CINCINNATI — It has been almost exactly four years to the day — Dec. 8, 2018 — since the Cincinnati Bearcats last beat Xavier in the Crosstown Shootout.
A lot has changed for both teams since then, Cincinnati in particular. Mick Cronin was the head coach at Cincinnati on that day in 2018. It was Travis Steele’s first Shootout as the head coach of the Musketeers. Neither will be on the bench Saturday as the teams tip off at Fifth Third Arena (3 p.m., ESPN2). Wes Miller, set to coach in his second Shootout, is the second Bearcats head coach in that span. Sean Miller, back for another stint at Xavier, went 3-2 against UC during his initial five-year tenure.
The two coaches are not related, but their shared surname provides a proper, unintentional homage to the fierce, divisive rivalry in a town as familiar as Cincinnati, where plenty of friends, coworkers and neighbors will have bragging rights at stake this weekend.
It’s why that 2018 victory feels so long ago for Bearcats fans. It also happens to be the last time the Shootout was played in front of a capacity crowd at Fifth Third. The game was at Cintas Center in 2019 and 2021 and played on UC’s home court during the pandemic season of 2020 in front of a nearly empty arena, smearing yet another layer of intensity across Saturday’s matchup.
“I’m excited. We played here during the COVID year, and there was barely anyone in here, and the atmosphere and energy still felt different than the other games that year,” Cincinnati senior guard David DeJulius said. “So I’m excited to see this place packed out, for sure.”
DeJulius, playing in his third Shootout, is 0-2. Fourth-year Bearcats players Jeremiah Davenport and Mika-Adams Woods are 0-3. No player on Cincinnati’s roster has beaten the Musketeers, including a disappointing 83-63 blowout loss last December in Wes Miller’s first season.
“We certainly didn’t play well last year, so that’s kind of stuck with us for a long time, so I hope we play better basketball,” Wes Miller said. “I’m certainly really excited to see what the environment is like here in Clifton.”
Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller lost his Crosstown Shootout debut last year. (Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
Cincinnati’s head coach is no stranger to heated rivalries, having grown up with and played in Duke versus North Carolina. It’s part of the reason he has embraced the annual nonconference game since he arrived in Cincinnati in April 2021.
“It’s as good if not better than any game I’ve ever been a part of in terms of what it means to people in the community and the energy in the building,” Wes Miller said.
But the second-year head coach also knows that the keys to the Bearcats avenging last year’s 20-point defeat and managing the game’s amplified emotions are the same things his team needs to do to improve on a disjointed 6-3 start to the schedule: a better, more consistent execution of the game plan and more robust effort defensively.
“The Crosstown Shootout is a big-time game. I’ll never sit up here and act like it’s not a big-time game. It’s awesome. The games you dream about coaching in, playing in,” Wes Miller said Tuesday. “We’re not going to talk like that behind closed doors and stand in front of you guys and act like that’s not the case, I think that’s BS. But the standard for how you prepare is the same for any game. That’s what great programs and teams do, and that’s how we’ll approach this one.”
Both teams have the benefit of essentially a full week off ahead of Saturday’s game. For the Bearcats, that offers invaluable in-season practice time as they attempt to slow down a Musketeers offense that ranks in the top 10 nationally in terms of KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency and features a pair of solid post players in Zach Freemantle and Jack Nunge. The last time the Bearcats faced that level of dual post production — against Arizona in the Maui Invitational — Azuolas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo combined for 51 points and 21 rebounds.
Keeping big-man Viktor Lakhin out of foul trouble and finding some modicum of additional post production will be paramount for UC.
“When you see that (in the post), it’s different than what we’re used to when we guard each other every day (in practice),” Wes Miller said. “You have to prepare, you have to be ready for the physicality.”
Cincinnati also will have to slow down the Musketeers’ quick-strike transition attack, which includes a top-10 effective field goal percentage and the second-best 3-point percentage in the country. For a Cincinnati roster without its two best defenders in John Newman III and Rob Phinisee (who are out with injury), combating that will be a significant challenge and could spark a kitchen-sink effort on the defensive end, perhaps with different zone or press looks.
UC has had its share of lulls offensively as well — a putrid second half against Northern Kentucky and 53 total points against Ohio State stand out — but defense has been the larger, more chronic issue. And similar to Xavier, the Bearcats have been at their best when playing fast and uptempo, scoring 93 points against Arizona in a frenetic game during which the Wildcats never pulled away. DeJulius, Davenport and Landers Nolley II — all averaging double-figures in points and shooting better than 31 percent from beyond the 3-point line — likely will need to get hot and ride the wave of an emotional crowd to neutralize a potent Musketeers squad.
“We have a lot of players, guys who can put the ball in the basket. When we have the opportunity to get up and down without having to think as much, I feel like it’s a positive for our team for sure,” DeJulius said. “At the same time, we understand that they’re great in transition, and we’ll have to shut that down. I’m sure that will be an emphasis.”
The Fifth Third crowd could play a crucial role for a Bearcats team that is still searching for an identity and playing its only marquee home game of the nonconference slate. The football program hired a head coach and is in the midst of bowl practice. The Bengals are basking in the high of a nationally televised victory over the Chiefs. Arguably for the first time this season, the full weight of the city’s sporting attention will be on one of college basketball’s best rivalries in an arena that hasn’t been there to properly relish it for four full years. UC will need that to mean something on Saturday and play in a manner that reflects as much if it wants a chance to pull off a home upset.
“Our fan base deserves this,” DeJulius said. “They deserve us to go out there and play as hard as we can, as smart as we can, because of all that they do for us and the support they give us. It’s only right that we give that respect and gratitude back.”
(Top photo of Mika Adams-Woods, left, and Zach Freemantle: Aaron Doster / USA Today)
