By Henry Rawn

1 28 2025

GAME NOTES

https://gobearcats.com/documents/2025/1/26/2024-25_Game_Notes_at_Utah.pdf

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati men’s basketball team will look to end its Beehive State trip on a high note when it battles Utah on Tuesday night inside the historic Huntsman Center (10 p.m. ET).

THE RUNDOWN

• BYU shot 15-of-24 from deep, including 11-of-15 in the second half, to pull away from a tight first half on Saturday night. Cincinnati is 11-1 when leading at the half, with the only loss at home to No. 11 Kansas.
• The Bearcats trailed 28-23 after missing a 3-pointer and allowing one in the final possessions, and it was the lowest offensive output for BYU in any home half this year. Cincinnati had entered last Tuesday second nationally in 3-point defense (26.9 percent) before Texas Tech and BYU found 27 combined treys.
• This is only the third time in four years under Wes Miller that Cincinnati allowed 80-plus points in consecutive games, the last being the 2022 Maui Invitational. The Bearcats are still second in the Big 12 and 14th nationally at 62.7 ppg allowed.
• Simas Lukosius had a team-high 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc. He is 10-for-25 the last four games from deep (40.0 percent) after a 3-for-22 spell the previous five (13.6 percent).
• Dan Skillings Jr. leads UC in Big 12 play scoring at 12.0 ppg, with Dillon Mitchell first in field goals at 52.4 percent. While Skillings did miss six games due to injury early in the year, 14 of his 17 three-pointers have come in Big 12 play. For the season, his 32.1 percent mark is a career-high by 3.7 percent, something the junior has improved each year.
• Mitchell has been entrusted with the largest offensive role of his career yet, which includes starting 71 games at Texas his first two seasons. His 44 dunks are third nationally, with Aziz Bandaogo fifth at 42.
• Cincinnati has only turned it over 8.5 times over the last four games, putting it 21st nationally at 10.0 per contest. Jizzle James only has two over the last five games, spanning 119 minutes. He had five dimes in the BYU game, his ninth outing this year with five or more, including a near half-court alley-oop to Aziz Bandaogo.
• Cincinnati came away with 13 offensive rebounds, including 10 in the first half alone, on the heels of having only 12 the prior two games. Skillings leads UC with 24 offensive rebounds out of 51 total, with Bandaogo next at 50 out of 114. All six of Skillings’ rebounds in the win over No. 22 Dayton were on that glass.
• Cincinnati was shooting 75 percent from the foul line (on 56 attempts) the last three games after 52.3 the previous four until it had only four attempts against BYU.
• Arrinten Page has scored 16 points over the last two games, his best-such stretch since Nov. 15-19. Rayvon Griffith ended the BYU game with his first four points of Big 12 play in only 2:13 of action.

SERIES HISTORY

• The highlight of this game is Gabe and Mason Madsen playing against Cincinnati for the first time. Gabe played only two games as a true freshman in 2020-21 before opting out in that COVID year, and Mason played 2020-22, with the second being Wes Miller‘s first year as the head coach. Mason did not make his UC debut until after Gabe had departed.
• Mason averaged 3.9 points per game as a sophomore for UC, where his 36.3 percent clip from beyond the arc leading the team. He then played the next two years at Boston College.
• It is the first game against a former Bearcat since the 2021-22 season, when Mamoudou Diarra and Tennessee Tech came to Fifth Third Arena.
• The last time these two teams played, former letterwinner and national champion assistant coach Tay Baker was in his first year as the Cincinnati head coach. At 97, he is believed to be the oldest living former Division I basketball head coach.
• Cincinnati defeated Utah in the 1961 Final Four before taking down Ohio State for its first of two-straight titles.
• UC also competed in the Huntsman Center in the 1995 and 2003 NCAA Tournaments. The first was a win over Temple before falling to UConn, followed by a first-round defeat to Gonzaga.
• The Bearcats last year faced Caleb Loener at Baylor and Mike Sharavjamts at San Francisco.

COURTESY UC SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS