Nobody saw this coming and if you said you did then you are just lying to yourself. The Cincinnati Bearcats Men’s Basketball not only beat No. 14 Illinois Fighting Illini, but they crushed them with the final score being 71-51. Like I said we all didn’t see this coming. Unbelievable.
Notes:
- The Bearcats fell 23-8 midway through the first half as Kofi Cockburn was making his season debut for Illinois and it looked early that he was on his way to having a potential career night, but Wes Miller and company did not panic and that was so great to see because last year that team would have folded under the old coach.
- Mike Saunders- A player that Wes wanted to keep when he was hired for the job. He was the difference-maker after UC were down 15 points. While coming off the bench Saunders had 20 points, 5-of-6 from the field and 9-of-10 at the free throw line. Illinois was not ready for the speed of Saunders.
- Jeremiah Davenport- The Preseason Second Team All-Conference had 19 points and seven rebounds while going 4-of-8 from the three point line.
- Can we talk about the Bearcats defense? It was vintage Cincinnati. After the 15 point defecit it was a clinic by the team. Illinois were turning the ball over finished the game with 14 and UC were just in their faces. They started to double team Kofi down at the post and the shot blockers of this team were giving him a hard time and it was type of in game adjustment they needed and it was succesful.
- Illinois finished 28.1% from the field and 3-of-22 from three.
- UC did a great job at the charity stripe going 17-of-20 and winning the rebound war (40-36).
An all around team win in Miller’ first high marquee victory as the Bearcats head coach. They have a shot to win a championship in the Hall of Fame Classic tournament on Tuesday (9:30pm on ESPN2) as they will play No. 13 Arkansas game.
