Cincinnati coach Wes Miller is trying to instill confidence in his team coming off losses at Iowa State and West Virginia as the Bearcats prepare to host surging TCU on Saturday.
Cincinnati (15-11, 5-10 Big 12) was on a three-game winning streak before the 81-70 loss to the Cyclones, ranked No. 10 at the time, and the 62-59 setback to the Mountaineers.
“We’re 3-2 in our last five and we’ve had chances to win both games on the road, Quad 1 games,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of basketball left. There’s some bad leagues. There’s some leagues where you don’t have chances to build resumes and make statements.
“There’s not a bad game in this entire league. Everybody in this league’s really good. Every win’s a good win. We’ve got another opportunity against a good team on Saturday.”
TCU (15-11, 8-7) has won three consecutive games, including a 69-66 win at home over No. 9 Texas Tech on Tuesday.
Noah Reynolds scored 16 points, including the last seven for TCU. Reynolds leads the group in scoring at 12.9 points per game.
The Horned Frogs, who will attempt to achieve their first four-game winning streak in the Big 12 since 2017-18, are 9-1 this season in games decided by five points or fewer.
“We’re a team that is getting better and figuring things out,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We lost our starting point guard (Frankie Collins to a foot injury) at the beginning of the year.
“People wrote us off and now we keep on moving up. That’s what we’re going to keep doing.”
TCU’s Ernest Udeh Jr., 6-foot-11 and 260 pounds, is considerably larger than Cincinnati’s top frontcourt players. He is 20 pounds heavier than Arrinten Page and 25 more than Aziz Bandaogo.
In the win over Texas Tech, Udeh had 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Cincinnati forward Dillon Mitchell had a double-double (13 points and 11 rebounds) last year with Texas when the Longhorns won at TCU.
It was one of eight double-doubles he achieved last season. He has three double-doubles with the Bearcats this season and leads them with 6.3 rebounds per game to go with 10.0 ppg. Jizzle James paces the squad at 12.2 ppg.
–Field Level Media
