Bearcats Beat: Bearcats lead wire-to-wire against TCU, not yet ready to make their case for NCAA Tournament

CINCINNATI — Bearcats head coach Wes Miller didn’t mince words with how important Saturday’s 75-63 win over TCU is for the Bearcats.

On Saturday, just 22 days away from Selection Sunday, the Bearcats led from start to finish against a Horned Frogs team that had won five of their last six coming in and had just beaten No. 9 Texas Tech this past Tuesday.

Cincinnati (16-11, 6-10 Big 12) has won four of its past six games to rally from an apathetic 2-8 start to Big 12 play, giving themselves a path to be in favorable position for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. In Bracketology terms, the Bearcats have a path to put themselves on the right side of the bubble.

“When you win in February in the Big 12, it is a good feeling and just finding a way to win is great,” Miller said. “That’s what matters most, and that’s the part I’m excited about. Obviously, we had a rough start in the first half of league play, but we have won four of six now. That’s something in this league that is good and there’s a lot of good teams that haven’t won four of six, so I’m proud of that.”

Miller expressed frustration after Wednesday’s loss at West Virginia because he believed his team was playing much better than it was in the first half of Big 12 play. To credit Miller, the Bearcats had the lead early in the second half at No. 10 Iowa State last week and had West Virginia on the ropes midway through the second half in Morgantown this past Wednesday.

It’s somewhat bold to openly say that you think your team has been playing much better, even after dropping a second straight game. And if you are going to say that, your team better back up  that belief in its next game.

Not only did the Bearcats do just that on Saturday, they did so by racing out to a 13-0 lead against the Horned Frogs. They held TCU scoreless through the first 5:55 of the game, and they also started the second half on a 13-4 run that turned a 31-24 halftime lead into a 44-28 lead early in the second half.

“I thought the way we started both halves was a key for us tonight,” Miller said. “I thought that was the most active we were defensively all night and the sharpest we were offensively to start those halves. I think that it is really important to talk a lot about how we started the game and how we started the second half.”

Another key for the Bearcats in Saturday afternoon’s win was rebounding. Cincinnati out-rebounded TCU 39-32, snapping a two-game streak where the Bearcats were out-rebounded by the opposition. The Bearcats also had 12 offensive rebounds Saturday afternoon and held TCU to just 18 second-chance points on 13 offensive rebounds.

“What I was kind of focusing on was winning the rebound war,” Dillon Mitchell said. “”I know that’s going to help us win games. We’ve been struggling with it recently, so I kind of took it personally and tried to do my best. I know if we can handle that, then everything else falls in place for us.”

From what we saw last year, this Bearcats team was expected to be an elite rebounding team. They’ve struggled on the boards for what feels like much of Big 12 play, but this is the time of season to make rebounding this team’s calling card as March Madness approaches.

Speaking of which, the elephant in the room remains this team snapping a six-year drought of not making the NCAA Tournament. That was the baseline expectation coming into this season.

Right now, it still feels far-fetched for this team to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament this season. Apparently it’s also far-fetched for Wes Miller to state a case for his team that they are worthy of an at-large bid.

“I don’t need to make a case for the talking heads that want clicks,” Miller said. “The committee will meet in a couple of weeks. I don’t need to make a case for our tournament bids.

“When we get to the point that the regular season ends, we’ll get ready to play in the conference tournament and make a case for the only people that matter—the committee. I have friends that are on television and all that kind of crap. I’m not negating what they do and what they say. It’s great. I love the game. But no, I don’t need to convince them.”

Okay then.

Miller also added that all he’s focused on is next Tuesday night, when the Bearcats welcome in the Baylor Bears. The Bearcats were throttled by Baylor 68-48 back on January 7th, in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score indicated.

The path to 10-10 in the Big 12 continues on Tuesday night. Another loss could force the Bearcats to have to win the Big 12 Tournament to get into the NCAA Tournament. Just as the power and lights went out in Fifth Third Arena, abruptly ending Wes Miller’s postgame press conference Saturday, another loss would also turn the lights out on the Bearcats at-large bid chances.

One game at a time. We will continue to find out what this Bearcats team is made of as we gear towards March.