Williams' inbox: Annual NCAA Tournament appearances may be history for Cincinnati, Xavier

Email and ask columnist Jason Williams anything − sports or non-sports – and he’ll pick some of your messages and respond on Cincinnati.com throughout the week. Contact Jason at jwilliams@enquirer.com

Subject: NCAA Tournament appearances every year may be over for Cincinnati Bearcats, Xavier Musketeers

Message: It’s looking like it’ll be another NCAA Tournament without UC and Xavier. Starting to wonder if both schools making the tournament regularly will ever return.

Reply: The NCAA Tournament featured UC and/or Xavier for 34 consecutive years through 2019, with the schools playing in the same tournament 15 times. Truly an amazing run for the city.

And now the upcoming NCAA tourney likely will be the third in four years to not have either school. (Remember, there wasn’t a 2020 tournament because of the pandemic.)

Your concern is real.

The days of one or both schools making the dance several years in a row could be over, thanks to NIL and the transfer portal. And in UC’s case, also thanks to being in the Big 12 Conference.

UC and Xavier certainly aren't alone in facing this new reality. Nonetheless, fans must come to grips with what's ahead and temper expectations that making the NCAA Tournament for, say, nine consecutive seasons like UC did from 2011-2019 probably isn't realistic anymore.

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The days of UC and Xavier bringing in big-time recruiting classes and then the players growing together in the programs for 3-5 years are gone. Tough to sustain annual NCAA Tournament-level success with constant roster turnover.

Another emailer asked me to provide a remaining-eligibility breakdown of UC's roster after this season. What's the point? Good chance some guys will transfer, and I'm not sure that'd be a bad thing with how UC has stumbled down the stretch.

The transfer portal taketh, but it also giveth. A quick, short-term turnaround and deep NCAA Tournament run could be just a few transfers away. And then back to roster turnover and no tournament appearance the next season.

I'm not making excuses for either program. There are seasons when fans should absolutely expect their team to make the NCAA Tournament to determine whether the program has the right leadership. UC, for example, needs to make the tournament next year in Wes Miller's fourth season.

What I'm saying is embrace the year-to-year roller coaster ride, UC and Xavier fans.