last year. Head coach Mick Cronin will rely on forward Shaquille Thomas, who averaged 6.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game last year and is the top returning scorer.