OhVarsity! Mail Truck: Volume 5

OhVarsity! Mail Truck seeks to answer all of life’s questions. Since I’m the only smart person around here, I feel that it’s my responsibility to shoulder that burden. To join in on the fun, send questions on Twitter, to OhVarsity@gmail.com, or via our Curious Cat page. Read older entries here.

Favorite thing you’ve written for OhVarsity?

That’s a tough one. I try to keep up with tagging my favorites as they’re published. If you go to ohvarsity.com/blog and look under the “Featured” section, you’ll see an updating list of things that I think are a cut above your average post-game thoughts.

Some of my favorites:

In your opinion, what’s the most underrated non conference basketball game this season?

Objectively speaking, the answer is probably Mississippi State. That game is going to be a lot tougher than people realize, especially since it’s on the road. It’s probably even less hyped than UNLV, but that should be a fun, tough game.

Personally speaking, I have a soft spot for holiday tournaments for some reason. It doesn’t make any sense. The atmosphere at these games is terrible and I feel like UC generally struggles in them. Regardless, the Thanksgiving week games are what gets me fully into the college basketball mood. The Bearcats play George Mason and either Baylor or Ole Miss this year. Looking forward to those.

When will you accept the PurdUC hybrid team America needs?

I’m assuming this was submitted by one of several sick freaks who also roots for Purdue. Yuck!

That being said, Saturday’s game counts as the most fun I’ve had watching Purdue football, and that includes the two times the Bearcats raked them over the coals. Watch Tyler Trent’s inspiring story and then watch highlights of that football game and try not to cry your eyes out.

To answer your question: Never. But the PurdUC Perverts (as I call them) will avoid my wrath this week.

Who do you want to play in a bowl game this year?

If the Bearcats can win out, they should be the highest-ranked Group of Five team, which will land them in a New Year’s Six bowl against a strong Power Five team. Obviously that’s the dream. Given that I think 11-1 is unlikely, I don’t think a New Year’s bowl is in the cards this season.

In that case, I want to play the worst bowl team possible.

This might sound weird, but it’s because I want to win as many games as possible and I want to win a bowl game. Making a statement against a name-brand team (like we did against UCLA) is great, but it’s been too long since the Bearcats have won 10 games and too long since they’ve won a bowl game.

Here are the AAC’s bowl affiliations this year, via Wikipedia:

The Birmingham Bowl versus SEC
The Gasparilla Bowl versus ACC
The Frisco Bowl versus MAC
The Military Bowl versus ACC
The Armed Forces Bowl versus Big 12
The Boca Raton Bowl versus Conference USA
The Cure Bowl versus Sun Belt

If the Bearcats wind up in the Birmingham Bowl or the Armed Forces Bowl, I won’t complain. Again, it’s always kind of nice to face a Power Five team. I still think I’d rather face the worst team possible, which probably means the Frisco Bowl or the Cure Bowl.

I really want a bowl win, preferably a blowout.

Breakout player for basketball?

I think Logan Johnson and Rashawn Fredericks will probably be the newcomers to impress the most people.

However, my choice for breakout player is Trevon Scott. He’s tee’d up to have a huge coming out party starting next month.

Scott had a redshirt year in 2015-16 where he got to learn from veteran big men like Octavius Ellis and Coreontae DeBerry. Over the course of the next two seasons, he played supporting roles on a pair of teams that combined to go 61-11 while he followed the lead (and played in the shadow of) bigs like Gary Clark and Kyle Washington.

What results is a well-seasoned player who has two years of eligibility remaining yet has experienced more winning in three seasons than most Bearcats in program history have.

Scott played just 10.5 minutes per game two seasons ago and 12.5 last season. This year you can expect that to ramp up significantly as he’ll likely be asked to be UC’s #3 star behind Cumberland and Broome. I can’t wait to see how Scott handles the increased workload, and I’m optimistic he’ll blossom.

What new feature or part of the basketball arena are you most excited about?

This is a tough one, because the overhaul is so comprehensive.

First and foremost, I’m excited about the experience as it directly relates to the game. They’ll be able to drop the lights for intros, they have a much better video board, the fans should be closer to the floor and angled to see the game better. In addition, cutting down the capacity just a bit means more sellouts and higher demand for tickets, which is a good thing. I wouldn’t want a 10,000-seat arena, but trimming down a bit in that category is good.

To a lesser extent, I’m excited for the amenities: Better food and beer, less claustrophobic foot traffic, an additional concourse on the upper level, and more natural light.

Lastly, I’m excited for the effect on perception and recruiting. A fantastic on-campus arena makes UC look good to both national media and top-100 recruits.