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Bearcats Open 125th Season Monday Night Against Western Carolina

by Brett Rybak

The Cincinnati men’s basketball team opens its 125th season when it takes on Western Carolina at 7 p.m. Monday at Fifth Third Arena. The contest will be streamed on ESPN+ and broadcast on 700 WLW and the TuneIn app.

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CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati men’s basketball team opens its 125th season when it takes on Western Carolina at 7 p.m. Monday at Fifth Third Arena. The contest will be streamed on ESPN+ and broadcast on 700 WLW and the TuneIn app.

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Bearcat Bits

  • The 2025-26 campaign marks the 125th season of competition for Cincinnati men’s basketball, and the Bearcats will commemorate the milestone with a year-long celebration honoring the program’s rich history, iconic players and cultural legacy. Cincinnati men’s basketball, which was named a top-10 program in college basketball history by the Associated Press, boasts 44 All-Americans, 41 conference titles, six Final Four appearances and back-to-back national championships across its history, which dates back to the 1901-02 season.
  • Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller is in his fifth season as the University of Cincinnati’s men’s basketball head coach, poised to take the Bearcats to the next level in their third year of the nation’s best basketball conference, the Big 12. The 42-year-old Miller already boasts 14 years of head coaching experience. He spent a decade at UNC Greensboro, posting five-straight 20-win seasons and appearances in the 2018 and 2021 NCAA Tournaments before taking the helm of the Bearcats. Miller boasts seven 20-win seasons (two at Cincinnati) and a 267-194 overall record. He has mentored 25 All-Conference players as a head coach, including six over his first four seasons at UC.
  • Cincinnati has won all four of its season openers under Miller, each coming at home. The Bearcats, who have an average margin of victory of more than 32 points in the lid-lifting wins, topped Arkansas - Pine Bluff by a 109-54 score in the opener last year after a 69-58 victory over UIC in 2023, a 98-55 win over Chaminade in 2022 and a 65-43 over Evansville to begin the Miller era in 2021.
  • Cincinnati’s six scholarship transfers (Jalen Celestine, Sencire Harris, Jalen Haynes, Kerr Kriisa, Baba Miller and Moustapha Thiam) come to Clifton averaging 80 career games played at the college level.