By Chris Coopersmith

GAME NOTES

https://gobearcats.com/documents/2023/12/14/2023-24_MBB_Game_Notes.pdf

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati and Dayton men’s basketball teams will meet on the hardwood for the 92nd time, and first since 2010, Saturday night in downtown’s Heritage Bank Center at the Hoops Classic presented by altafiber and CareSource (7 p.m.).

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THE RUNDOWN

• Cincinnati’s 8-1 start is its best since 2018-19, when it opened 9-1.
• The Bearcats had an unorthodox 32-point win against Bryant on Tuesday, shooting 26 percent in the first half before 59 percent in the second. UC led by six at the under-8 media timeout, with a game-ending 18-1 run decimating the Bulldogs, who defeated No. 10 Florida Atlantic earlier this season.
• UC’s season-high 10 blocks countered its first game of the season without a positive assist-turnover ratio (still ranked 11th nationally at 1.75).
• Aziz Bandaogo’s first UC double-double featured season-highs of 12 points and 17 rebounds. He had 17 twice last year with Utah Valley (at Wake Forest and Seattle). It marked a Bearcat’s most boards since Tre Scott in Feb. 2020 against UCF, and UC’s 57 were its most since the 2017-18 opener.
• Bandaogo has played five games and holds the team’s highest plus/minus average at 18.8, which included a UC-best 12 at Xavier. He is averaging 13.5 rpg and 3.0 blocks per game over the last two contests.
• Viktor Lakhin’s 12 boards Tuesday marked his third game with 10-plus, and it was his first this year without a 3-point attempt. The power duo have helped UC to the nation’s seventh-best rebound margin (7.2).
• Jizzle James did not let up from his career-high, 19-point breakout at Xavier, finishing with 11 points and three assists over a season-high 22 minutes. The freshman joins sixth-year and master’s grad John Newman III as the only Bearcats without a game in the minuses (excluding Bandaogo, who missed the first four). James, who had six turnovers in his first two games, has only five in the seven games since.
• CJ Fredrick’s 14 points included three more treys, making his teams 11-0 the last two years when he does so. The Cincinnati native is shooting 48.7 percent from deep on the year, up from 31.8 at Kentucky last year. He held a 46.6 percent mark over his two Iowa years (2019-21).
• Cincinnati was one point away from having eight-straight games of 80-plus points. The 85 against Bryant harkens back to this season’s earlier-such streak, marking the program’s longest since 1959-60, Oscar Robertson’s senior year. UC’s 86.1 and 35.3 bench ppg are 16th and 10th, respectively, in the nation.

SERIES HISTORY

• Saturday’s contest is a throwback matchup with the Flyers, who are the Bearcats’ third-most-played rival. Tip-off will be the 92nd meeting between the teams, trailing only 149 to Miami (Ohio) and 100 to Louisville.
• This is the first meeting between the teams since 2010, also played at Heritage Bank Center (then U.S. Bank Arena), and UC doubled UD with a 68-34 victory.
• The Bearcats have won 15 of the last 18 meetings since 1989, leading 60-31 overall.
• These teams also played twice over a three-week span in 2005, UC’s first in the Big East. The Flyers won the first in Fifth Third Arena, but the Bearcats got revenge in Las Vegas at a tournament.

RETURNING TO THE RIVERFRONT

• The Heritage Bank Center was Cincinnati’s home arena from 1976-87. The Bearcats then moved to Cincinnati Gardens the next two years before opening Fifth Third Arena in 1989, Bob Huggins’ first year at the helm.
• Cincinnati started its Riverfront Coliseum history 23-0. It won two games in 1975-76, its final year using the on-campus Armory Fieldhouse, then won 21 more once the coliseum became its full-time home.
• UC has also won 19 of its last 20 there, dating back to the 2002 C-USA Tourney, boasting a 115-50 overall record.
• Its largest crowd was 17,038 against Louisville on Jan. 7, 1978.
• While Dayton is receiving votes in the poll, UC was 5-11 against ranked teams in the venue. Its highest win was against No. 6 Marquette in 1977.
• Cincinnati and Xavier split their 2012 and 2013 Crosstown Shootouts in the coliseum, a neutral-site decision based on the aftermath of the infamous brawl. Other trips before that include Dayton in 2010 and Oklahoma in 2011.
• Heritage Bank Center hosted Metro Tournaments in 1978 and 1983, as well as Conference USA in 2002.

COURTESY UC SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS