6. Day Day Thomas’s defense has been spectacular recently. Over his last three games, he is averaging nearly four steals per game. It seems like ball just finds him sometimes when he’s on defense.
7. Speaking of steals, excellent job by Cincinnati taking care of the ball and forcing turnovers Saturday afternoon. It’s proof that complementary ball handling does work and leads to wins.
8. I cannot wait to see what Jizzle James’s stat line from game-to-game looks like when his role expands. If he’s consistently producing eight points, three rebounds and three assists with no turnovers per night this season, look out for the future years.
9. If Aziz Bandaogo has underwhelmed you as a Bearcats fan this season, I get how you feel. But his presence is absolutely paramount to this team. He has eight straight games with five or more rebounds. What that tells you he is you’re always left wanting more, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad player or hurting the team. He’s a good player who has, maybe to you, underachieved in Big 12 play after such a strong start to the season once he became eligible.
10. Jamille Reynolds and Josh Reed have done so many small things for this basketball team. On Saturday, they combined for 18 points, six rebounds in 31 combined minutes.
11. West Virginia head coach Josh Eliert was verbally upset after the game. And he should be. His four leading scorers, who each averaged double figures coming into Saturday afternoon’s game, were each held below double figures in this game. One thing he said that stood out to me was that his team has had an inconsistent mindset this season. That’s not something you want to say about your team heading into the Big 12 Tournament, a tournament in which West Virginia is the 14 seed and playing Cincinnati again on Tuesday afternoon.
12. Speaking of which, we got a rematch Tuesday afternoon in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. Now I know what you’re thinking: winning five games in five days is nearly impossible. But it has been done. UConn did it in 2011, en route to winning the national championship.
Here we Stand: The Bearcats finish their first season in the Big 12 in 11th place, 7-11 in Big 12 play. Considering the intensity of the competition and injuries this team had to endure, they put forth an admirable effort for two-plus months. And with the potential of a strong corps returning next season, the Bearcats future in the Big 12 looks bright.
Big 12 Tournament Outlook: The 11th-seeded Bearcats will take on 14th-seeded West Virginia Tuesday afternoon at 3 E.T./2 C.T. in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament. If the Bearcats win, they will take on the 6-seed Wednesday night at 9:30 E.T./8:30 C.T.. The No. 6 seed could be Kansas, BYU or Texas. Win that game, and the Bearcats would take on 3rd-seeded Baylor Thursday night at 9:30 E.T./8:30 C.T.. But as Wes Miller said after the game Saturday afternoon, he’s treating every game as a one-game tournament. The only game that matters is Tuesday afternoon against West Virginia, as the Bearcats look for the season-series win over the Mountaineers and their first ever Big 12 Tournament win.
