TicketsCINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati men's basketball team returns to Fifth Third Arena Tuesday night to take on Merrimack at 7 p.m. in the first all-time meeting between the schools.
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THE RUNDOWN
- Cincinnati ran into a Dayton buzzssaw Saturday night downtown, as the runaway Atlantic 10 preseason favorite Flyers pulled away in the second half for an 82-68 defeat. It was UC's first game in the Heritage Bank Center since 2013.
- Dayton went 28-for-30 at the foul line compared to UC's 8-for-16, providing a key difference in the game. The 30 attempts were an opponent season-high as well. The Bearcats had only seven turnovers, their fifth game in single-digits, but were a season-low 37.0 percent from the field. UC remains 17th nationally with 9.6 turnovers pg, and 10th for assist-turnover ratio (1.74).
- The most notable element for Cincinnati's long-term growth was Jamille Reynolds making his debut following the NCAA's mass ruling last week. He played eight minutes and scored his first points on an offensive rebound and dunk. He also went 2-for-2 at the foul line.
- Aziz Bandaogo is averaging 13.0 rpg over his last three games, becoming the first Bearcat since Tre Scott (who ended his career with 10-straight in 2020) to record 10-plus rebounds in three straight games. Bandaogo also collected his second-straight double-double. He had 17 of them at Utah Valley last year.
- Bandaogo is shooting 67.9 percent from the field. His 8-for-12 clip at the foul line versus Bryant marked season-highs in both.
- Simas Lukosius kept the Bearcats afloat in the second half, scoring 10 of his season-high 14 points in that span. Despite battling multiple unrelated lower-body injuries, he has increased his offensive output in each of the last three games since returning to the rotation. His 2.73 assist/turnover ratio is 57th nationally.
- 33 of Day Day Thomas' 35 points the last three games have come in the second half. He and fellow point guard Jizzle James shared the floor in the second half for the first time this season, an experiment to look out for in the future.
- James made his lone deep attempt against Dayton and is averaging 12.3 points over his last three contests.
- Cincinnati has out-rebounded its opponent in every game this season, and is 7-0 when allowing 79 or fewer points. The Bearcats are 6-0 when scoring 80-plus.
- Bandaogo averaged 2.9 ppg over his first two years of college (Akron), before moving on to Utah Valley and a year later emerging as ESPN's 16th-rated transfer.
- Wes Miller has taken note of his tall tasks of getting out of his comfort zone between the lines, including the first times Bandaogo has been asked to guard a non-center.
- "This time last year was the first time he had ever had success at any level of basketball. He was having some games at Utah Valley, the year before he didn't play, he wouldn't even get in the games. So, his development is still early and new ... What's neat when you're working with young people is you can see them improving right in front of your eyes over a short period of time."