Cincinnati enters this week’s Big 12 tournament not knowing exactly how many wins it needs to assure itself of an NCAA Tournament berth.
But the ninth-seeded Bearcats definitely need at least one and will have that opening opportunity when they face No. 16 seed Utah Tuesday afternoon in Kansas City, Mo.
Cincinnati (17-14) saw its chances of an at-large bid reduced when it dropped its regular-season finale 73-63 at TCU on Saturday. The setback snapped a two-game winning streak for Cincinnati, which shot 44.2% from the floor and had 19 turnovers.
Day Day Thomas led Cincinnati with 19 points while Jalen Celestine added 12 points and Baba Miller had 14 rebounds for the Bearcats, who had won six of their previous seven games to play their way onto the bubble.
“I can’t think of a time I’ve been at Cincinnati that I’ve felt that a team is more focused and more dialed into what they have to do to succeed,” Cincinnati coach Wes Miller said after the loss to TCU. “… The approach, the mentality — these guys are dialed in. They want it badly.
“My only focus right now is let’s get ready to play on Tuesday, and then we’ll take it from there.”
The Utes (10-21) head to Kansas City after a 101-75 loss at Baylor on Saturday. It was Utah’s fifth straight loss and its 12th in the last 13 games in a season it likely can’t wait to put in the rearview mirror.
The Utes hit 60.4% of their shots from the floor in Saturday’s loss but that positive was countered by turning the ball over 16 times and allowing 31 points off those miscues. Utah also gave up 58 points in the paint and 15 second-chance points.
Don McHenry led the team with 20 points while Terrence Brown added 16 and five assists and Keanu Dawes hit for 14 points for the Utes, who trailed by 20 at the break.
“We kind of replicated the same mistakes we’ve made for the last couple of weeks,” Utah coach Alex Jensen said. “But it’s hard to be in a game, let alone win a game, when you give up 22 points off of turnovers in the first half. We’ll regroup and hopefully we’ll all do a better job of not making the same mistakes over and over.”
The Bearcats beat Utah 69-65 at home on Feb. 15 in the only game between the teams this season.
The winner of Tuesday’s contest will move on to play eighth-seeded UCF Wednesday afternoon.
