AAC Basketball

The Memphis Tigers finished in fifth place in the American Athletic Conference and missed the NCAA men's basketball tournament in Penny Hardaway's first season, but the head coach is not shy about where he thinks his team will end up in 2019-20.

He told Dana O'Neil of The Athletic:

"What do I know? I know when I have something special. When I see this group in action, see their abilities, I know what's at stake and I know what's out there. The teams like Michigan State, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, all the usual suspects. I've studied the film. I know who they are, but when I look at this group, I just say to myself, 'We're going to win a national championship.' That's what I know."

Even though it missed out on the Big Dance, Memphis made strides at the end of last season and won six of its final eight games before the NIT. The two losses were by a combined five points to nationally ranked foes Cincinnati and Houston.

But the momentum from the end of Hardaway's first campaign is not why the head coach is so confident.

He landed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country for the 2019 cycle, per 247Sports' composite rankings. It features 5-star players in big man James Wiseman and forward Precious Achiuwa and 4-star players in guards Boogie Ellis, Damion Baugh and Lester Quinones, forward DJ Jeffries, and center Malcolm Dandridge.

"If five freshmen earn those spots, I would have no problem with it," Hardaway said when discussing his potential starting lineup with reporters last week. "It's just [going to come down to] who is going to be the best at that position for us to win. ... They're going to battle it out in practice. And if it's five freshmen [who end up starting], I don't have a problem with that."

The NBA could be in the immediate future of some of the youngsters, especially Wiseman. The window for a championship is now, so there's a sense of urgency even though this is just Hardaway's second season at the helm.

The Tigers will be tested by nonconference games against Oregon, Ole Miss, North Carolina State, Tennessee and Georgia, and they will hope to round into form by March.

Only then can they deliver on Hardaway’s expectations.

The NCAA has handed down sanctions against the Connecticut's men's basketball program for violating responsibility rules. 

Per Stacey Osburn of NCAA.com, former head basketball coach Kevin Ollie received a three-year show-cause order that will "restrict him from any athletically related duties" if he is hired by a new school "unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply."

Additional penalties for the basketball team include two years of probation, the vacating of records from the period in which ineligible student-athletes played in games and a reduction in scholarships from 13 to 12 for the 2019-20 academic year. 

Connecticut fired Ollie in March 2018 after investigations by the school and NCAA found him in violation of multiple rules, including working with an outside trainer in Atlanta and on campus, an impermissible phone call between a recruit and Ray Allen, and an Ollie shootaround with a recruit on an official visit. 

In February, a federal judge dismissed Ollie's lawsuit against the university in which he alleged his firing was the result of racial discrimination. Both parties are also engaged in a salary-arbitration dispute over the $10 million remaining on Ollie's deal at the time he was fired. 

Ollie was hired as UConn's basketball coach in September 2012 after Jim Calhoun retired. The 46-year-old went 127-79 in six seasons with the Huskies and won a national title in 2013-14. 

After withdrawing his name from the 2019 NBA draft, Quentin Grimes will play college basketball for the Houston Cougars beginning with the 2020-21 season. 

Per Fox 26's Mark Berman, Grimes announced his decision to transfer to the Cougars on Thursday.

Grimes has had a whirlwind couple of months since the end of his freshman season at Kansas. He was one of four Jayhawks players to declare for this year's NBA draft. 

An inconsistent first year in college certainly hurt Grimes' stock heading to the pros. The Texas native arrived in Lawrence with high expectations as a 5-star prospect and No. 10 overall recruit in the 2018 class, per 247Sports. 

In 36 games with the Jayhawks, Grimes averaged just 8.4 points and 2.5 rebounds while shooting 38.4 percent from the field. Head coach Bill Self announced Grimes entered the transfer portal after going through the predraft process and decided to return to college. 

Grimes told reporters during the NBA scouting combine he was keeping all of his options open before making any formal announcement about his plans:

No decision yet for ⁦@qdotgrimes⁩. Tried to get him to say something critical of @CoachBillSelf. Didn’t happen. All love. ⁦@KUHoops⁩ pic.twitter.com/dE0ceJtFrd

— Mark Carman (@thecarm) May 16, 2019

It was hardly a surprise to see Grimes go back to school to refine his game. B/R's Jonathan Wasserman didn't have him ranked among the top 50 draft prospects following the scouting combine. 

The only downside for Grimes is transferring will force him to sit out for a year before he's able to get back on the court. He will be 20 years old when the 2020-21 season begins. 

Despite the long wait to return to competitive action, the Cougars will provide Grimes with an opportunity to showcase his talent in a way he didn't feel was going to happen at Kansas. He's still a young man loaded with potential. 

If Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson is able to work with Grimes and unlock his talent, Houston will have a potential superstar on its hands for at least one season.   

The Big East has officially extended an invitation for UConn to rejoin the conference after presidents from each of the league's schools voted in favor of the move Monday, according to Jeff Borzello of ESPN. 

Connecticut is expected to accept the offer at a Board of Trustees meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

The school could then announce the move, which would affect every sport but football, on Thursday.

Mike Anthony and Dan Brechlin of the Hartford Courant first reported the likely move, noting the athletic department suffered a $41 million loss across all sports in 2018.

UConn was a founding member of the Big East conference in 1979 but joined the American Athletic Conference during its creation in 2013. However, the move back could lead to an ugly divorce that includes a $10 million exit fee.

"I'd be surprised if this ends pretty," a source told Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. "... [The Huskies] never fully embraced the American."

The league's bylaws require 27 months notice before leaving, but the school is expected to be a full part of the Big East by 2020-21.

The men's basketball team will be the 11th member of the conference, reuniting with rivals such as Georgetown, Villanova and St. John's. The women's basketball team will also benefit from the change, and head coach Geno Auriemma reportedly pushed for the move.

On the other hand, there is a significant question mark about the football team going forward. The Big East doesn't carry the sport, and the AAC likely won't allow the team to remain in the conference.

The Connecticut Huskies could return to the Big East in 2020 and leave the American Athletic Conference.

According to Stadium's Brett McMurphy, the fate of Connecticut's football team is unclear since the Big East doesn't extend to the sport.

As Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel wrote, aligning with the Big East makes sense for UConn from a basketball perspective:

"The Huskies lost their geographic relevance in basketball by leaving the Big East, as organic rivals like Providence, St. John’s and Syracuse were replaced by strangers like Tulane, East Carolina and Memphis. Passion has been replaced by apathy, as once-teeming arenas became filled with empty seats and a once-rabid fan base has turned ambivalent."

The Huskies' men's team was the national champion in 2014, its first year in the AAC. Since then, UConn has one NCAA tournament appearance. Fans were voting with their feet as the basketball team saw a drop in attendance toward the end of the Kevin Ollie era, which ended in 2018 after six seasons.

The impact is evident for the women's team as well. Despite a 31-2 regular season, the Huskies were a No. 2 seed in the 2019 tournament in large part because they faced so little competition in the AAC.

Some also noted how the AAC's new television deal with ESPN left UConn as a clear loser as it made Huskies games harder to watch for fans, which limits the exposure to potential recruits as well.

Of course, the Huskies football team remains a big question mark. McMurphy reported they could move into another conference or become independent. Thamel added going the independent route "would likely end up as UConn's best option."

According to the Hartford Courant's Mike Anthony, scrapping football altogether is a nonstarter at the moment.

However, this could increase calls for Connecticut to seriously consider the future of its football team, or at the very least ponder a drop down to the FCS level. The athletic department had a roughly $40.5 million deficit in 2018, with football losing $8.7 million.

University president Thomas Katsouleas told reporters in February that he is in favor of keeping football around.

"Yes, I'm committed to football," he said. "I think it's part of the identity of who we are as a major, broad-context university and I don't think the savings from cutting it are as great as people think. In fact, it has ancillary value for the other sports and for fundraising overall."

Shifting to the Big East, however, would signal Connecticut is prioritizing success on the hardwood over growth on the gridiron.

CHICAGO — Katie Lou Samuelson knew what kind of question was coming before it was asked. The four young men approached her after watching her workout on a court near her family's home in Orange County, California. If they knew her name, they didn't say it. Instead, one shouted, "Yo!" as they walked over. And then he asked: "Would you play my friend for $100? We have a bet to see if you could beat him."

Samuelson sighed. The truth was that part of her did want to say yes. She'd been the No. 1 recruit in her high school class. She'd been a four-year starter at UConn, the most successful college sports program this century. And just the week before, she'd been selected fourth overall in the WNBA draft. She believed she'd beat any of them easily. But she knew that the small satisfaction—a hundred bucks and bragging rights—wasn't worth the big risk.

Samuelson had left Storrs, Connecticut, with scars. She had broken her foot as a freshman, sprained her ankle so severely it required offseason surgery as a junior and injured her back a few weeks before the NCAA tournament as a senior. And she had also left Storrs without something she wanted desperately: a ring from a championship game she played in. So when the men pressed her for an explanation as to why she wouldn't play, she clapped back.

"I'm sure they assumed that I walked away because I thought I would have lost," she says now. "But I told them it would be a waste of my time. I have professional basketball to play."

---

Katie Lou Samuelson's first basketball objective was basic: She wanted to be better than her sisters. Their father, Jon, had played college basketball at Cal State Fullerton and professional basketball for a brief stint in Europe. Their mother, Karen, had made the All-England netball team. (Netball is based on basketball in its original form and played without a backboard.) They wanted their daughters to try other sports, but they soon discovered that only basketball would stick. So when Katie—the youngest—came along, she got to skip soccer and swimming and head straight for the hardwood.

Jon drove the girls to courts across the county at all hours of the day. They dribbled and defended and shot at churches and rec centers and colleges. Some days, they'd each put up a couple hundred shots in the predawn light before school. Some days, they'd do conditioning drills in the evenings after their teams' practices had ended. When they played two-on-two, it'd be Katie Lou and Jon against Bonnie and Karlie. And for a while, Katie Lou figured that was because her older sisters were that much better than her.

Then, when she was in middle school and playing for a club team composed of high school upperclassmen, her coach, Russ Davis, pulled her aside after a practice. Davis told her she could be better than Bonnie and Karlie. "Once I heard that, it was go time," she says. "Until that moment, I never thought about being better than them. But as soon as I heard that I could be better than them, I knew I had to be. I had to be the best."

Being the best in this family was no easy task. Bonnie left Stanford in 2015 with the third-most three-pointers made (237) in school history. Karlie eventually passed Bonnie with 249 career threes at the same school and joined the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. But Katie Lou separated herself starting in high school, leading Mater Dei to three straight Trinity League championships. At 6'3" and with a killer three-point shot, she was a positionless problem for any opposing defense. As a senior, she won the Naismith Trophy and was named National Player of the Year by Gatorade, McDonald's, USA Today and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. And she surprised the recruiting world when she passed on the chance to play with Karlie at Stanford and committed to UConn.

"I hated that people assumed I was going there," she says. "When people talked to me, they would say, 'Oh, you're just going to Stanford, right?' And I would be like, 'No, I'm not just going to go to Stanford.'"

She skipped her high school graduation to start summer practices in Storrs. And she soon learned what all Geno Auriemma's freshmen find out—that being the best in high school doesn't mean much at UConn. In practices, she battled with Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck, who were selected first, second and third, respectively, in the 2016 WNBA draft. And Auriemma learned that the best way to push her was by pissing her off. If she missed a shot, he announced she was done for the day. When she struggled, he wondered aloud if he'd recruited the wrong Samuelson sister.

"I have to admit it worked," Samuelson says. "After Coach would say something, I'd go through the next drill and hit every single shot. No matter what you do, he always won. If you did well, he won. If you did bad, he won. It was the worst."

To make it through that long fall, Samuelson and her roommate, Napheesa Collier (a forward with the Huskies at the time), made a rule never to talk about basketball outside of practices and games. Instead, they spent hours studying YouTube dance routines, like "Bet You Can't Do It Like Me." "I started playing better," Samuelson says, "when I started dancing."

Unfortunately for her, the music stopped in the Final Four.

---

When she felt the pop, Samuelson was relieved. She thought she'd cracked a knuckle. For a few weeks in the spring of 2016, as UConn was making a push toward its fourth straight national championship, Samuelson had been slowed by pain in her left foot. On the first play of her first Final Four game, against Oregon State, she felt that pop and then felt like she had a rock in her shoe. At halftime, she told teammate Gabby Williams that she'd either had the best knuckle pop of her life or she'd just broken her foot.

