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Men's Basketball Heads South to Battle UCF

The Cincinnati men's basketball team will travel to the Sunshine State for a Wednesday night clash at UCF. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. ET.

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Men's Basketball Heads South to Battle UCFMen's Basketball Heads South to Battle UCF

CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati men's basketball team will travel to the Sunshine State for a Wednesday night clash at UCF. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. ET.

THE RUNDOWN

  • Day Day Thomas earned his first start of the season. He started the first 35 last year before breaking his foot in the NIT opener. Per Wes Miller: "I could have taken anybody in the starting lineup out. I thought Day Day has shown a lot of fighting and heart in recent games, so I wanted to reward that. I thought that was important for our team." He finished with a season-high 31 minutes.
  • Thomas had a team-high 10 points (third game in double-figures) to go with a season-high four steals. He aveaged 10.3 ppg last season and led UC with 61 swipes. He and fellow PG Jizzle James shared the floor for the first time on Dec. 16, 2023 against Dayton. It is the only non-injury related lineup change this year.
  • Cincinnati went with a much smaller lineup as Aziz Bandaogo and Arrinten Page only played a combined 21:58. Page played 3:54 in the first half but had dealt with a foot issue that held him out of practice Friday. Bandaogo's 13 points last year at UCF remains his most in a Big 12 game.
  • Hometown product Rayvon Griffith went 2-for-3 from the field for seven points over 12 minutes off the bench. He had played four minutes in Big 12 action up to that moment, and he added two assists (two all season prior) and his second 3-pointer of the year.
  • Wes Miller, the former 2005 national champion at North Carolina, has won seven-straight games against Duke alumni (four against UCF and Johnny Dawkins, two versus Howard and Kenny Blakeney and this year versus Bobby Hurley and Arizona State).
  • Cincinnati had four-straight games with single-digit turnovers (7.5 over that span) until its 14 on Sunday, ranking 22nd nationally at 10.0 per game.
  • It's a Florida homecoming for Jizzle James (Orlando) and Dillon Mitchell (Tampa). James' last game coming off a no-field-goal outing was when he went for 14 on 4-of-6 deep shooting to defeat No. 22 Dayton. Mitchell had 10 rebounds on Sunday, his fourth-such game in double-figures.
  • The 11-for-12 outing at the foul line (91.7 percent) on Sunday was UC's highest since going 10-for-10 in the Feb. 3 road win at No. 15 Texas Tech last year.
  • Cincinnati is 11-1 when leading at the half (loss vs. Kansas) and 1-8 when trailing (win vs. Xavier), with both of those being one-point margins. The Bearcats did not allow an opponent into the 70s in non-conference play, and in the league they are 2-4 when holding opponents within the 60s or below.

SERIES HISTORY

  • Cincinnati has won four-straight against UCF, with the last one featuring a clutch Bearcat win despite landing at 12:20 a.m. the night before the afternoon tilt due to mechanical and de-icing issues on the runway.
  • Still, UC raced out to a 17-6 lead, with 10 of those points from Dan Skillings Jr. Simas Lukosius' contested layup with 13 seconds left made it a 76-73 lead. Skillings ended with 15 points, Aziz Bandaogo had 13 and Lukosius added 12.
  • The first meeting was truly a game of runs. The Bearcats led 13-4 from the jump, trailed by 12 at the half and eventually won 68-57.
  • John Newman III's emphatic dunk with five minutes left kicked off the game-deciding 11-0 run. UC shot 63 percent in the second half and held UCF to 21 percent.
  • UC is 17-5 in the all-time series, with all but one of those matchups coming in the AAC. The outlier was in the Citrus Bowl Classic in 1983, and it was truly a clash of Bearcat legends. The late Chuck Machock was in his first of two years as the Knights' head coach, with this one being their final year of Division II. The UC alum was also an assistant coach in Clifton from 1990-93 and later had a lengthy tenure on the radio team.
  • Eventual UC head coach, and Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer, Bob Huggins served as an assistant on the opposing bench.
  • Cincinnati swept the season series in 2022-23, with David DeJulius' runner with 0.2 seconds left securing a 73-71 road win.


JOHNNY DAWKINS ON SKILLINGS
UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins had a lot to say about Dan Skillings Jr. following his 21-point performance against the Knights on Jan. 27, 2024. 

"I have watched the young man get better and better over the last year. You see improvement, that is what you want to see, that is what we kind of grew up with as coaches and players, is watching a natural progression of a player like him. It is fun seeing him develop and blossom, I think his best basketball is still ahead of him.  I see a lot of things this young man will be able to do as he continues to improve his game. The Cincinnati coaching staff is doing a great job with his development, and you see that."