The long, strange trip that was Cincinnati Bearcats basketball began in mid-October and ended in a Sin City tournament that saw them finish out of the money against a Big 12 rival minus its two best players.
A 42nd season of UC basketball with 20 wins was denied and for the first time in memory, the Bearcats may have played their best game in a charity exhibition opener vs. Ohio State. It was their first win against the Buckeyes since the 1962 National Championship. Fittingly, it didn’t count.
Cincinnati Bearcats forward Aziz Bandaogo (55) gets the tip over Ohio State Buckeyes forward Sean Stewart (13) in the first half of a charity exhibition with the Buckeyes at Fifth Third Arena Friday, Oct. 18, 2024.
It was believed that returning nine players from the 2023-24 squad that won 22 games was a plus. The returns of Dan Skillings Jr., Jizzle James, Day Day Thomas, Aziz Bandaogo and Simas Lukošius supposedly gave UC a core group of starters. It was accentuated with the transfer portal arrival of former McDonald’s All-American Dillon Mitchell from Texas, shooter Connor Hickman from Bradley and additonal big man Arrinten Page from USC. C.J. Fredrick and Josh Reed would provide depth and freshmen Tyler Betsey and Tyler McKinley were expected to play.
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Some of that was accurate. Most of it came up short of the finish line.
To be fair, UC had its share of setbacks. Thomas was injured before Big 12 Media Day and missed early games. McKinley injured an ankle and had to redshirt. Skillings Jr. looked like himself in the season opener with 17 points and 11 rebounds, then was out until the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout with Xavier. From there, he had a Jekyll and Hyde year.
Fredrick battled injuries for two seasons. Hickman was a starter while Skillings was out, then suffered an injury requiring him to wear a boot and missed the bulk of the Big 12 campaign. Lukošius suffered a shoulder injury at Iowa State and couldn’t ever get back to the late-season form he exhibited in his first year.
That said, only Hickman and Fredrick were out against UCF in the College Basketball Crown quarterfinal (as they had been the bulk of 2025). The Knights lost top scorer Keyshawn Hall in the portal to Auburn and Jaylin Sellers was injured and in the portal. Finding motivation tough in an MGM Grand Garden Arena sparsely filled with vacationers and family, the Bearcats lost to an undermanned team that appared to want it more.
How could so many ‘experts’ miscalculate Cincinnati Bearcats?
This was a question The Enquirer asked in early February after an excruciating home loss to West Virginia. UC had an 11-1 non-conference start, then from Dec. 30 to Feb. 4 went 2-8. The USA Today Coaches poll, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, Andy Katz, Jon Rothstein and Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News had the Bearcats as a Top 25 team.
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The Bearcats had a high NCAA.NET ranking of 10 on Dec. 1, but it dropped to No. 50 at season’s end. Still, that was the best of the Big 12 schools that did not make the NCAA tournament.
UC’s good games, mysteries, sour notes
The Good: After beating Ohio State by 18 in the Charity Classic that didn’t count, UC had a dominant 55-point win to start the year vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Before November was up, they won a local road challenge at NKU, then manhandled Georgia Tech in Atlanta by 23 points. The Yellowjackets owned wins over two ranked ACC teams this season: Louisville and Clemson.
In December, the Bearcats broke a losing streak in the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout, beating Xavier 68-65, then six days later they made up for the 2023 loss to Dayton by beating the then-No. 22 Flyers at Heritage Bank Arena, 66-59.
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From there, “good” games were infrequent. After a second four-game skid in the Big 12, the Bearcats bounced back in Orlando with a 93-83 win over a UCF team at full strength which would turn out to be a Quad 1 victory. They followed that by avenging two losses on their Utah swing, beating BYU by 18 and then the Utes back-to-back.
In late February, home wins vs. TCU and Baylor were clutch, but by then UC needed every win. They lost their last three, then recovered for a Big 12 tournament win over Oklahoma State. The next night, they were eliminated by an Iowa State team they had played closely in Ames, but couldn’t replicate the effort in Kansas City.
