Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Drops Third Consecutive Game With Loss to Baylor

The feelings from a historic non-conference winning run are feeling further and further away.

Jan 7, 2025; Waco, Texas, USA; Baylor Bears forward Josh Ojianwuna (17) scores a basket as Cincinnati Bearcats guard Day Day Thomas (1) defends during the first half at Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Chris Jones-Imagn Images / Chris Jones-Imagn Images

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bearcats are going the wrong direction in league play. Wes Miller's team dropped another close conference contest 68-48 at Baylor on Tuesday night and are last in the Big 12 standings (10-4 overall, 0-3 in the Big 12).

It marked the worst conference loss Cincinnati's suffered since entering the league after getting throttled 83-75 at TCU last season.

Baylor guard V.J. Edgecombe (18 points, four assists) put up a dominant freshman performance to complement Norchad Omier's (18 points, 10 rebounds) continued showcase this season. He flashed all the skills as the nation's top rebounder. Dan Skillings Jr. (18 points, career-high 5 made threes, 18 points in three-straight games) had his best career shooting game, but it didn't impact UC's fate.

"I think it's deeper," Miller said on 700 WLW about issues Cincinnati needs to fix. "I think we have to dig into every aspect of our program in terms of how we're playing and make some real adjustments. And I think we all have to be better in that way. That's the truth of it, but it's like anything? Yes, there's a lot of things we could talk about."

UC's loss marks just the fourth time in the Miller era that the team's lost three games in a row. The Bears are now 4-0 all-time against Cincinnati.

Season Lowlight

2025 isn't treating Cincinnati basketball well following the team's worst loss by scoring margin this season. The cycle of slog went back and forth on defense and offense for the first time as well.

Cincinnati's been at 41.5% shooting over the past five games but cratered down to 34.7% on Tuesday in another bad offensive performance against a good road opponent. Cincinnati is 0-3 in those opportunities this season. Backcourt play has a lot to do with it. Jizzle James and Simas Lukošius combined for 10 points and five assists in another lackluster performance from the pair. 

Baylor took the Lithuanian completely out of his game just like the two other opponents since starting league play. His three lowest field goal outings this season have all come in the last three games (2-7 on Tuesday). Cincinnati's offensive ceiling is extremely capped if that continues. They were the same issues we've seen recently: ball denial and little burst when he gets a handle.

The assist number is strong (five for Lukošius), but Cincinnati needs a complete offensive showing from him more consistently.

The whole backcourt in general isn't coming close to the depth expectations exiting conference play. Connor Hickman is averaging less than five points per game after going 0-2 shooting against the Bears. Outside of Day Day Thomas, no one is able to actively get into aggressive paint spots in the half-court and it's stifling Cincinnati's rim activity.

"That's what they've been doing, especially their first two league games, primarily," Miller said about Baylor playing switching man-to-man defense. "So then played a little zone, and we didn't see that because they're switching, was so effective. I don't think he felt like he had to adjust. But so we spent all day yesterday, working on that. Worked on it in the ballroom today and in our shootaround process. So we worked really hard at it. And you know, we just didn't handle it very well. Did not play well, did not shoot well, did not make good decisions in the first half."

Getting beat 40-16 in paint points can never happen against any opponent at Cincinnati. That number was less than 10 entering the final few minutes of the game. Dillon Mitchell (zero points, two rebounds) had none of those in his worst game at UC.

Edgecombe Impacts

Baylor's premier five-star freshman showed why he's highly touted on a 7-13 shooting night against Cincinnati's 19th-ranked field-goal defense entering the game.

Edgecombe scored in a variety of ways from catch-and-shoot threes to athletic drives to the rim with a massive dunk mixed in. He showed a glaring talent impact compared to Cincinnati's backcourt at 6-5, 180 pounds. Edgecombe shot just 28.6% from deep entering the game but went 2-4 on Tuesday to break through with a nice shooting stroke.

Cincinnati's defense struggled to stop paint penetration from Edgecombe and all of Baylor's ballhandlers. Wes Miller threw everything at the wall with 11 players getting looks into the rotation. Baylor's freshman phenom and the rest of the Bears' guards were dialed in on the mission to attack early in the shot clock and eat the rim at home. Baylor went 22-40 from two-point range in a showcase of their efficient offense.

Edgecombe had a lot to do with it looking like a top NBA Draft pick.

Skillings Shooting Wows

Skillings is finding his jumpshot form in conference play unlike most of Cincinnati's lineup thus far. The dynamic wing was one of two Bearcats to hit multiple threes in the game and has now done that in four consecutive games.

Cincinnati needs more of it and more players to follow, but Skillings did his part on the offensive end inside a tough road setting. He got his shot off and made multiple contested looks in a slogging offense rhythm around him. Skillings has come back from his knee injury and played really strong basketball. Yet, one player doesn't make a team, and Skillings mixed into the roughest defensive night yet by UC.

He ended up a -12 in the game and posted a 113.2 defensive rating with two stops. Not all of that was on him—he just wasn't enough to wash everything away. These are great signs from a player whose biggest weakness has been shooting. He''s finding and answer there from multiple shooting spots, but a majority of the roster had no answer in Cincinnati's worst Big 12 loss since joining the league.

"We all got to be freaking better, and I can tell you this, that's what I believe in, and that's the challenge, the contract I make with myself as our head coach," Miller said about the next step. "That's the the standard that everybody in our program will be held to, and I think that's the character of the young men in that locker room.

"And that's not easy, but what we're trying to do is not easy, and if we can handle it the right way and keep building, we can look back to the stretch that we're in and maybe point to this as a turning point for this team and that's the goal. I'm not just trying to paint a good picture. I'm disappointed, frustrated. So is everybody in that locker room, but we got to handle it the right way. There's only two choices right now, handle it the right way or the freaking wrong way. But most of us understand the right way and that's what we're going to do."

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