By Bill Koch
Enquirer staff writer
The University of Cincinnati Bearcats, who have dominated Conference USA with eight regular-season titles in nine years, were picked Tuesday to finish third this year behind Louisville and Memphis in voting done by the league's coaches.
DePaul was picked to win the women's championship. UC was ninth in the poll.
Louisville, which will join UC in the Big East next year along with Marquette, DePaul and South Florida, received 11 first-place votes. Memphis received two and the Bearcats one.
The UC players said they don't pay attention to pres-season polls, whether they're done by coaches or one of the pre-season magazines.
"They said the same thing about us last year and we won the league and the tournament," said forward Armein Kirkland. "It doesn't affect us."
Louisville forward Francisco Garcia was picked as the pre-season player of the year. The rest of the first team included UC forward Jason Maxiell, Memphis guard Sean Banks, Marquette guard Travis Diener and Charlotte forward Curtis Withers.
--E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com
C-USA preseason poll
