Scouting report: Cincinnati Bearcats basketball hits road for Georgia Tech Saturday

With their first road win under their belt, the Cincinnati Bearcats high-flying men’s basketball team will hit the air for the first time when they charter to Atlanta for a Saturday afternoon tip with Georgia Tech.

Wes Miller’s team is ranked No. 18 in the AP and No. 16 in the USA Today Coaches poll and will get their toughest test mathematically against the Yellowjackets. In Wednesday’s KenPom.com rankings, UC was 10th of 364 Division I teams with Georgia Tech at No. 104.

UC coach Miller was both pleased and dismayed by Tuesday’s 76-60 win at Northern Kentucky University (No. 194 KenPom).

“I think that’ll be good for our learning, but it made it a type of game that we had to figure some things out,” Miller said. “That was good for us in a way we haven’t been tested the first three games.”

UC coach Wes Miller takes the 4-0 Bearcats to Georgia Tech Saturday afternoon.

Up by only four points at halftime, the Bearcats lit the nets at 74% in the second half to pull away and win by 16 at NKU’s Truist Arena 76-60. The Bearcats never trailed in the game, but the Norse made them work. NKU also outrebounded the Bearcats 36-27.

3 keys for Cincinnati Bearcats basketball to beat Georgia Tech

Bearcats Simas Lukošius (41), Aziz Bandaogo and Dillon Mitchell (23) battle NKU’s Keeyan Itejere (40) and LJ Wells (5) for a rebound Tuesday at Truist Arena. UC won the game 76-60 but was outrebounded by nine. They’ll need to improve in that category against Georgia Tech Saturday.

1. Win the rebounding battle

Crash the glass. Hit the boards. UC was outrebounded for the first time this season at NKU with the Norse pulling down 36 to 27 for the Bearcats. In no uncertain terms, UC coach Miller was aggravated by using the terms “stinks” and “atrocious” to describe his team’s efforts on the backboards.

“We will be a good rebounding team, I promise you that,” Miller said. “I think it (Tuesday) was atrocious. I’m pissed about it. We will address that.”

2. Sling the ball to Simas (Lukošius)

Wednesday, 6-foot-8…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/scouting-report-cincinnati-bearcats-basketball-170132846.html

Author : Cincinnati.com | The Enquirer

Publish date : 2024-11-21 17:01:00

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