TicketsCINCINNATI -- Thirteen is the magic number of days till the Cincinnati men's basketball team opens its season, and it could not come quicker for those inside and outside the locker room.
Head coach Wes Miller, during his Tuesday media availability, emphasized the mantra of practicing the way the team will play, especially when it comes to the mental approach in practice.
"We have to get better, and that's what my focus is," Miller said of the team's impending Nov. 7 opener. "I'm not worried about two weeks from now, I'm worried about practice in about an hour. I really like their willingness to come into the gym and work. We've made practice real. It's been contentious the last couple weeks, and we've tried to create some adversity and they've responded in an admirable way for the most part. You can't wait for adversity when the game starts, you have to try and create that in the preseason."
Kalu Ezikpe, a fifth-year senior whose production increased each of his four seasons at Old Dominion, credited his former head coach Jeff Jones for also having a defensive-first mindset. He described it as "challenging, but a good 'challenging,'" in addition to something he can really add to his game.
And Ezikpe knows what he was coming into, having been recruited heavily by Miller and several current UC staffers when they were previously at UNC Greensboro.
"It helped a lot," Ezikpe said. "For your last year, you want to go somewhere comfortable and somewhere you're sure you can have success. I basically knew everyone on the coaching staff already, so that was a huge tool...Coach (Mike) Rehfeldt (the team's sports performance coach) was one of the main reasons I came to UC, just knowing how much I needed to improve my body from last season, and seeing what he offered was great for me to come here."
Leadership has also become a foundational aspect of the program. While Miller says he is not one to declare leaders on a podium, instead that it "works itself naturally," he has commended grad students John Newman III and David DeJulius, both of whom elected to return for their bonus COVID season.
Newman, he says, plays the game in a way where he "sacrifices his body and some of the flashy stuff for the dirty stuff," which he believes inspires even more respect from teammates. DeJulius, the team's leading scorer (14.5 ppg) and a Preseason All-AAC selection, has his own examples as well.
"This morning, we walked into walk-through some things before practice this afternoon, and we had them in there at 9 and 10 this morning," Miller said. "And we had a pretty hard practice yesterday now like we pushed him hard, and David walks in the gym and he's fully lathered in sweat, to walk in for a walk-through at 9 and I'm going with 'heck, when did he get here?' And that's happened probably 10 or 15 times. His approach has just been different, I hope it continues, and I think it's given him a level of leadership that the other guys just respect the way he goes about it."
Switching to the new kids on the block, namely the freshman, Miller took the chance to pivot to a humorous approach on freshman Daniel Skillings.
"Dan is so funny because he hangs out with anybody, and I don't just mean everybody on the team, I mean everybody that will talk to him," he said. "Anyone who knows him will laugh when they hear that because they know it's true. He was just in my office, and trust me, I don't feel special because he was probably in every office on the sixth floor. Then, I ran down to get here, and on the way down I saw him in the cheerleading coach's office. Dan Skillings is just an outgoing guy and seems to get along with anyone he comes into contact with."
If there is any additional motivation fans need for the season, they can heed Davenport's words.
"You have no choice but to build, playing for a guy like Coach Wes," Davenport said. "We are basketball guys. We are just guys trying to hoop and get better. We already have that connection since before we got here, especially Dan who followed us since we committed. Rob (Phinisee) is new but knows what he's getting into with Cincinnati basketball. The guys here made a decision to accept everyone off the court as human beings."
2022-23 SEASON TICKETS
Season tickets for the 2022-23 men's basketball campaign in Fifth Third Arena are on sale, and serve as the only guaranteed way to get admission into the Crosstown Shootout against Xavier on Dec. 10. UC opens its 18-game home slate Monday, Nov. 7 against Chaminade.
Head coach Wes Miller, during his Tuesday media availability, emphasized the mantra of practicing the way the team will play, especially when it comes to the mental approach in practice.
"We have to get better, and that's what my focus is," Miller said of the team's impending Nov. 7 opener. "I'm not worried about two weeks from now, I'm worried about practice in about an hour. I really like their willingness to come into the gym and work. We've made practice real. It's been contentious the last couple weeks, and we've tried to create some adversity and they've responded in an admirable way for the most part. You can't wait for adversity when the game starts, you have to try and create that in the preseason."
Kalu Ezikpe, a fifth-year senior whose production increased each of his four seasons at Old Dominion, credited his former head coach Jeff Jones for also having a defensive-first mindset. He described it as "challenging, but a good 'challenging,'" in addition to something he can really add to his game.
And Ezikpe knows what he was coming into, having been recruited heavily by Miller and several current UC staffers when they were previously at UNC Greensboro.
"It helped a lot," Ezikpe said. "For your last year, you want to go somewhere comfortable and somewhere you're sure you can have success. I basically knew everyone on the coaching staff already, so that was a huge tool...Coach (Mike) Rehfeldt (the team's sports performance coach) was one of the main reasons I came to UC, just knowing how much I needed to improve my body from last season, and seeing what he offered was great for me to come here."
Leadership has also become a foundational aspect of the program. While Miller says he is not one to declare leaders on a podium, instead that it "works itself naturally," he has commended grad students John Newman III and David DeJulius, both of whom elected to return for their bonus COVID season.
Newman, he says, plays the game in a way where he "sacrifices his body and some of the flashy stuff for the dirty stuff," which he believes inspires even more respect from teammates. DeJulius, the team's leading scorer (14.5 ppg) and a Preseason All-AAC selection, has his own examples as well.
"This morning, we walked into walk-through some things before practice this afternoon, and we had them in there at 9 and 10 this morning," Miller said. "And we had a pretty hard practice yesterday now like we pushed him hard, and David walks in the gym and he's fully lathered in sweat, to walk in for a walk-through at 9 and I'm going with 'heck, when did he get here?' And that's happened probably 10 or 15 times. His approach has just been different, I hope it continues, and I think it's given him a level of leadership that the other guys just respect the way he goes about it."
Switching to the new kids on the block, namely the freshman, Miller took the chance to pivot to a humorous approach on freshman Daniel Skillings.
"Dan is so funny because he hangs out with anybody, and I don't just mean everybody on the team, I mean everybody that will talk to him," he said. "Anyone who knows him will laugh when they hear that because they know it's true. He was just in my office, and trust me, I don't feel special because he was probably in every office on the sixth floor. Then, I ran down to get here, and on the way down I saw him in the cheerleading coach's office. Dan Skillings is just an outgoing guy and seems to get along with anyone he comes into contact with."
If there is any additional motivation fans need for the season, they can heed Davenport's words.
"You have no choice but to build, playing for a guy like Coach Wes," Davenport said. "We are basketball guys. We are just guys trying to hoop and get better. We already have that connection since before we got here, especially Dan who followed us since we committed. Rob (Phinisee) is new but knows what he's getting into with Cincinnati basketball. The guys here made a decision to accept everyone off the court as human beings."
2022-23 SEASON TICKETS
Season tickets for the 2022-23 men's basketball campaign in Fifth Third Arena are on sale, and serve as the only guaranteed way to get admission into the Crosstown Shootout against Xavier on Dec. 10. UC opens its 18-game home slate Monday, Nov. 7 against Chaminade.