When the trainer put her MRI scan against the light, Katie Lou could see the crack right away. She hoped no one else would. When they did, she asked if she could play anyway. They told her she couldn't. But she didn't worry because even though she had become a starter and a critical component of the team, she was confident UConn would win the national championship without her. And when she climbed the ladder in her boot two days later, she was proud to have been proved right. "It wasn't crazy devastating," she says. "I assumed we would get back to another championship game."

The Final Four exit in her sophomore year hurt the most. The storyline all week in Dallas was a potential matchup between Katie Lou's Huskies and Karlie's Stanford Cardinal in the national championship game. Instead, Katie Lou watched from the stands as Karlie got hurt in Stanford's loss in the first semifinal to South Carolina; and then her UConn team suffered a painful overtime defeat at the hands of Mississippi State. The next day, her family was exploring the infamous grassy knoll when a UConn fan bus spotted Katie Lou and asked her to come on board and say hello. She got through "thank you" before bursting into tears.

In January of her junior year, she sprained her left ankle so severely that she eventually needed four screws in an offseason surgery. In March of her senior year, she collided with a Houston defender, causing her to miss the AAC tournament. In both seasons, the Huskies were again eliminated a game short of the national championship. She left UConn as a top-10 player in career points, scoring average, field goals made, three-pointers made and three-point percentage.

She also left UConn in a hurry: The WNBA draft took place five days after the Huskies' elimination. (At the event, she even got a shoutout from Larry Bird, her favorite player, and the reason why she wears No. 33.) Selected fourth overall by the Chicago Sky, she had to miss her UConn graduation to attend training camp in Chicago. The lack of a layover has helped her compartmentalize the losses and focus on moving forward.

"I still won a national championship," she says. "I still count that completely. I don't discredit that at all. I'm not here sulking and pouting that we didn't win another championship. I know what I put in every year, and I know what my team did. We put ourselves in great positions. We came up short. I would have wanted to win a national championship when I played. But not everything works out perfectly."

Samuelson's new coach in Chicago, James Wade, is also the team's general manager. He was brought in this offseason to instill a winning culture in a wayward franchise, and he drafted Samuelson a few picks higher than many experts predicted in part because of her near-misses on the national stage.

"She has a chip on her shoulder," Wade says. "The team that she first played with won four national championships, and she went against players who were drafted 1-2-3. Right away she had that pressure, and she dealt with it. They weren't able to win it, but they were a dominating team. It never knocked her off her stride. She was a winner. She was a competitor. She was a smart player. We knew we had to have her."

Before she left the greenroom on draft night, Samuelson got a call from Gabby Williams, her former teammate at UConn and the Sky's selection at No. 4 in the 2018 draft. They had been suitemates in Storrs, and they talked about what they'd get to do as roommates in Chicago—build puzzles and watch The Office on Williams' new big-screen TV. They also talked about wanting to win titles that they missed out on together at UConn. Williams had no doubt that Samuelson would be part of their new team's turnaround.

"Lou is as tough as they come," Williams says. "She played with her ankle on a string. She played with a broken back. She'll carry those losses with her. I still carry my two. But it won't derail her career. She'll win championships here and overseas."

---

Samuelson started training camp with the Sky the first week of May, and Wade liked what he saw right away. For her first three seasons in Connecticut, Samuelson was primarily known as a shooter. Her career three-point percentage (41.5) justified that reputation. But when the Huskies needed rebounding her senior year, she rose to the occasion and snagged 6.3 a game. Wade envisioned her playing either role in the pick-and-roll and fitting in anywhere from 2 to 4 on the floor.

"She gives us an added dimension we didn't have," Wade says. "I felt like if we had taken a player from another position, it would have been a position we had. It probably would have stunted the growth of that young player. In order for all our players to grow, including her, she was the best fit."

But shortly after practice started, Wade was concerned. "I coached her for 15 minutes," he says. "The second time I saw her, she had this big eye. I was like, 'She did not come to camp this way.' I asked her: 'What the hell happened to your face?'"

Before she'd even started sweating as a professional basketball player, Samuelson had defended teammate Diamond DeShields as she went in for a layup. On the play, Samuelson took DeShields' wrist—and her Fitbit—to the face. As Samuelson finished practicing, her eye grew big and black. Afterward, with pride, she took a selfie to show off her first battle wound as a professional player. For Katie Lou Samuelson, playing through pain is part of the game.

