Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Storylines, Betting Line: Eastern Michigan Eagles

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats basketball team is a big betting favorite again on Wednesday night as they welcome in the Eastern Michigan Eagles for a 7 p.m. ET tip-off on ESPN+. UC is a 23.5-point favorite with a point total sitting at 146.5.

UPDATE: Cincinnati won't have Baba Miller or Jalen Celestine for tonight's game. UC head coach Wes Miller mentioned Celestine did not look right against NJIT and decided to limit his minutes as a result.

He is shooting 20.8% from the field since returning from his offseason injury.

Baba Miller is missing his second consecutive game with a hip issue, giving him a full week or more to recover. Cincinnati will have to make due without its top scorer.

The Bearcats came close to covering the last game but got off to a slow start against NJIT in a 94-67 win. They enter this game 5-1 overall and 2-4 against the spread, while the Eagles are 3-3 overall and 2-4 against the spread. UC is 48th on KenPom, while EMU is 236th.

Both teams are 2-4 to the over this season as all eyes fixate on Baba Miller and his hip injury. It would be a bit surprising to see him play less than two days after missing Monday's game. He did not practice over the weekend.

"He hasn't practiced and was not able to do anything leading up to this game," Wes Miller said after the NJIT win. "I don't think it's a long, long-term thing, but it's a day-to-day thing for sure. I think Wednesday's up in the air. It's all about his healing process. I hope we can have him back sooner rather than later."

Cincinnati won the only previous meeting with the Eagles in the school's history, a home 102-79 in 1996. EMU is led by Redshirt freshman forward Mohammad Habhab (15 points and 10.8 rebounds), senior guard Carlos Hart (14.2 points per contest), and senior forward Addison Patterson (12.7 points).

More Extended Minutes

Cincinnati's young players got some great Division 1 experience on Monday night with Baba Miller out and still dominated the scoring line in the process. A repeat of that against Eastern Michigan would be a great way to squeeze the most out of another tune-up game.

Keyshuan Tillery is still understandably a major work in progress as a smaller freshman point guard, but they need him to taste all the action possible to be ready for Big 12 play. He played a season-high 19 minutes, but had a zero plus/minus, a team-high three turnovers, and a technical foul.

He has plenty to work on, but this is what the non-conference slate is for.

Halvine Dzellat performed well in his chance to shine with a career-high 11 points in 14 minutes, while Jordi Rodriguez posted double-digit points as well in his best UC showing after going nearly two weeks without a minute in the rotation. UC is settling into a 31st overall ranking in adjusted tempo this season. They are going to need as deep a rotation as they can muster, and getting all of these guys' confidence will only help them in a much tougher back half of the non-conference and one of the toughest conference schedules in America.

"I'm glad we got to get some extended minutes for some guys that haven't gotten to get them, like Keyshuan [Tillery], he’sso important to our team this year, as we move forward, with him getting out there and getting extended minutes and getting to play through some mistakes," Miller said on Monday. "I think that's really important because we are going to need him to become more confident and ready to compete and play.

"I thought there were some really good moments from him tonight that he should gain some confidence from. Same thing with Halvine [Dzellat]. getting those extended minutes and doing a nice job with them on the backboards. So again, those are some of the positives. Also with Jordi [Rodriguez], I thought he had a great loose ball that was a Bearcat type of play."

Eastern Michigan is a tier above NJIT on defense and offense entering this game. They have much more size and will try to slow down the pace to interrupt Cincinnati's tempo. It's a nice tune-up matchup to keep trying to build momentum toward next week's Crosstown Shootout.

UC should be able to find some shooting success here and take great care of the ball. EMU ranks outside the top 240 nationally in threes allowed and turnovers forced. Another 25-plus point win should be on the table here as the deeper part of Cincinnati's rotation gets some more experience they can lean on later.

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