BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: Cincinnati @ Rutgers

February 10, 2007


The battle at the bottom of the Big East takes place on Saturday when Cincinnati travels to meet Rutgers. Earlier this season, Rutgers came out on top with a 12-point win at Cincinnati, one of their only two conference victories.

Cincinnati is coming of a disheartening loss at Providence where they completely collapsed in every imagineable way in blowing an 8-point lead in the last 1:41 to lose 71-70. Cincinnati has lost a 5-pt lead in the last 30 seconds to UAB and a 3-pt lead in the last 35 seconds to Syracuse to add to a frustrating season. Poor foul shooting and tale game decisions doom the Bearcats in each situation. There was no excuse on Tuesday night as they had fouls to give and three time outs remaining in the last two minutes and still fell apart.

Rutgers battled hard last weekend but came up short in overtime at Connecticut, even while playing without leading scorer and rebounder JR Inman. Neither team is very profecient at shooting the ball, so scoring will likely be at a premium. Cincinnati has the athletes, but Rutgers has a little bit more experience and a little bit more depth. At home, the Scarlet Knights need to win this game, but it should be a tight one, and the way Cincinnati finishes games, you have to like the chances of Rutgers.

NBE Blogger Prediction: Rutgers 66 Cincinnati 63