Clemson Basketball Preview: Cincinnati Bearcats

Before you hit the holiday break and travel to see friends and family, we’ve got one more game for the Clemson Tigers (9-3) this weekend against the Cincinnati Bearcats (6-4). The contest will be held in Greenville’s Bon Secours Wellness Arena, about 40 minutes from the Clemson campus, for. Expect a heavy population of orange in the crowd for Sunday afternoon’s matchup.

The Bearcats enter the game coming off losses to rival Xavier and Georgia, whom Clemson just beat a few weeks ago. Cincinnati also has a loss to fellow ACC member Louisville and a bad home loss to Eastern Michigan. It has not been the best start for head coach Wes Miller in his fifth season with the program, and a lackluster non-conference performance makes the road even tougher for the Bearcats to compete in the stacked Big 12.

Advertisement

This is a Cincinnati team that has struggled offensively the entire season. Taking a glance at KenPom metrics, the Bearcats are outside the top 200 in adjusted offensive efficiency, effective field goal percentage, turnover percentage, offensive rebounding percentage, and 3-point percentage. To make matters even worse, Cincinnati is one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the country, shooting just 62.5% from the stripe. The Bearcats have failed to score 75 points or more in seven of their 10 games thus far, only averaging 74.3 points per game, which ranks 253rd in the nation. The cherry on top is that their leading scorer, Day Day Thomas, is from South Carolina!

The bizarre thing about this team is that, despite their unimpressive offensive performance, they are equally impressive on the defensive side, ranking within the top 30 in several defensive categories, including adjusted defensive efficiency (11th), turnover percentage (26th), and opponent offensive rebounding percentage (6th). They are tight in the paint, blocking shots at a high rate (16.2%) to couple with their impressive rebounding ability. This is an area where they can control the game against…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/clemson-basketball-preview-cincinnati-bearcats-140500159.html

Author :

Publish date : 2025-12-20 14:05:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.