By: Ben Dickson
University of Cincinnati men’s basketball is a historic program hoping to recapture the greatness it once had.
An incredibly successful history features two national titles and more than 40 combined conference regular-season and tournament championships. In the last few seasons, however, the program has stumbled from its winning ways.
As Cincinnati enters a new era under head coach Wes Miller, a team filled with Cincinnati alumni hopes to jumpstart the Bearcats’ return to greatness. Going by the team name “Nasty Nati,” a group of Bearcat star alumni will make its TBT debut in 2022 in the Xavier region. Nasty Nati will not only have the opportunity to reignite the Cincinnati fanbase, but it will be able to do so right at home in Cincinnati.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It's a family reunion. 🏠<a href="https://twitter.com/thetournament?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@thetournament</a> announced today that Cincinnati's alumni team, <a href="https://twitter.com/NastyNati_TBT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NastyNati_TBT</a>, has been accepted into this year's field.<br><br>🔺 <a href="https://twitter.com/uc_shaq?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@uc_shaq</a><br>🔺 <a href="https://twitter.com/caupain10?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@caupain10</a> <br>🔺 <a href="https://twitter.com/Tay_UC2?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Tay_UC2</a> <br>🔺 <a href="https://twitter.com/DEBERRY22?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DEBERRY22</a> <br>🔺 <a href="https://twitter.com/JacobEvans_1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JacobEvans_1</a> <br>🔺 <a href="https://twitter.com/trescott13?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@trescott13</a><br>🔺 <a href="https://twitter.com/Jarron3434?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Jarron3434</a> <br><br>📝: <a href="https://t.co/3KdCsGH5uJ">https://t.co/3KdCsGH5uJ</a> <a href="https://t.co/xj6nQLyrEw">pic.twitter.com/xj6nQLyrEw</a></p>— Cincinnati Men’s Hoops (@GoBearcatsMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoBearcatsMBB/status/1519315884719882241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>“Back when I was going to Cincinnati and being from Cincinnati and being a fan, we had the reputation of Nasty Nati,” general manager Kevin Johnson said. “We was tough, we was the guys that pull up and just try to beat you down…Let’s bring some of that culture back.”
Only three and a half miles separate the Cintas Center – Xavier basketball’s home arena where Nasty Nati’s games will be played – from the University of Cincinnati campus. It will be a great opportunity for Cincinnati fans to see their university represented in a magnificent fashion.
“We play to win, that’s what Cincinnati basketball is about, and along with that, our fans are dying to see some of that good Cincinnati basketball that we’re all used to,” Johnson said.
Johnson played for Cincinnati under former head coach Mick Cronin from 2013-17. The third-most winningest player in program history – along with Sean Kilpatrick – Johnson lived through a period where Cincinnati hoops flourished. The Bearcats made the NCAA Tournament in each of Johnson’s four years and won a game in the Big Dance twice.
Recently, that winning mojo has not engulfed the city, a city that the members of Nasty Nati know should be theirs.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🚨BREAKING🚨: Cincinnati’s alumni have applied & we’ve accepted their bid for TBT 2022! <br><br>This <a href="https://twitter.com/NastyNati_TBT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NastyNati_TBT</a> roster is loaded with Cincy legends!<br><br>Catch your favorite <a href="https://twitter.com/GoBearcatsMBB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GoBearcatsMBB</a> hoopers at Xavier July 18-21!<a href="https://t.co/NdtH8fsQrQ">https://t.co/NdtH8fsQrQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/VAz12GMDLc">pic.twitter.com/VAz12GMDLc</a></p>— TBT (@thetournament) <a href="https://twitter.com/thetournament/status/1519327299824504833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>After Cronin left for UCLA, former Northern Kentucky coach John Brannen took over. His 2019-20 team won a share of the AAC regular-season title before the season was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was downhill from there. The Bearcats went 12-11 in the following coronavirus-riddled season, and on April 9, 2021, Brennan was relieved of his duties as head coach following an investigation regarding the program’s behaviors.
