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When Cincinnati and Louisville square off for the Big East title, the game will be won in the paint. That will work in the favor of the Bearcats, who will claim the conference title.
It is physically painful just watching the Bearcats play. They have an incredibly physical style that works beautifully in the Big East. There is absolutely nothing fancy about watching them play, but Cincinnati sure is effective.
It all starts with Yancy Gates. The 6'9", 260-pound senior is just an impossible matchup down below. In the modern game of college basketball, you can count the amount of players that can stand up to him on one hand.
In their semifinal game, there were times when Syracuse couldn't stand up to Gates. Just to refresh your memory, the Orange came into that game 31-1 and will easily be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Gates dominated that team; he will do the same against the Cardinals.
But Gates is not the only reason that Cincinnati will win this game. The Bearcats just have an incredible toughness that works incredibly well in the Big East, especially in the conference tournament.
Gates is the team's leading rebounder, which is expected. What's not expected is that the team's next best two players on the glass, Jaquon Parker and Sean Kilpatrick, are both guards. Even the little guys on the floor play gritty and tough basketball.
You can't really match up with a team like that. In the Big East, you win by dominating the inside. Other conferences have better guards, but the nature of this conference is that everything shifts to the inside.
When it goes there, the Bearcats will just be too much to deal with. Even their guards play well on the inside, and it's based around a player who's completely physically dominant. That will be too much to overcome in this conference.
While we're on the subject, if Cincinnati faces teams that don't shoot well in the NCAA, they're going to go a long way. But the Cardinals don't, as they are not even in the Top 200 in the country in shooting percentage. That is going to make them too reliant on winning on the inside, which won't be done against this team.
Prediction: Cincinnati 62, Louisville 55
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