2017–18 Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball team

The 2017–18 Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball team represented the University of Cincinnati in the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games at the BB&T Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky due to renovations at their home arena, Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats were led by 12th-year head coach Mick Cronin and are members of the American Athletic Conference. They finished the season 31–5, 16–2 in AAC play to win the regular season championship. They defeated SMU, Memphis, and Houston to win the AAC tournament and received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. As the No. 2 seed in the South region, they defeated Georgia State in the First Round before being upset by Nevada in the Second Round. In their loss to Nevada, they were up 22 before losing 75-73, tying the second largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history.

Previous season
The Bearcats finished the 2016–17 season 30–6, 16–2 to finish in second place in AAC play. They beat Tulsa and UConn in the AAC tournament before losing to SMU in the championship game. The Bearcats received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 6 seed in the South region. In the NCAA Tournament, they defeated No. 11 Kansas State in the First Round 75–61 before losing to No. 3 UCLA 79–67 in the Second Round.

Recruiting class of 2017
Cincinnati will also add Preferred Walk-on Sam Martin a 5'10" PG from Summit Country Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Preseason
At the conference's annual media day, the Bearcats were narrowly picked to win the AAC receiving seven of the 12 first-place votes. Gary Clark, Jacob Evans, and Kyle Washington were named to the preseason All-AAC second team.

Depth chart
Source

Schedule and results
!colspan=9 style=| Exhibition

!colspan=9 style=| Non-conference regular season

!colspan=12 style=| AAC Regular Season

!colspan=12 style=| AAC Tournament

!colspan=12 style=| NCAA tournament

Source

All-American

 * Honorable Mention: Gary Clark

All-AAC Awards

 * Player of the Year: Gary Clark
 * Defensive Player of the Year: Gary Clark
 * Sportsmanship Award: Gary Clark

All-AAC First Team

 * Gary Clark
 * Jacob Evans

All-AAC Honorable Mention

 * Kyle Washington

Player of the Week

 * Week 3: Gary Clark
 * Week 6: Jacob Evans
 * Week 9: Jacob Evans
 * Week 11: Gary Clark
 * Week 12: Gary Clark

Weekly Honor Roll

 * Week 2: Jarron Cumberland
 * Week 6: Gary Clark
 * Week 8: Jarron Cumberland
 * Week 10: Jarron Cumberland
 * Week 13: Jacob Evans
 * Week 14: Kyle Washington
 * Week 16: Gary Clark
 * Week 17: Jacob Evans

Rankings
* AP does not release post-NCAA tournament rankings