The Mysteries: After a 6-0 November, reality hit Dec. 3 at Villanova when UC’s only lead was for the first 49 seconds of the game. They would get down nine by halftime and seemed to have no answer for 6-foot-8, 260-pound Eric Dixon who had 31 points. Villanova would win 68-60 as the Bearcats didn’t seem to have any fight in them and were minus Skillings Jr. who had been out close to a month at that point. Halftime deficits and struggles with bulky power forwards would become a theme for the season.
After seemingly righting the ship at 10-1 including the Xavier and Dayton wins the Bearcats took off on the Big 12 road to Manhattan to battle Kansas State Dec. 30. At full strength, UC could only lead for 24 seconds late in the first half. This time 6-foot-10 Coleman Hawkins was better than UC’s bigs with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
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Three more Big 12 losses would take its toll, but UC had a home game with then-No. 11 Kansas Jan. 11. The Bearcats had the Fifth Third Arena sellout crowd on its feet with a 25-24 halftime edge. Sadly, they would score just 15 more points. Both teams were horrific on 3-pointers (3-for-22 for UC, 2-for-21 for the Jayhawks). Lukošius was 1-for-10 from the field and the Bearcats remained winless in the Big 12.
Sadly sour: After a 0-2 Big 12 start, UC went to Baylor and was whipped by 20. Mitchell would somehow play 31 minutes with just two rebounds and no points. Norchad Omier, a 6-foot-7, 240-pound power forward had 18 points and 10 rebounds. Another incident of a bulky big man enforcing their will.
At BYU, UC allowed 52 second-half points and 15 treys as the Cougars humiliated them on the same floor where much of the same Bearcats won the year before. Three days later they allowed 85 points to a slumping Utah team.
The worst was yet to come as once UC got home for February, they could only score 50 points in a going-through-the-motions loss at home to West Virginia.
Cincinnati Bearcats guard Day Day Thomas wound up shooting over 40% from three-point range, but UC lost on Senior Day vs. Kansas State. They lost their last three games then went 2-2 combined in the postseason Big 12 tournament and College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas.
After rebounding by going 5-2 the rest of the month, the Bearcats needed March wins. They were competitive at No. 4 Houston but then saved the most sour outing for Senior Day. Needing a home win for many reasons, the Bearcats blew a halftime lead for just the second time, allowing Kansas State to play spoiler yet again, 54-49. Wes Miller blew a gasket, then UC made its postseason chances even more slim with a loss at Oklahoma State.
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The Bearcats all but needed to win out at the Big 12 tournament. They avenged the Cowboys loss in the opener, but Iowa State bludgeoned them on the boards 41-23 and sent UC home with a 20-point defeat. Three weeks later, UC beat a short-handed, sub-.500 DePaul team in the Crown, before being sent to the showers a final time by UCF’s Darius Johnson and the Knights who seized the moment and the money.
In 1992, Bob Huggins embraces guard Anthony Buford as John Jacobs and Corie Blount stand in the background. The Cincinnati Bearcats beat Memphis (State) for a third time in the Elite Eight and advanced to their first Final Four in 29 years. It had been 15 years since UC’s last NCAA tournament appearance.
Brief history lesson
As disappointing as the season was, the last time UC entered a power conference, the Big East, Andy Kennedy was not allowed to recruit as a result of the Bob Huggins/Nancy Zimpher debacle. Kennedy won 21 games and made the NIT.
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Mick Cronin, with a bare Bearcat cupboard, had to battle through two losing seasons before having two winning seasons and making the NIT in 2010. Cronin then had his first three NCAA appearances from 2011-2013 in the Big East before UC was outmaneuvered and sent to the AAC from 2013-2023.
Cronin’s first NCAA appearance at UC came in his fifth season. Miller, who had two NCAA appearances at UNC-Greensboro, is approaching his fifth UC season.
UC hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2019 or six seasons. A longer drought took place from 1977-1992 when the Bob Huggins Bearcats, after 15 years of not “dancing” under Gale Catlett, Ed Badger and Tony Yates, advanced to the Final Four.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Top 20 to transfer portal. A look at Cincinnati Bearcats odd season
