Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Destroys Arkansas-Pine Bluff in Season Opener

Cincinnati got off on the right foot to start the 2024-25 season.

Oct 23, 2024; Kansas City, MO, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats head coach Wes Miller talks to media during the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Media Day at T-Mobile Center. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bearcats started a highly-anticipated 2024-25 season with authority in a 109-54 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Plenty of names up and down the roster got a taste of the action as Cincinnati's depth overwhelmed likely the worst team they'll play this season. Dan Skillings Jr. led the way with 17 points and 11 rebounds while Simas Lukošius answered with 20 points and four assists.

UC has never lost a season opener under Wes Miller and moved to 6-0 all-time against APB. It marked the largest margin of victory in the Wes Miller era (55 points) and the most points by UC in one game under him.

Deep Depth

Cincinnati got a lot of minutes for players up and down the roster on Monday. Nine UC players scored in this one and showed how many options they can access throughout the 2024-25 campaign.

From seasoned veterans to true freshmen, there was a lot of good experience on Monday night from Wes Miller's team. Dillon Mitchell (10 points, eight rebounds) and Jizzle James (12 points, 10 assists) struggled to get going early on, but turned it on in the second half against the 355th-ranked team in KenPom.

Arrinten Page (nine points, two rebounds) looked strong in his Cincinnati debut following his freshman season at USC. He was the main force behind Aziz Bandaogo and looked like a mismatch for APB's second unit like he should have. The ball pinged around well from him and the whole rotation, pouring in 27 assists as a team.

It could've been a much worse scoreline if APB didn't hit a few well-contested threes.

Betsey Bombs

Freshman forward Tyler Betsey (six points, three rebounds) fit in immediately on Monday. He is going to be a nice sharpshooting weapon for Cincinnati in its pursuit to stretch the floor at a high level all season.

UC shot a scorching 57% from outside and Betsey played a part in that. Getting him solid run to start the season should only help his development down the line. The jump shot looked really clean from his first pull and mixed in with Connor Hickman's (13 points, four rebounds) quick motion to give APB a ton of problems on the perimeter.

Cincinnati's ceiling will get smacked via strong shooting from outside, relentless rebounding, and great defense. They flashed all three on Monday.

Free Throw-No

One other reason this resulting score looked a bit closer than it felt was free-throw shooting. Miller and his staff put a heavy emphasis on the issue this season after shooting 68.8% from the stripe last season (299th nationally).

It was worse on Monday (57%), for no discernible reason as the deep shots dropped in smooth like butter. Three-point shooting and free throws are usually correlated but not at Fifth Third Arena tonight. Cincinnati's painful five-point or fewer losses last season sometimes boiled down to a few free throws here and there.

It's not like they aren't working on them, one could argue there's never been a bigger focus on the issue, and they have 30 more chances this season to bring that part of the game up to par.

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