Precious Achiuwa is headed to Memphis after the 2019 prospect announced his commitment on Friday:

Breaking: ESPN 100's No. 17 recruit Precious Achiuwa tells @PaulBiancardi that he will be joining Memphis. pic.twitter.com/bVxzcGN7Vu

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 17, 2019

According to 247Sports, Achiuwa is a 5-star prospect ranked No. 14 overall in the country. He is considered the fourth-best small forward in the 2019 class.

The biggest reason for this lofty rating is his athleticism, with the ability to attack the basket and finish well above the rim. He has good enough handle to slash through the lane offensively, and there won't be many players at the college level who can contain him once he gets momentum.

"Some people say Rudy Gay," former coach Oz Cross said as a comparison, per Adam Zagoria of Zags Blog. "He's so long he's got such great upside.

"His ball-handling, shooting, passing and defense have improved tremendously since I first saw him play. He's a self-motivated kid so I expect him to make another jump. If he makes that jump and then he will be playing basketball for a long time."

His dunking might remind people of Zion Williamson, although he is not quite as strong at 6'9", 215 pounds. Still, he has enough strength to be a true 3 at the highest level of the sport.

With a developing outside shot, Achiuwa can be an almost unstoppable force on the offensive end.

He gave a brief preview of his skill at the McDonald's All-American Game when he scored a game-high 22 points to go with nine rebounds.

Although his brother, Gods'gift Achiuwa, was a quality player for St. John's from 2011-14, the younger sibling is clearly the superior talent and can make an early impact once he gets to college.

Memphis is coming off a solid first season under head coach Penny Hardaway with a 22-14 record, although the team fell short of the NCAA tournament. With most of the rotation graduating, there would ordinarily be some concern about next season.

However, the future is bright after already landing a commitment from No. 1 overall recruit James Wiseman. The team then added Boogie Ellis, DJ Jeffries and Lester Quinones among others to create one of the top recruiting classes in the country.

With Achiuwa now on board, next year's freshman class can legitimately carry the team to national title contention, similar to Duke and Kentucky over the past decade.

The Tigers have gone five years without reaching the Big Dance, but that should change in 2019-20.

Boogie Ellis, who is the No. 37 overall prospect and the No. 6 combo guard in the 247Sports' Composite Rankings for the 2019 class, has committed to Memphis:

110% committed NEXT CHAPTER #GTG 🐆 pic.twitter.com/WiPNwfyBNi

— Boogie Ellis (@BoogieEllis) May 13, 2019

The 4-star guard out of Mission Bay High School in San Diego signed with Duke on Nov. 9 but was granted his release from the Blue Devils on May 2, according to Evan Daniels of 247Sports. 

Ellis wrote the following regarding the decision, per Michael Model of the Duke Chronicle:

"I would like to thank Duke University and the coaching staff for recruiting me," Ellis stated. "However, after much thought and discussion with my family, I have decided to ask for my release and re-open my recruitment."

It's unclear why Ellis specifically decided to move on from Duke, but the Blue Devil backcourt would have been crowded with him in the mix.

Namely, point guard Tre Jones announced on April 8 that would be returning for his sophomore year. He'll almost certainly return to his starting role, and 4-star 6'5" shooting guard Cassius Stanley will likely join him to form Duke's starting backcourt.

Therefore, Ellis was best served to head to a school where he could carve out more playing time.

Teams naturally lined up to recruit Ellis shortly after the choice to leave Duke, per Adam Zagoria of Sportsnet New York:

Washington, Georgetown, Virginia, Arizona, Oregon, Gonzaga, Kansas,memphis, UCLA and Vanderbilt have all reached out on Boogie Ellis

— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) May 2, 2019

247Sports' Director of College Basketball Scouting Jerry Meyer offered the following scouting report and provided a pro comparison to Orlando Magic floor general D.J. Augustin:

"Has average size for a point guard. Possesses quickness and slick ball handling. Can penetrate and make plays but greatest strength is shooting. Proficient from deep and in mid-range off the dribble and the catch. Capable of hounding the ball as an on-the-ball defender. Alert to snagging rebounds and quick to loose balls. All-around solid guard with NBA talent."

Ultimately, Duke's loss is Memphis' gain, as the Tigers bolstered what is already a promising recruiting class.

