Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Storylines: Lipscomb Bisons

CINCINNATI — The holiday break is over for Cincinnati Bearcats basketball. Lipscomb comes to town on Monday night with both teams sitting at 7-5 overall this season, getting ready for a 7 p.m. ET matchup on ESPN+.

UC enters the game a 13.5-point betting favorite with a point total sitting at 149.5. The Bearcats are just 4-8 against the spread after covering by one point against Clemson last weekend, while Lipscomb is 7-3 ATS this season as arguably the top veteran-laden team in the Atlantic 10.

Cincinnati should get forward Jordi Rodriguez back for the game tonight, while Tyler McKinley's knee recovery is still up in the air. UC is in a tailspin during Miller's fifth season.

They will enter conference play with at least five losses for the first time in his tenure and are the second-lowest ranked Big 12 team in the NET rankings (UC at 107th and Utah at 138th are the only Big 12 teams ranked lower than 92nd).

"We really amped up our schedule in this non-conference," Miller said after the 68-65 loss to Clemson, where they trailed by as much as 27 points. "It's frustrating. Of the four Power Four games we've lost, we've had a chance to win every single one of them. It's frustrating we haven't won more of them. In terms of getting ready for the Big 12, that was a Big 12 game. They feel more like a Big Ten or Big 12 team than an ACC team."

UC is 3-0 all-time against the Bisons with a plus-63 point differential.

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We are entering the point of most lost basketball seasons, where the coaching staff starts making big changes to the lineup in an effort to spark any turnaround. That's exactly what I expect to see tonight at Fifth Third Arena.

It's time for Kerr Kriisa to get benched for Jizzle James moving into Big 12 play. The former has been horrendous this season and looks like a broken scorer who's gun-shy from physical contact. It's the only way to explain the veteran taking 91.8% of his shots from deep and hitting 29% of them.

He refuses to take open short-range shots or even attack the rim at all (14 total shots from inside the arc). Even with an elite 29% assist rate, Kriisa cannot keep a Big 12 offense afloat, ignoring every shot from inside the arc. There are simplytoo few ways to score when your lead ballhandler cannot threaten to score. He's got a disgusting 94.3 offensive rating this season to crater Cincinnati's total adjusted offensive rating down to 265th nationally.

Kriisa did not play in the second half last week, and Shon Abaev (92.9 offensive rating, 46.6% true shooting this season) only saw three minutes. Both could get major adjustments to playing time moving forward.

"First off, you start to assimilate a player like Jizzle (James) back on the team," Miller said after the loss. "There's just a gravity he has on the floor. He's done a tremendous job of doing so with grace and being so humble. There's a presence he has on the floor, and that's going to affect rotations and lineups. There's just no way around it as we move onto league play. But, to speak on the specifics of that after an emotional loss would be a mistake."

Abaev is a freshman, yes, but UC is running out of time to keep letting him work through freshman issues against easily the weakest teams he will face the rest of this season. He hasn't been good enough defensively to justify a team-high 28.2% usage rate on that TS% (eighth on the team) and a 15.3% assist rate (seventh on the team).

Those changes are the biggest things to monitor tonight, and there's no reason not to try something new, even if it leads to an upset loss. Lipscomb can surely pull it off if they play to their potential. The Bisons are 114th in the NET and have a solid offense scoring 83.3 points per game (83rd nationally).

They have a comparable size to UC, diverse scoring (six players averaging at least nine points), and great shooting (36.1% from deep, 80th nationally, 77.3% from FT line, 24th). If Cincinnati starts slow like it tends to do and gets into foul trouble, it will be in clear danger of finishing non-conference play 7-6 overall.

Catch the game at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

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