By Cord Rankin

GAME NOTES

https://gobearcats.com/documents/2024/12/2/2024-25_Game_Notes_Villanova.pdf

CINCINNATI — The No. 14 Cincinnati men’s basketball team’s third road test of the season awaits with former league rival Villanova on Tuesday night as part of the Big 12-Big East Challenge. Tip-off is at 6:30 p.m.

THE RUNDOWN

• Cincinnati is 6-0 for the second-straight year, with last year’s 7-0 start being the best since 2017-18. UC had also shot 50 percent or better in the first five games, its best-such streak since late 2002, until the ASU game.
• UC is ninth in KenPom and 11th in the first NET. Its latest deficit is 15:18 in the first half and two points overall.
• The offensive consistency includes four or more double-figure scorers in each of those six games. Jizzle James, Dillon Mitchell and Simas Lukosius have scored in double-figures all of them as well.
• UC is second nationally in shooting (53.6 percent) and lead in effective field goal percentage (61.4).
• Cincinnati has allowed 60 or fewer points in all six games, the program’s longest streak since eight in 2017-18, and that squad reached the top-five in the national polls.
• NKU is the only team to shoot above 36 percent on the Bearcats, whose 34.6 percent clip for the season ranks third in the country.
• The perimeter defense should also not be forgotten. Cincinnati is 10th nationally in allowing 25.2 percent from deep. Alabama State was the first team to make more than five treys against UC. Georgia Tech’s season-lows in points, field-goal percentage, three-point percentage and rebounds remain from that Nov. 23 contest.
• The 81-58 rout of Georgia Tech marked UC’s ninth-straight win over the ACC that dates back to 2009. Mitchell was the headliner, collecting his first Bearcat double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. The junior had eight at Texas last season and is tied with James for the team-lead of nine steals.
• Five members of the rotation are shooting 50-plus percent, and that includes Arrinten Page, who at 8.7 ppg also is tied for the team lead in foul shooting at 75 percent. His eight blocks are second to Aziz Bandaogo’s 17.
• Lukosius is third nationally at 57.9 percent from deep and 21st in assist/turnover ratio at 4.0. He was 19-of-37 in the three NIT games, which puts him at 54.7 percent over the last nine overall. The two-year Butler letterwinner scored his Bulldog career-high of 28 points against Villanova at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Jan. 2023.
• Connor Hickman is four points away from 1,000 for his career (played his first three years at Bradley). He also has only four turnovers in 150 minutes while manning the 2-guard position in Dan Skillings Jr.’s absence.
• Bandaogo is seventh nationally with 2.8 blocks per game. He had a season-high nine rebounds against Alabama State, a point of emphasis as the Bearcats await Skillings’ return (6.4 rpg last year, 11 in the opener).

SERIES HISTORY

• The former Big East rivals meet for the first time since 2013. Cincinnati won the last three of those, and Villanova leads 6-4 all-time.
• The first game was in 1947, and the succeeding nine were between Mick Cronin and Jay Wright.
• The 2013 game saw Cincinnati stretch a 32-29 halftime lead into an 18-point game with 6:15 to play. JaQuon Parker and Sean Kilpatrick led the Bearcats with 19 points each.
• It will be a homecoming for junior Dan Skillings Jr., who while is not expected to play, is a Blackwood, N.J., native who played at Roman Catholic High School in downtown Philadelphia.

COURTESY UC SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS