March Madness: The Best Sneakers Worn by Cincinnati

The Cincinnati Bearcats are featured in today's March Madness retrospective of college basketball's best sneaker schools of all time.

April 1, 2014

Cincinnati's early exit in the 2014 NCAA men's basketball tournament after an upset victory by Harvard may have been a bit shocking, but ranking the Bearcats as one of the all-time best sneaker colleges should come as no surprise. Over the year's the Bearcats have worn some of the greatest kicks the college hardwood has ever seen.

We'll first get a look at legend Oscar Robertson in the Converse Chuck Taylor, then head to the teams of the 1990's wearing Nike Basketball classics including Nick Van Exel in the Air Flight Lite II and Danny Fortson in the Air Max Uptempo. Things heat up even more in Cincinnati during the late 90's, where you'll see Kenyon Martin and company in the Air Jordan XII both before and after the school switched from Nike to Jordan Brand for the 1997-98 season, becoming one of the first schools to rep the Jumpman. Of course this meant the teams coud also wear Nike, as well, so you'll see late 90's classics like the Air Flighposite and Air Holistic Uptempo.

Cincinnati continued as a Jordan Brand school until 2007, when they signed on with adidas. They've been one of the hottest schools for adidas ever since, lacing up all the best black and red colorways of Three Stripes models like the Gil Zero, Crazy 8, and Rose 2.5, and Rose 4.5. Check out all of the best kicks worn by the Cincinnati Bearcats throughout the years below, as we continue our March Madness retrospective of the best sneaker schools of college basketball.

Oscar Robertson - Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star

Nick Van Exel - Nike Air Flight Lite II - 1992

Cincinnati Bench in the Nike Air Maestro - 1994

Damon Flint - Nike Air Maestro 2 - 1994

Damon Flint - Nike Air School Force - 1996

Danny Fortson - Nike Air Max Uptempo - 1996

Keith LeGree - Nike Air Max 2 Strong - 1996

Nike Air Flight Max - 1996

Ruben Patterson - Air Jordan XII - 1996

Danny Fortson - Air Jordan XII - 1997

Danny Fortson - Nike Air Max Uptempo III - 1997

Kenyon Martin - Air Jordan XII - 1997