TicketsSKYLINE CHILI CROSSTOWN SHOOTOUT
No. 11/9 CINCINNATI at No. 21/20 XAVIER
SERIES INFO: 85th meeting; Cincinnati leads 50-34 overall; Xavier leads 9-4 on its campus;
Cincinnati leads 11-6 on its campus and 35-19 at neutral sites.
LAST MEETING: Cincinnati won 86-78 on Jan. 26, 2017 at Fifth Third Arena
STREAK: Cincinnati - 1
COACHES: Mick Cronin is in his 12th season at Cincinnati (244-135); 15th season overall (313-159)
Chris Mack is in his ninth season at Xavier (191-92); ninth season overall (191-92)
AP/USA TODAY RANKINGS (Nov. 27): Cincinnati (11/9); Xavier (21/20)
RADIO: 700 WLW; Dan Hoard provides play-by-play with color analyst Terry Nelson
TV: FS1; Justin Kutcher provides play-by-play with color analyst Len Elmore. Evan Daniels reports
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By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – Facing the first truly formidable competition of a new season in the Crosstown Shootout is not an ideal situation, but that's what the University of Cincinnati Bearcats will deal with Saturday when they make the short drive to Cintas Center to take on No. 21 Xavier.
UC coach Mick Cronin had hoped the 7-0 Bearcats would have been fortified by now with a game against Iowa from the Big Ten, figuring they would run into the Hawkeyes during their trip to the Cayman Islands last month.
But Iowa got beat in the first round of the tournament, leaving Wyoming, which UC beat, 78-53, in the championship game, and Buffalo, which the Bearcats outlasted, 73-67, in the first round, as the toughest foes UC has faced. Wyoming and Buffalo are both Top 50 RPI teams in ESPN's early version of the computer ratings, but the Musketeers (6-1) have already faced three opponents from major conferences. They lost to Arizona State, beat Baylor, and own a 10-point victory over Wisconsin.
The 11th-ranked Bearcats are hoping to overcome that seeming disadvantage when they seek their second straight win over their crosstown rivals after ending a three-game losing streak to the Musketeers with an 86-78 win last year at Fifth Third Arena. But to do so, they'll have to find a way to win in a building where they've lost six straight games. Tipoff is at noon.
Xavier is 6-1 against UC at the Cintas Center since the building opened in 2000. The Musketeers have won 34, but they don't dominate at home only against UC. The Musketeers have won their last 34 home games against nonconference opponents.
This is only the fourth time in the history of a rivalry that began in 1928 that both teams have been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 when they met. Xavier has won two of the three previous games. The Musketeers have won seven of the last 10 meetings overall, but UC leads the series, 50-34.
"When you play a team that's a great home team, you have to analyze what's reality," Cronin said. "Well, reality is that they win 90-some percent of their home games. So that's who you're playing. You have to base it off of that. Just to get the ball where you want to get it is going to be so much harder against a team like this in a game like this in their gym. And you're going to have to be able to score to have a chance. That's probably my biggest concern."
With the exception of that hard-fought, six-point win over Buffalo in the islands, the Bearcats have been met with little resistance this season. They've beaten their seven, mostly overmatched, opponents by an average margin of 30.6 points and out-rebounded them by an average of 15.4 boards per game.
But they're well aware they won't have their way so easily against the Musketeers.
"Going on the road is tough at any school," said junior swingman Jacob Evans III, the Bearcats' second-leading scorer with 11.7 points per game. "We know they're really good at home. You can't go in there and turn the ball over. The biggest thing is to make sure we're ready, that we know what type of game this is about to be. It's not going to be anything easy or pretty. It's about to be a tough war. Coach always tell us we're going to war and Saturday we're going to war. You've got to be ready for it."
Xavier is an explosive offensive team that averages 89 points per game behind senior guard Trevon Bluiett, the third-leading scorer in the BIG EAST Conference with 19.7 points per game and an outstanding shooter who makes 46.7 of his shots from long range. He dropped 40 points on UC last year. J.P. Macura, a 6-foot-5 senior guard, has blossomed into an outstanding player with a 14.6-point average and a feel for the game that allows him to take advantage of the slightest slip by a defense.
"You can just see that he's a step or two ahead of the defense," Cronin said. "He always knows what the defense is trying to do to him and if you're sleeping he knows it. He puts a foul on you or he beats you for a layup quickly. He knows how to get easy baskets and those are big in a game like this.
"They've got three guys that are elite shooters – (Kaiser) Gates, Macura and Bluiett. If you let them get open looks, they're going to hurt you and at home they're going to really hurt you. If you don't find them, they'll shoot you out of the gym."
UC counters with a talented and experienced front line anchored by seniors Gary Clark (13.7 points, 8.1 rebounds) and Kyle Washington (10.4 points, 5.6 rebounds). Clark had a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds against the Musketeers last year. Washington scored 12 points with eight rebounds and blocked four shots.
This is a much better perimeter scoring team than the Bearcats' have confronted Xavier with in recent years. As a team, UC is shooting 40.3 percent from long range to 39.7 percent for Xavier.
UC junior point guard Cane Broome, who was the eighth-leading scorer in the country two years ago with a 23.1-point average at Sacred Heart before transferring to UC, will be making his appearance in the Shootout. He saw the game in person for the first time last year sitting on the bench at Fifth Third Arena and said he's eager to play in it. He remembers first watching it on TV when he was 12 or 13 years old growing up in East Hartford, Conn. At the time, he said, he didn't know that Xavier was located in Cincinnati. Watching the game in person last year, he said, was eye-opening.
"You could just see how hard it is to win a game like that when there's that much on the line, for bragging rights around here," he said. "You've got to really gear up for that game and play with a lot of emotion and play smart at the same time."
Washington, a transfer from North Carolina State, had a similar take two years ago when he watched the Bearcats lose to Xavier at Cintas during his transfer year. Now he has a game of experience under his belt. He knows what to expect and he has learned that the importance of the game extends beyond the rivalry because whoever wins will be able to put an impressive accomplishment on its NCAA Tournament resume.
"Getting a win over there would be huge," Washington said. "It's huge for the moment, but it's also huge for the long-term."
The Bearcats have averaged only 54 points in their last two games at Cintas and scored only 26 in the first half when they fell behind 42-26 at intermission in their most recent visit two years ago.
"The last time we were over there, we lose 63-53," Cronin said. "You can't get 53 and win. We've got to be able to get quality shots. We've got to be able to generate some offense off our defense. We've got to work really hard at execution against a high major defensive team that knows you well and that's at home."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January 2015.