Bearcats Beat: Cincinnati searching for answers and consistency after falling to 0-2 in Big 12 play

CINCINNATI — It appears as if the Cincinnati Bearcats are taking a page out of the Cincinnati Bengals playbook; start slow, play from behind, look to bounce back and see where the season ends up. But is that a clear plan for the Bearcats going forward? How will they bounce back and get off the mats in Big 12 play? What about them gives you, as Bearcats fans, confidence that they are going to get things right and reassert themselves as a contender in the Big 12?

The Bearcats are 13 games into the season, but the College Basketball regular season doesn’t really start until conference play begins. Once conference play gets underway, that’s when the intensity of the College Basketball regular season rams up 10 notches and the Journey to the Tourney begins. Thirteen games and two Big 12 games in, the Bearcats still don’t have a team identity.

“You can’t keep spotting teams and putting yourself in holes, and that is what we did tonight,” Bearcts head coach Wes Miller said. “I was displeased with our defense in the first half. I thought we were casual in the first half, and that surprised me.”

Watching the Bearcats in the first half yesterday, I asked myself multiple times; what’s the plan here? What’s the Bearcats gameplan? Because, to me, it feels like when the Bearcats aren’t executing lob passes into highlight-reel dunks, they don’t have a clear plan to put points on the scoreboard.

Wes Miller did credit Arizona’s perimeter defense in making the Bearcats uncomfortable in the first half. But it shouldn’t be that way. This Bearcats team has way too many shooters that can hit three-point shots and way too many players that can get to the basket for this offense to have looked stagnant like it did in their first two Big 12 games.

Last year, Cincinnati’s first in the Big 12, was about proving they could be competitive and wouldn’t get overmatched. They proved both of those things, which was great. But this season is about taking that next step. It’s about winning games against teams like Arizona, Kansas, Baylor, Iowa State and Houston.

The Bearcats never won consecutive games in Big 12 play last year, at least in the regular season. Four times the Bearcats had a multi-game losing streak in Big 12 play. So far this season, the Bearcats are 0-2 in Big 12 play.

For as good as this Bearcats team is defensively and for as good as they’ve shown they can be offensively, this team is still searching for an identity. This team, in both Big 12 games this season, has come out with a clear and obvious gameplan.

Their opponents, on the other hand, have come out with a clear and obvious gameplan. Kansas State’s gameplan was to not let Sims Lukosius get off any good looks from three-point range and not give the Bearcats any entries to the paint. Arizona’s gameplan was to make the Bearcats uncomfortable on the perimeter on defense and get good shots on offense. Both Kansas State and Arizona’s gameplans worked. The Bearcats couldn’t counter with a gameplan of their own.

“We found a way,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said. “We had a big lead and then games get tough. The game was tied, and we drew something up out of the timeout that we haven’t done before.”

Arizona is an experienced, veteran-laden, seasoned program. Moving to the Big 12 from the Pac12 hasn’t fazed them. They’re 2-0 in Big 12 play. They look really good, versatile, tough and well-coached.

The Wildcats are who Cincinnati wants to be but hasn’t shown it has what it takes to be. This Bearcats team is still searching for their identity, still searching for consistency across 40 minutes in Big 12 games. They need to come out with clear and obvious gameplans in Big 12 games. Teams like Arizona know how to win regardless of what their gameplans are. That’s the other thing; great teams can change their gameplans from game-to-game and still find ways to win.

With 20 games this year in Big 12 play, there’s still a lot of time left for the Bearcats to figure things out. But every game matters, and Cincinnati is already playing uphill in Big 12 play for a second straight year. They’re still searching for consistency and a lot of other things that great teams in the Big 12 already have.