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Bearcats Host Bradley in Saturday Second-Round NIT Matinee

Bearcats Host Bradley in Saturday Second-Round NIT Matinee

The Cincinnati men's basketball team is back home again following its overtime thriller over San Francisco, this time hosting Bradley at 2 p.m. Saturday.

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Bearcats Host Bradley in Saturday Second-Round NIT MatineeBearcats Host Bradley in Saturday Second-Round NIT Matinee
CaraBrotherton
CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati men's basketball team is back home again following its overtime thriller over San Francisco, this time hosting Bradley at 2 p.m. Saturday.

THE RUNDOWN
  • Cincinnati improved to 12-0 (and 6-0 under Wes Miller) in home games that started after 9 p.m. since 2013-14. The Bearcats are also now 3-1 in overtime this year and 4-2 under Miller.
  • Simas Lukosius, Mr. Clutch of 2024, notched the game-winning 3-pointer in OT with 3 seconds left as the Bearcats trailed 72-70. His eight makes tied for sixth in school history (18th Bearcat with that many makes or more all-time), as did his 80 percent clip (minimum 5 makes).
  • Lukosius was 7-for-12 from deep in his dramatic, career-high 31-point performance over WVU in the Big 12 Tourney, then 3-for-14 the next two games before his USF explosion. Of his five career 20-point games, four have come in either the Big 12, Big East Tournament or postseason. He has hit the game-winning shot in the final seconds this year at No. 15 Texas Tech and versus Kansas State and San Francisco at home.
  • All-Defensive Big 12 honoree John Newman III (547 points at UC) is six away from 1,000 for his career.
  • Aziz Bandaogo averaged 12.3 points and 11.5 rebounds per game in Utah Valley's NIT Final Four run last year. The Wolverines beat New Mexico and Colorado on the road, followed by Cincinnati at home.
  • Bandaogo is averaging 1.7 blocks per game, including four swats against No. 14 Baylor and three more against San Francisco. That tally is the highest for a UC player since Octavius Ellis' 2.0 in 2014-15.
  • Dan Skillings Jr. has scored in double-figures six-straight games, including 25 against No. 14 Kansas. Last year, he played 16.0 mpg in the three NIT games (14.8 for the year) and parlayed it into a breakout sophomore season. UC is 16-7 this year, and 20-7 for his career, when he scores in double-figures.
  • Day Day Thomas, who exited late due to injury, moved up to 61 steals, the most by a Bearcat since Cashmere Wright's record 74 in 2011-12. He also had a career-high eight assists and joins Newman and fellow point guard Jizzle James as the only ones to not miss a game.
  • Cincinnati is 5-2 in March after going 4-2 last year and just 1-3 in Miller's first year. This is his seventh postseason that also includes the 2018 and 2021 NCAA Tournaments with UNC Greensboro.
  • The Bearcats are 10-12 when making seven or fewer treys and 12-2 with eight or more. Eighteen of their 21 wins have come when scoring 70 or more (3-10 when scoring 69 or fewer). Cincinnati was 1-8 when shooting under 40 percent until its last two wins, including the 72-52 win over No. 16 Kansas in Kansas City.
SERIES HISTORY
  • The two teams are most known for playing the longest game in NCAA history, a 7-OT, 75-73 Cincinnati win on Dec. 21, 1981.
  • UC and Bradley were Missouri Valley foes from 1957-70. The MVC, established in 1907, is the fourth-oldest conference in the nation, trailing only the Big Ten in the Division I ranks.
  • The 2008 CBI meeting, Cincinnati's only appearance in that tournament, is the teams' only matchup since 1981.
  • Cincinnati assistant Drew Adams was on the Bradley staff under head coach Brian Wardle from 2015-22. Adams earned Top 50 Most Impactful Mid Major Assistants distinction from Silver Waves Media in both 2020 and 2022, and was also named one of the top five assistant coaches in the Missouri Valley Conference during in 2020.
  • Adams played an important role in reestablishing Bradley to the peak of the Missouri Valley, including helping the Braves to their first consecutive conference titles in school history. He coached 10 all-conference players and seven MVC All-Freshman recipients at Bradley, including current leading scorer Connor Hickman.
MILLER ON ADAMS AND THE BRADLEY CONNECTION
  • "That'll be interesting for Drew Adams, who has been a big architect with Brian Wardle in building a great, great program. If you look at what they've done, my gosh. I mean they've been one of the best of the major programs in the country for the last 6-7 years. I think they've been to five-straight NCAA or NITs and in The Valley, that's really dang impressive. Drew cares a lot because he invested so much into that with Coach Wardle. So that'll be interesting for him to go up against a team that he had a lot to do with building and putting together and working with."