Bearcats Beat: How Bearcats Put Oklahoma Loss Behind Them And Shock Kansas Monday Night

CINCINNATI — It’s not been said often of these Bearcats that they need to toughen up. But with Kansas (9 p.m., ESPN) up next in Lawrence Monday, they need to toughen up fast.

On Saturday, they suffered a rare moment when an opponent came into Fifth Third Arena and proved to be the bigger, more physical team.

On Tuesday, they survived being outrebounded for the first time this season in an 81-77 overtime win over TCU. On Saturday, they weren’t so lucky as Oklahoma took it to the Bearcats 41-34 on the glass and outscored them 34-28 in the paint.

It cost them in the end in a 69-65 loss to the Sooners that dropped them to 13-5 and 2-3 in the Big 12. What also burned the Bearcats Saturday was their inability to convert open looks from beyond the arc, going 7-for-26 from deep and again missing the mark at the stripe, where they were 14-for-22.

“They kicked our butts on the boards. That’s two games in a row that’s happened, and I’m frustrated by that,” Bearcats coach Wes Miller said. “I didn’t think we played our best basketball. I’m disappointed, and if we had found a way to win, I would have been happy and proud and would have sat up here and told you, but I’m not. For some reason, we’ve had better attitude, approach and effort all year than we had today. I’m not sure why, but we’re back to it. We don’t have time to dwell, because in this league you have to respond and get back to work. We have a big game in 48 hours.”

John Newman III actually drilled a three that brought the Bearcats within three, 61-58, with four minutes left. But UC missed their final five threes and could never climb the mountain.

Now, the mountain gets even steeper. No. 3 Kansas (15-3) is coming home after losing at lowly West Virginia Saturday and will be on short rest just like Cincinnati as the two teams meet Monday night at Phog Allen Fieldhouse.

“It’s been tough, but it’s what we signed up for,” said Newman, who scored 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting. “The guys that came here wanted that challenge in the Big 12. We have a great opponent every night. Truth be told, it’s made me a better person. Like Coach Miller said, you can’t dwell. It hurt today, but even on the off nights you aren’t playing, you have to stay sharp in your mind and body. it’s the nature of our league: bangers every night.”

Here’s what the Bearcats have to be ready for Monday in Lawrence:

Playing in the Phog: The crowd will be intense and looking to give their No. 3 team a boost.

Cincinnati flipped a nine-point deficit with 9:23 to play into a chance to tie with 15 seconds left, but the Sooners were able to escape in what was a defensive shooting battle for both teams. The Kansas game will cap a six-game, ranked-opponent streak, Cincinnati’s longest since 1994.

Day Day Thomas, fresh off 21 points against TCU and 15 at Baylor, had six assists for the second-straight game. Since seven turnovers in the league opener at BYU, he has 17 assists to six turnvoers as well. His 59 assists and 28 steals both lead the Bearcats.

Jizzle James has also committed only 11 in his last 16 games, including none in each of the last three. Cincinnati is the only team in the Big 12 without a point guard that has prior four-year college experience.

Dan Skillings Jr. will always be the team’s X-factor. He had season-lows in minutes and shot attempts on Saturday, but he poured in 24 at Baylor and 13 against TCU, including the game-winning layup with 22 seconds left. UC is 13-1 in the sophomore’s career (9-1 this year) when he scores in double-figures. His first-career start was at No. 12 BYU, and he had no fear in scoring the first points and finishing with 10.

The Bearcats set quite a defensive tone early and often with three blocks in the first three minutes versus Oklahoma. Viktor Lakhin’s five were a season-high (career-high is 8 last year), and Bandaogo’s two gives him 15 in 10 games. His 106 last year at Utah Valley ranked third nationally.

While UC struggled to find its groove from beyond the arc (7-for-26, and the team is 6-0 this year when making 8 or more), defensive ace John Newman III is 7-for-14 since Christmas. He had missed eight in a row until then, but his impact as the team’s heart and soul transcends the box score no matter the line.

Cincinnati did take a step in the right direction with eight turnovers, a Big 12 season-low after averaging 14.8 over its first four. The dramatic TCU win also included a 52.5 FG% and 50 paint points, the latter a TCU opponent season-high.

Defensively, Cincinnati still holds the distinction of holding potent BYU and Baylor to their respective season-lows (and both as the road team). UC boasts the No. 20 defensive efficiency in KenPom.

UC has lost the rebounding battle only twice: its last two games. The Bearcats are still ranked 12th nationally with a 10.0 margin, a seismic shift from ranking 101 last year and 211 in 2021-22.

Cincinnati great Oscar Robertson’s 56 points in a 1958 NCAA Tournament win over Arkansas remains the Allen Fieldhouse singe-game scoring record.

UC leads 4-3 all-time. The only meeting since the 1960s came at the United Center in 1996. Cincinnati, coming off an Elite Eight appearance, fell just short to arguably the greatest team to not win a title.

On Saturday, Javian McCollum overcame a right ankle injury to score a team-leading 16 points as the No. 15 Oklahoma Sooners held off the host Bearcats.

Otega Oweh added 14 points while John Hugley IV scored 11 for Oklahoma (15-3, 3-2), which won on the road in Big 12 play for the first time in three tries.

Simas Lukosius paced Cincinnati with 16 points, who lost for the third time in four games.

Josh Reed sank two free throws with 28.7 seconds remaining to slice the Oklahoma lead to three, 65-62. Oweh then missed the front end of a 1-on-1 and Cincinnati had a chance to tie. But the Bearcats couldn’t get a 3-pointer hoisted. Instead, Lukosius made just one of two free throws with 10 seconds left.

Rivaldo Soares drained a pair of free throws with six seconds left to ice the game for the Sooners.

Newman’s wide-open three from the left wing with 4:07 left drew Cincinnati within three, 61-58.

Trailing by three, Cincinnati had a pair of chances to tie the game with three minutes remaining but Viktor Lakhin and Simas Lukosius missed 3-point attempts.

Oklahoma responded with a layup as the shot clock was expiring and then capitalized on a Cincinnati transition turnover with an Otega Oweh dunk with two minutes left to expand the lead to 65-58.

Saturday marked the first meeting in Big 12 play between the two schools and the first since Cincinnati edged Oklahoma, 56-55, on Dec. 29, 2011.

While Cincinnati is in its first season of Big 12 play, Oklahoma will leave the conference following this season for the SEC.

Cincinnati jumped out to an early 11-6 lead thanks to blocks from big men Aziz Bandaogo and Viktor Lakhin in the opening two minutes of the game that energized the jam-packed Cincinnati crowd.

Lukosius paced the Bearcats with 13 first-half points, including three 3-pointers.

Cincinnati went through an ice-cold shooting stretch, during which they missed nine straight shots and 12-of-13.

Oklahoma, which missed their first five shots of the game, finally took advantage by going on a 10-4 run and taking their first lead, 16-15.

The evenly played, back-and-forth first half ended in a 31-31 tie.

Oklahoma took a 43-38 lead when Newman drained a corner three as the shot clock was expiring. But Le’Tre Darthard came back with a layup and Sam Godwin grabbed the rebound on a missed free throw.

McCollum hit the jumper in the lane to expand Oklahoma’s lead to 47-41. However on the play, McCollum reaggravated his right ankle injury from the first half and came out for medical treatment on the sideline.

McCollum returned less than two minutes later and converted a layup that put the Sooners up, 55-46, with 9:23 remaining.