He will join center James Wiseman, power forward DJ Jeffries, shooting guard Lester Quinones, center Malcolm Dandridge and combo guard Damion Baugh. According to 247Sports, Wiseman is a 5-star prospect and the rest are 4-star players.

What's more, 3-star graduate transfer guard Rayjon Tucker is immediately eligible to play.

Memphis was just 22-14 and failed to reach the NCAA tournament in head coach Penny Hardaway's first season, but it hired him with this type of recruiting in mind. 

The Tigers figure to be national contenders and a frequent presence in the Top 25 rankings throughout the season on the back of this recruiting class, and Ellis gives them yet another piece to work with as they look to win the American Athletic Conference and re-establish themselves as Final Four threats. 

The Cincinnati Bearcats hired John Brannen to replace Mick Cronin, the school announced Sunday.

Brannen spent the last four seasons with the Northern Kentucky Norse. He compiled an 81-51 overall record and guided the Norse to NCAA tournament appearances in 2017 and 2019.

Cronin leaves big shoes to fill. The Bearcats are coming off their ninth straight NCAA tournament appearance, and they won 30, 31 and 28 games over each of the last three years. Some fans might have been frustrated with the team getting out of the second round just once under Cronin, but he brought a level of stability and consistency to the program.

Brannen will be expected not only to maintain that level of success but also likely take Cincinnati a step forward.

As much as the school has accomplished, playing in the American Athletic Conference puts a ceiling on the caliber of coaches it can realistically attract. Brannen's hiring is arguably evidence of that fact.

South Carolina head coach Frank Martin was linked with the vacancy, but he told Stadium's Jeff Goodman he didn't plan on formally interviewing with Cincinnati. While hiring Martin would've been a home run, the odds he'd leave South Carolina for the Bearcats always seemed slim.

Fans shouldn't discount Brannen's track record, though. When he arrived at Northern Kentucky, the program was entering its fourth season of Division I basketball. In his second year, the Norse became one of the Horizon League's best teams.

Brannen will benefit from a roster that should once again have Cincinnati in the Top 25 conversation in 2019-20. Although Cane Broome and Justin Jenifer will graduate, the Bearcats' top three scorers return, including AAC Player of the Year Jarron Cumberland, who averaged 18.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists.

And with so few players leaving, Brannen won't need to spend too much time scrambling to put together a 2019 recruiting class. Samari Curtis is the No. 162 player overall, per 247Sports' composite rankings, and already signed his letter of intent.

Brannen and his staff can instead focus more of their efforts toward 2020, when it will be much more important to ensure a steady flow of talent is arriving on campus.

Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach Nick Van Exel is interested in the Cincinnati Bearcats' vacant head-coaching position after Mick Cronin left for UCLA on Tuesday, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Van Exel played two seasons at Cincinnati from 1991 to 1993. He helped guide the Bearcats to the 1992 Final Four, where they fell to the Michigan Wolverines' iconic Fab Five. They made it to the Elite Eight the next year before being knocked out by eventual national champion North Carolina.

Van Exel earned third-team All-American honors as a senior in 1992-93, averaging 18.3 points and 4.5 assists while leading his team to a 27-5 record.

He was inducted into the University of Cincinnati's Hall of Fame in 2018.

Van Exel was a second-round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1993 and played 13 seasons in the NBA with six franchises, averaging 14.4 points per game. He was named to the All-Rookie second team in 1994 and earned an All-Star selection in 1998.

The 47-year-old has spent the last decade gaining coaching experience at the college level, in the NBA and in the G League. He went 23-27 as the head coach of the G League's Texas Legends in 2015-16. He has been an assistant in Memphis since 2016.

Van Exel spoke to Pete Pranica of NBA.com in June 2016 about what motivates him to coach:

"The drive and the competitiveness is, when you're teaching a player something and they go out there and do what you were working on, that's the gratification for me. That's my thrill right now. When you're sitting there busting a player in practice or in the summertime and you see them improving and getting better, that's kind of my drive. That's what gets me pumped up."

This marks the first time since 2006 that the Cincinnati job has become available. Cronin spent 13 years as the head coach at UC, going 296-147 while leading the program to nine consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.

The Bearcats went 28-7 this season and won the American Athletic Conference tournament title. As a No. 7 seed, they were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tournament by 10th-seeded Iowa.