It’s never too early to start to look ahead to next season. Over the next coming weeks, we will examine what comes next for each team in the Power 5 conferences and also those outside the Power 5 that could make noise on the national stage. Today: the Cincinnati Bearcats.

The goal, as any coach will tell you, is to build a program instead of just a team. A program is self-sustaining and self-perpetuating, around for the long haul and not just a one-hit wonder.

But how do you know? How do you know when a team has become a program, one with a foundation so solid it can survive even small fissures?

Mick Cronin long ago established an identity for the Bearcats, creating a team in his own image: tough, blue-collar and unwilling to back down to anybody.

Now, though, Cincinnati knows unequivocally that it has a program. That's because this past season, the Bearcats did what they always do: They won 20 games, they made the NCAA tournament and they won a first-round game -- but they did it with their coach away from the sideline.

Cincinnati returns its top six scorers and head coach Mick Cronin, who wasn't on the sideline as he recovered from arterial dissection in the back of his skull. Andy Lyons/Getty Images

On Dec. 20, Cronin was diagnosed with an arterial dissection in the back of his skull and was told he could not coach the rest of the season. His assistant, Larry Davis, took over, and absolutely nothing changed.

Cincinnati finished 23-11, 13-5 in the American Athletic Conference, advanced to the NCAA tournament, beat Purdue in the first round and put up a fight against Kentucky before surrendering to the Wildcats.

If the Bearcats can do that under such difficult circumstances, this season ought to be a piece of cake. (Insert quote from Cronin frantically saying, "No, no, no!" here.).

What the immediate future holds: OK, nothing in college basketball is a piece of cake, but Cincinnati has reason to be optimistic.

Octavius Ellis, Troy Caupain, Farad Cobb, Gary Clark, Kevin Johnson and Shaq Thomas ranked as the Bearcats’ top six scorers.

They’re all back.

Now mind you, Cincinnati will never be confused with an offensive juggernaut -- the Bearcats averaged just 62.4 points per game last season -- so qualifying this crew based on offense is perhaps a bit misleading.

But it’s hard to really quantify toughness.

There is this: Cincinnati ranked sixth in the nation in scoring defense (55.8 points per game allowed), 12th in blocked shots per game, 15th in field goal percentage defense and 44th in rebounding margin.

The Bearcats out-rebounded Kentucky and blocked six Wildcats shots despite a starting five that gave up serious inches at just about every position in that round of 32 NCAA game.

The fact is this is what Cincinnati is: a team whose looks are frequently deceiving. The Bearcats play bigger than they are because they usually play harder. That’s not an easy lesson to learn, and no doubt the Bearcats had a learning curve, such as a loss to East Carolina and a 20-point loss to Temple. But they also were led by an inexperienced sophomore (Caupain) at the point and relied heavily on a freshman (Clark), a sophomore (Johnson) and two junior college transfers (Cobb and Ellis).

Now there’s experience, both in games played and how to play games.

There’s also some depth. Cronin added three recruits: point guard Justin Jenifer, shooting guard Jacob Evans and small forward Tre Scott. Perhaps Quadri Moore, who was suspended and struggled as a freshman, will find his groove as well.

The way Cincinnati plays means it will never be out of a game, but it’s tough for the Bearcats to blow anyone out, either. Their margin for error in a conference that has some expected heavies at the top in SMU and UConn is small. Still, to discount a team that was built on the backbone of toughness, that showed just what a tough program it is a year ago, would be silly.