CINCINNATI -- It has already been a rough year for the Cincinnati sports scene.

This past weekend, barely two months after the Cincinnati Bengals' epic late collapse in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs, the city's top college basketball programs watched as some last-second drama ended their respective NCAA tournament runs.

First, it was the Cincinnati Bearcats who were done in Friday when forward Octavius Ellis dunk as time expired was waved off. If Ellis had just one extra tenth of a second the basket would have counted and the Bearcats would have forced overtime. Instead, they lost following a review.

Then again, overtime hadn't been kind to them recently. Just the week before, in an American Athletic Conference tournament game, the Bearcats fell to UConn in a four-overtime thriller. In the final second of the third overtime Cincinnati's Kevin Johnson made a clutch 3. His teammates were ready to celebrate. But 0.8 seconds was just enough time for UConn's Jalen Adams to respond with an 80-foot runner that miraculously went in to tie the game at the buzzer. In the fourth overtime the Huskies rolled to the 104-97 win.

Two nights after the Bearcats' NCAA tournament loss to St. Joe's, their crosstown rival, Xavier, was taken out by Wisconsin.

With two seconds remaining, the Round of 32 game was tied at 63. After a quick inbounds pass, Wisconsin's Bronson Koening splashed in a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the win.

Although Xavier did beat Weber State in a first-round game Friday, still, another one of Cincinnati's sports teams couldn't make it out of the opening weekend of postseason play. Bengals corner Adam Jones, a big Xavier fan, commiserated with his Musketeers.

X keep your head up good year !!!!

— ADAm Pacman Jones (@REALPACMAN24) March 21, 2016

All told, 20 seconds separated the Bengals, Bearcats and Musketeers from those heartbreaking losses.

The bulk of those came from the Bengals' game. It was with 18 seconds remaining in their playoff game when Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Chris Boswell buried a 35-yard field goal that became the game-winner. Just seconds before, Boswell had been put in favorable field position by 30 yards worth of penalties picked up by Jones and fellow Bengals defender Vontaze Burfict.

Had it not been for Jeremy Hill's stunning fumble a minute prior, the Bengals' defense may not have even been on the field for the penalties to occur.

The good news for the city's sports fans is that Opening Day is only two weeks away. But the Cincinnati Reds haven't won a playoff series since 1995 and are coming off a season that saw them finish 36 games out of the division lead.