Scouting report: Cincinnati Bearcats host Arizona in 1st Big 12 home game of 2025

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Cincinnati Bearcats basketball coach Wes Miller was a junior high student the last time UC faced the Arizona Wildcats. Now, as a new member of the Big 12, Coach Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats and the Bearcats will battle for the first time since 2022 and for the first time ever in Cincinnati.

UC’s previous meetings with Arizona have all come in neutral-site affairs.

Arizona is coming off a 90-81 win Monday night against TCU. Despite a handful of losses to respectable teams, the Wildcats have had decent KenPom.com and NCAA NET numbers. They have played two ranked teams (No. 12 Duke and No. 24 UCLA) and lost to both. In November’s Battle 4 Atlantis in The Bahamas, they beat Davidson, then lost to Oklahoma and West Virginia.

These Wildcats come in with better numbers than Kansas State, though both are now 7-5. They were No. 21 and 23 in KenPom.com and NCAA NET on Jan. 2, mathematically better than UC.

“We’re going to sit in press conferences and say this for 20 straight league games,” UC coach Wes Miller said. “They’re an elite team in college basketball. You see it in every facet. You see it analytically on both offense and defense. You see the way they’re playing the last month, they’re starting to play their best basketball.”

This will be another crack at a Quad 1 win for the Bearcats who hope to leave their opening-game sluggishness in 2024 in Manhattan as they greet the new year. UC only led for 24 seconds in their 70-67 Big 12 wakeup call at Kansas State.

Dan Skillings Jr. had a team-high 18 points, but just two rebounds in the Cincinnati Bearcats 70-67 loss at Kansas State Monday night.

Arizona beat UC on a 65-foot buzzer-beater in 1996

For veterans, one of the last UC vs. Arizona games is a bitter memory as the Bob Huggins Bearcats let a late nine-point lead slide and allowed the Wildcats to tie the game at 76. UC was ranked No. 5, but Miles Simon found a loose ball and heaved the ball nearly three-quarters of the court off the backboard and in for a 79-76 victory. The game was…

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Author : Cincinnati.com | The Enquirer

Publish date : 2025-01-02 21:48:00

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