TicketsCINCINNATI -- The University of Cincinnati men's basketball team will get its first action in 11 days when it hosts Tulane on Saturday for its AAC opener (7 p.m. ET.).
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THE RUNDOWN
Cincinnati (10-3, 0-0 AAC) had its first COVID postponement when Houston had to pull out of the Dec. 28 AAC opener. The Bearcats' last time out was a 76-67 win over Tennessee Tech on Dec. 21, in which Mike Saunders Jr. scored all of his team-high 15 points in the second half, earning AAC Weekly Honor Roll accolades in the process.
UC has led at the half in every game but Xavier this season, and the most telling stat comes from the boards. It is 10-0 when winning that battle and 0-3 when coming up short. The Bearcats are looking for their first 1-0 start in AAC play since 2018-19, and this will be the third time in four years they open with Tulane.
Jeremiah Davenport scored 11 points against Tennessee Tech, giving him 10 double-figure games out of 12 starts. Mika Adams-Woods has since regained the national lead in assist-turnover ratio (5.22), boasting seven games of four-plus assists and one or no turnovers. Saunders' genesis has seen him connect on a three-pointer in 11-straight games, improving his minutes by 7.3 per game and deep-shooting percentage from 21.7 to 41.9.
UC is 16th in field-goal defense (37.3 percent), 17th in turnovers (10.2), 20th in three-point defense (27.4) and 34th in scoring defense (60.3). The Bearcats' 107 AAC wins lead the league all-time.
SERIES HISTORY
Cincinnati is 8-2 against the Green Wave (4-6, 1-0 AAC) since the start of their AAC series and 29-15 overall. The schools were previously charter members of Conference USA (meeting in March 2005 before Cincinnati joined the BIG EAST) and Metro Conference.
When the two teams met last year, Tari Eason's put-back layup with 43 seconds left gave UC a 64-61 win in New Orleans on Feb. 7. The Bearcats had much better fortunes in the home rematch, going on a 31-12 run over a nine-minute, second-half stretch to win 91-71. Despite only having eight available scholarship players and playing its third game in six days, the Bearcats finished with their largest margin of victory this season and ran their February record to 6-1, including three-straight wins at home.
Jeremiah Davenport (career-high 27 points) and Tari Eason (20) led the way, marking UC's last dual 20-point contest until Davenport and David DeJulius against Ashland on Dec. 18.