Preview Paw Prints: Xavier

The Crosstown Shootout returns to a packed Fifth Third Arena on Saturday.

CINCINNATI — Crosstown Shootout week is here as UC tries to win the rivalry game for the first time since 2018, the last time this series played to a full UC crowd. Xavier has a new coach this time around as Sean Miller makes his return to the rivalry.

Miller coached the Musketeers from 2004-09 before taking over the Arizona program. Now he's back in Norwood as UC faces the most hyped contest of their season.

"It's as big time a game as we have in college basketball," Miller said during his weekly press conference. "I've been really fortunate to be a part of some really, really cool rivalries and really cool games. It's as good if not better than any game I've ever been a part of in terms of just what it means to people in the community and the energy in the building, and that was on the road last year."

Cincinnati enters the game having beat Xavier just four times since 2007. 

Yet, they lead the all-time series 51-38 in a rivalry matchup that began with a 29-25 Xavier win back in 1927. ESPN's Matchup Predictor has Xavier winning 52.2% of the time.

Let's dive into some things to watch in the 2022 Crosstown Shootout.

Youth Boost

© Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

If Cincinnati wins on Saturday—it'll probably be because they get a continued impact out of the freshman. Dan Skillings and Josh Reed have splashed over the past few games. Skillings is fresh off career-highs in points (14), rebounds (13), and minutes in UC's 97-71 win over Bryant. All while Josh Reed added the same career highs (10 points, 9 rebounds, 18 minutes).

Cincinnati needed the production on Sunday, as they are now down two rotation players. Guards John Newman III and Rob Phinisee both got hurt in recent weeks and aren't expected back before the end of non-conference play. It's created valuable opportunities for those freshmen.

"Losing John, and losing Rob," Miller said. "Those are things that you don't want to happen, they have, but there's good things that come from that, even though they're things you didn't want to happen. And one of the good things is it's given opportunity to younger players, and it's given opportunity for older players to be in different roles, then guys will grow, and our team will grow, and our program will grow if we handle that the right way."

One of those older players in a different role is David DeJulius. The lead guard now has to take on more playmaking responsibility. He tied for the second-most single-game assists of his career against Bryant (7 assists).

That's his most since posting the same amount against Evansville to open the 2021-22 season. Continued distribution from DeJulius is crucial on Saturday.

Stringing Another Strong Performance

© Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

UC is playing strong basketball since taking the worst point-differential loss of the Wes Miller era against Ohio State, albeit against the terrible competition. Can they keep things rolling against a real NCAA Tournament contender? We are about to find out.

Bryant (No. 178 in KenPom) is the best team they've played over this winning streak, and the Bulldogs were missing six players due to illness. Louisville (No. 211) and NJIT (No. 340), are flat out bad and they beat the brakes off them like (potentially) good teams should.

UC is averaging 88 points and outscoring teams by 23.7 points over the past three games. That includes a 57%-plus effective FG rate in every outing and no defensive rating over 91.2. Oddly enough, UC came into last year's 83-63 blowout against Xavier (currently No. 29 in KenPom) on a two-game winning streak that included a 15-point win over Bryant.

"We certainly didn't play well last year," Miller said. "So that's kind of stuck with us for a long time. So I hope we play better basketball. I'm certainly really excited to see what the environment's like here in Clifton."

The performances feel more sustainable during this streak, but we'll find out once and for all how UC stacks up against a top-40 team at home.

Musketeer Offensive Machine

© Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

Xavier is the best offensive team UC will face at Fifth Third Arena this season. they outpace Houston in offensive efficiency (XU: 11th, HOU: 20th) and have five players averaging at least 11.4 points.

Sean Miller hasn't missed a beat with his offensive acumen. UTEP transfer guard Souley Boum (16.6 Pts, 3.9 Reb, 4.0 Ast) averaged 18-plus points each of the last two seasons for the Miners and is carrying that production over to Norwood. His efficiency is flat-out insane for a 6-foot-3 guard (team-high 70% true shooting, 63.8% eFG).

He's the best volume three-point shooter (51.6%) on a Xavier team hitting 43% (!!!) of their threes through nine games. That ranks fourth nationally.

Colby Jones (15.5 Pts, 5.1 Reb, 5.8 Ast) is the Musketeers' second-leading scorer and three-point % leader (55% on 2.5 shots per game). He's one of the best distributors in the country (21st nationally in assists per game).

Near the rim, Cincinnati has to play Jack Nunge (15.2 Pts, 7.6 Reb, 1.4 Ast) and Zach Freemantle (13.0 Pts, 6.9 Reb, 3.2 Ast) again. The former dropped a career-high 31 points on UC last season in a physically dominant performance.

"They're playing two true post players," Miller said about the big duo. "You don't see as much of that anymore. We saw that against Arizona. ... So when you see that it's different than what you're used to, and certainly, what we're used to and the way we guard each other every day the way we've been playing this year. So you have to prepare, you got to be ready for the physicality."

Freemantle can be a bear to deal with due to his movement skills and how well he can pass at different levels of the floor.

"You got to answer the bell on the backboards," Miller continued. "And they do a lot of really good things, again I haven't dove too far into the scout, but they do a lot of really good things in their half court, to kind of play off of each other, ones out there screening in the dribble handoff where the other one's kind of playing off of them around the basket."

We'll find out how well UC can handle the pairing this time around. Saturday's game tips off at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2. It's available on fuboTV—start your free trial here.

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