Miller, the former UNC Greensboro coach for 10 seasons, was hired to lead Cincinnati ahead of the 2021-22 season. Miller went 18-15 in an encouraging yet postseason-less first campaign.
Still, Miller has incorporated the alumni into his program, giving the guys that played for Cronin an open door to explain what the history of Cincinnati basketball is all about.
“Coach Miller, head coach now at UC, was just such supportive about [Nasty Nati],” Johnson said. “He’s like, ‘man, we need you guys around this program to talk culture. To get these guys to understand the importance of winning, tournament appearances and things of that nature.’”
Johnson, who works as an ESPN+ color analyst for Cincinnati basketball now that his playing days are over, is the “middle piece that connects” the 21st century of Cincinnati’s success. As the “glue guy” between the 2010s era of Cincinnati basketball, he knows the DNA that epitomizes what Nasty Nati is about.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ACCEPTED TO TBT 2022!<br><br>Catch your favorite <a href="https://twitter.com/GoBearcatsMBB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GoBearcatsMBB</a> players at Xavier July 18-21!<a href="https://t.co/NdtH8fsQrQ">https://t.co/NdtH8fsQrQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/reHopyRymg">pic.twitter.com/reHopyRymg</a></p>— TBT (@thetournament) <a href="https://twitter.com/thetournament/status/1519333098630037506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>“Me being the most-winningest, but I played with [Sean Kilpatrick], the second all-time leading scorer,” Johnson said. “Troy Caupain, leading scorer in school history and assists. Gary Clark, 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds in his career. Jarron Cumberland, top-10 scorer in school history. So we looking at this five-year span of Cincinnati basketball, and I’m sitting back and I’m saying, ‘How could we not build an all-star team?’ And for me, we are all brothers.”
Johnson has built a Nasty Nati roster that includes the likes of Caupain, Cumberland and former star Jacob Evans among others. As his team turns the infamous “C-Paw” into the “N-Paw” for TBT 2022, the timing is perfect for a team with no egos and winning aspirations.
Just ask Coreontae DeBerry, the only player from TBT 2018’s Bearcat Jam team, which was the first rendition of Cincinnati basketball in the tournament. It was a short stay for Bearcat Jam, getting embarrassed by the Matadors, a Texas Tech alumni team, in the first round, 80-63. DeBerry, who was Bearcat Jam’s leading scorer with 13 points, is the only returning member from that squad.
“We just couldn’t make it happen, but definitely redemption from that year,” DeBerry said when comparing the two teams. “Just bigger, better, stronger.”
DeBerry, who played for Cincinnati from 2014-16, admitted that it was not an ideal performance in 2018. Bearcat Jam, led by former Cincy great Melvin “The Helicopter” Levett, featured some players from the late 2000s to the early 2010s in Yancy Gates and Cashmere Wright, but last-minute roster dropouts made it arduous to put together the perfect ballclub.
The majority of players who will suit up for Nasty Nati this summer were just getting their post-college lives together in 2018, and it would have been difficult to make the commitment to Bearcat Jam. Four years later, Johnson says the timing for Nasty Nati could not be any better.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This <a href="https://twitter.com/NastyNati_TBT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NastyNati_TBT</a> roster is STACKED with Cincy legends 🐾 <br> <br>⛔️ <a href="https://twitter.com/uc_shaq?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@uc_shaq</a> <br>⛔️ <a href="https://twitter.com/caupain10?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@caupain10</a><br>⛔️ <a href="https://twitter.com/Tay_UC2?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Tay_UC2</a><br>⛔️ <a href="https://twitter.com/DEBERRY22?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DEBERRY22</a><br>⛔️ <a href="https://twitter.com/JacobEvans_1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JacobEvans_1</a><br>⛔️ <a href="https://twitter.com/trescott13?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@trescott13</a><br>⛔️ <a href="https://twitter.com/Jarron3434?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Jarron3434</a> <a href="https://t.co/I4hzdAH9Zi">pic.twitter.com/I4hzdAH9Zi</a></p>— TBT (@thetournament) <a href="https://twitter.com/thetournament/status/1519339694168891392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>With players who have made impacts in the NBA G League and overseas, Nasty Nati expects to bring defense, grit, toughness and rebounding that has historically been associated with Cincinnati basketball.
“It’s very special,” DeBerry said. “I knew we was going to do it at some point, it was a matter of when. And I feel like this summer’s the perfect time to do it, and I’m very excited that the University of Cincinnati has our support.”
Nasty Nati knows that a successful showing can help Miller with recruiting and other aspects that will build the program back to prominence. The redemption arc from 2018 to now adds another storyline for a tournament that already has $1 million on the line, but it doesn’t end there.
“You know we feel some type of way about that…so now that got the engine revving,” Johnson said. “It’s redemption time…even with us and Xavier.”
Within the Xavier region, Nasty Nati will perhaps have a chance to meet up with Xavier alumni team Zip ‘Em Up in a TBT version of the “Crosstown Shootout.” A college basketball rivalry matchup that dates back to 1927, Cincinnati leads the all-time series, 51-38. Johnson, among some of the other players on Nasty Nati, unfortunately caught the brunt of the losing column more times than not.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🐾HEAD COACH INTERVIEW🐾 <a href="https://twitter.com/GoBearcatsMBB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GoBearcatsMBB</a> Head Coach, <a href="https://twitter.com/CoachWesMiller?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CoachWesMiller</a>, is LIVE on <a href="https://twitter.com/InsideTbt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@InsideTBT</a> talking about TBT heading to Cincinnati this summer, the importance of alumni and <a href="https://twitter.com/NastyNati_TBT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NastyNati_TBT</a>‼️🔥🏀 <a href="https://t.co/U9rnST0L5Y">https://t.co/U9rnST0L5Y</a></p>— TBT (@thetournament) <a href="https://twitter.com/thetournament/status/1519345626382618624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>The Nasty Nati GM recalls going 1-4 against Xavier in his college career, a stat his team wants to change this summer. It is something that DeBerry has not shied away from, either.
“The Crosstown Shootout, that’s the classic,” DeBerry said. “…Every time we have to go face-to-face with Xavier, it’s always going to be a dogfight. We look forward to that. We have talked about that a little bit in our group chat, so that’s something that we do have in the back of our mind.”
In addition to Xavier, Johnson also sees TBT as a golden opportunity to claim that Cincinnati is the best program in Ohio. Johnson never got the chance to play Ohio State, Ohio or Dayton in college. Carmen’s Crew (Ohio State alumni), Ohio 1804 (Ohio Alumni) and Red Scare (Dayton alumni) will also all be in the Xavier region, so there are certainly “bragging rights” on the line.
Regardless of the potential matchups, there are plenty of factors that may go into making TBT 2022 successful for Nasty Nati. The resounding sentiment, though, is to bring back what Cincinnati basketball is all about.
With some of the best talent and toughness in the entire tournament, Nasty Nati will be difficult to deny this summer. Johnson reflects back to the Bearcats that played at the turn of the 21st century, from Kenny Satterfield to Kenyon Martin to Steve Logan. Those players instilled the foundation of fortitude leading to consistent winning and ultimately championships.
It is imperative for each Cincinnati alumnus that suits up in a Nasty Nati uniform that history prevails, and if it does, it could lead to something much more substantial than a TBT title. It could be the structure that puts one of college basketball’s greatest programs back on the map, too.
“I think people better be ready,” Johnson said. “We coming to compete, and we coming to win. We coming to stamp Ohio to say that we are the best thing out of here. As long as that’s known, I think we’ll be fine.”