By Danielle Daniels

UC TICKETS

https://gobearcats.evenue.net/events/OSU?_ga=2.247618439.1699359270.1729289031-1736098295.1725119473

GAME NOTES

https://gobearcats.com/documents/2024/10/17/CareSource_Game_Notes.pdf

CINCINNATI — The 2024-25 men’s basketball season takes another leap forward Friday night with Cincinnati hosting Ohio State in the first installment of the CareSource Charity Exhibition Games for Mental Health.

There will be no video streaming of the event, and Dan Hoard and Terry Nelson will call the game on 700 WLW.

About the Game
This joins a Sunday contest between Dayton and Xavier as part of the fall series. All net proceeds from ticket sales will benefit mental health providers and charities within each school’s footprint, along with Jay’s Light, an organization begun by Dayton head coach Anthony Grant and his wife, Chris, to help mothers, fathers, teens and young adults find the resources to help with mental health struggles. Their daughter, Jay, died in 2022 at 20 as a result of mental illness.

“There’s a reason we’re allowed to do a charity game, and that’s because it goes beyond basketball,” head coach Wes Miller said. “When you look into what Anthony Grant and his family has been through, there are so many positive stories out there that should get attention. I give Jake (Diebler, Ohio State head coach) a lot of credit for not just finding a way to continue to do something, but to make it better and better. He got all four schools on his own, and he got that organized to see how we could all participate together. I give him a lot of credit for that. It’s been great getting to know him…We’re all very competitive, but there should be relationships between these local programs. Finding a way to get together, play a game and have it impact charity and do something that’s recurring year-after-year can be something special.”

The Rundown

• Cincinnati is 20th in the preseason AP poll, its first time entering the season ranked since 2017-18. Its last time ranked overall came in 2018-19, which was also the last year it made the NCAA Tournament.
• Cincinnati enters the upcoming season with its deepest roster to date under Wes Miller, as the Bearcats returned six of its top eight scorers (66.9 percent of its points from last year).
• The Bearcats posted four ranked wins (@ BYU, TCU, @ Texas Tech, vs. Kansas) and led the Big 12 in rebounding margin at 7.2, which ranked 16th nationally.
• This is also the first fan-attended preseason game in Wes Miller‘s four years at the helm.
• Dan Skillings Jr. was UC’s leading scorer last year at 12.9 ppg, which included eight-straight double-figure games to close it out. His 25 in the blowout of Kansas at the Big 12 Tournament was his most in a league game, besting his 24 at Baylor and 21 against UCF, the latter on his 21st birthday.
• Aziz Bandaogo, who like Skillings was Big 12 Honorable Mention, missed the first four games last year due to the NCAA transfer waiver process and averaged 6.6 ppg and 7.4 rpg. He even had four blocks against No. 14 Baylor in the Big 12 Quarterfinals as part of a three-game sequence that included 10 swats.
• Day Day Thomas was the third-leading scorer at 10.4 ppg while posting team-highs of 3.3 apg and 1.7 spg. His 61 steals overall were the most by a Bearcat since Cashmere Wright in 2011-12. He exploded for 29 points on 7-of-10 three-point shooting against WVU to open Big 12 Tourney play, but suffered a season-ending broken foot in overtime of the NIT opener. He recovered by the start of summer workouts.
• Jizzle James took over in his absence at the starting point guard spot and scored 25 and 21 points in consecutive games to finish the season. His defense grew exponentially as the year progressed, and Wes Miller remarked in the preseason that in his 14 years as a head coach, he never saw a freshman with his daily work ethic than Jizzle showed.
• Simas Lukosius battled numerous minor injuries in non-conference play but showcased his true form down the stretch, notching game-winners at No. 15 Texas Tech and against Kansas State and San Francisco. He was second to Skillings at 11.8 ppg, which included averaging 16.9 on 41.6 percent 3-point shooting in March, en route to scoring his 1,000th point in the finale.
• The returners are complemented by a standout transfer class that includes Connor Hickman (senior, Bradley), Dillon Mitchell (junior, Texas) and Arrinten Page (sophomore, USC).
• Hickman played for third-year Cincinnati assistant coach Drew Adams at Bradley as a freshman, and he averaged 14.5 ppg with 91 assists and a 40.2 percent clip from deep as a junior. He also boasts strong defense and athleticism.
• Mitchell, a former McDonald’s All-American, started 71 games over his two years at Texas, a proven Big 12 standout who had a career-high 21 points and eight rebounds against national champion UConn last year. He started the lone meeting between the Bearcats and Longhorns last year, going 4-for-6 from the field (10 points) with four rebounds over 37 minutes.
• Page was recruited as hard as anyone by the Cincinnati coaching staff as a high schooler in Atlanta, but he ultimately went to USC before choosing the Bearcats out of the portal. His freshman season saw him start four games (three in Pac-12 play), and he will complement Aziz Bandaogo well in the post.

COURTESY UC SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS