On Sunday evening the Cincinnati Bearcats played their biggest game of the season when they invited conference foe No. 6 Houston Cougars in to Fifth Third Arena. It was the first time that Wes Miller got to lay his eyes in person on Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars. Houston fresh off a Final Four run, Sampson has been chasing the Bearcats since he arrived in 2014, the last two seasons they have reversed the role flipping from the hunter to the hunted.
Last season, under a different staff the Bearcats lost to Houston twice once in the regular season 90-52 and in the AAC Championship Game 91-54, both games were never close and the once tough ‘Cats got taken advantage of during the whole 40 minutes. Fast forward to Sunday when the Bearcats lost to Houston 80-58, it started bad, but the Bearcats made a run to get the game to within 11 at the half and got it to 8 after half, but three missed open looks allowed Houston to gather themselves and re-takeover the game. While, there aren’t a moral victories in losses, you can loss at a loss to see the progression and what you need to work on.
Wes Miller’s thoughts on Houston, “There is just a level of play. This is the sixth-ranked team in the country and they went to the Final Four last year. I’ve been around college basketball now for a really long time. I’ve been around really good basketball programs. That’s a really good basketball program.”
Another quote, “We got our butts kicked tonight. It doesn’t feel good. I’m extremely pissed off. We got the sense that our team was as well, as we should be. We’ve got to learn from it. There is a lot of basketball left to be played. Tip your cap off to Houston.”
Cincinnati lost by 22 points while you saw that Houston was the better team, at times the home team put a fight. If you wanted the previous two games where they lost by an average of 37.5 points and either game had a point of competitiveness. A loss is a loss, but this game shows Miller what type of players he will need to get into the program and develop moving forward.
Just think last spring he was hired and nobody knew who wasn’t in the portal for this team to have 15 wins they are over achieving, the Illinois win early in the season sped up the timeline in fans minds, but if you knew how the current roster was constructed, you knew it would be a tough season for the new head coach. Miller has a good class coming in that will help with getting more athletic and having more size. With today’s game who knows what the transfer portal will hold for the Bearcats?
While in the AAC for one more year Houston is the measuring stick, the staff knows that, but don’t panic #BearcatNation give Miller and crew time, trust the process.
