UC Basketball Morphing New Identity on Both Ends Heading Into 2022-23 Season

The Bearcats are a versatile, veteran laden group with high expectations for the upcoming campaign.

CINCINNATI — Wes Miller enters his second year as head coach of UC men's basketball with a much different style of team. The twin towers of Abdul Ado and Hayden Koval left the program as the top active shot blockers in college basketball.

Cincinnati is replacing them with high-energy, positionless basketball.

"It's not the same this year, but the positive is we have four guys on the floor who are over 6-foot-5," Miller told the media on Tuesday. "The wingspan is different, and we can cover more ground, so there are some neat things you can do there, like denying more passes and double-team a little bit more and some of the pressing stuff we've done in years past. It's not all bad or all good, but you have to learn how to utilize the gifts that you do have. I do think we are trending to more positional size across the board even though we lost some of it in the interior."

So far in practice, effort is the driving force for success. The sessions I've seen are intense and focused on building the defensive chemistry Miller demands from his best teams.

Since 2016, his squads haven't finished outside the top 97 nationally in points allowed once.

Last year's unit was top-50 much of the year until that brutal stretch at the end losing eight of their final 10 games. The Bearcats ended up 75th in defensive efficiency.

"Yeah, it's a lot different," Miller said about the defensive structure. "Certainly, there are adjustments you're making, to your strategy defensively to compensate for that. I will say we lost that shot-blocking rim protection at that position, but we did gain a ton of length and athleticism on the perimeter. So, you sacrifice one for the other, but how you utilize that is different than how we utilized Hayden and Abdul last year. I think we have a really good plan of what we're doing defensively, it's not so new, a lot of the foundational things from last year for those returning guys they are able to carry over, but some of those adjustments are a little bit different.

"One thing I'm trying to get our returning guys and our older guys to understand is we could get away with that play last year on the ball or that kind of help [defense]. We didn't want it like that, but we got away with it because Abdul’s behind you, or Hayden's behind you. That's not the case now—our strengths are in other areas. So, there's certainly an adjustment. We've been thinking about that all off-season since the roster was complete. It's going to be for the returning guys a little bit of an adjustment early. But, I think the things we're doing will help us."

Help defense and communication are major pillars of UC's defensive goals. I've noticed a heavy focus in practice on half-court defense and understanding how to cut off angles to the rim as a group.

The Bearcats are one of the most positionless teams in program history heading into the season. That is true on offense as well, where Kalu Ezikpe steps in from Old Dominion as the new staple at "center."

"Obviously, Abdul and Hayden are true centers. So, you could say that last year we were maybe more traditional. This team's more modern, and they were very positionless so again, you can't compare Kalu to Hayden or Abdul because they're very different players." Miller said about Ezikpe's role.

"So even if the way that you guys want to evaluate our team says, 'well Kalu’s at the same position that Abdul was in last year,' but it’s not the same. So how we utilize that is totally different, Kalu’s more of a true forward. He's got perimeter skills—he can really handle the ball, he can really pass. He's got great athleticism. I'm trying to get him to figure out how to unlock that athleticism with how he plays to get his motor running, to do some little things to take advantage of that combination of width, strength, power, quickness, feel. We're going to use him completely different than we used Hayden and Abdul because even though that might be the biggest guy on the floor, it's not the same position.”

More ball-handling versatility, like Miller mentioned, should only help this team that finished 145th in offensive efficiency and 143rd in pace. Getting out on the run immediately can be a strength of this team and help them get easy fast break buckets that demoralize defenses.

“I think in our transition offense, it's very different," Miller said. "We're playing four true perimeter players in most lineups. We're really trying to keep the middle of the floor open. And then we're letting that forward that's in the game look to run for some dunks or layups—but also trail the play—you just see so much more space in the middle of the floor.

"I think you try to have some very organized structure and how you're coming down the floor, but then you try to also allow different players to play to their strengths. Kalu’s a really good ball-handler. He's a really good passer. So, we might let him push the ball and push the brake a little bit. We might try to play through him on reversal in different ways than we played through the guys.”

Cincinnati is continuing its transformation under Miller, heading into Year Two at the helm. A faster, more dynamic, chameleon-type team just might be the right elixir to unlock greatness and a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.

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