Preview: Cincinnati Searching for Revenge Against Temple

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats men's basketball team wraps up a rare three-game week on Sunday afternoon. Cincinnati (17-9, 7-6) welcomes in the Temple Owls (14-9, 7-5) for a matinee affair.

The Owls own arguably the best defense in the conference, and it was on display in a 61-58 win over UC last month. Cincinnati enters the game ranked 85th in KenPom, while Temple is 127th. ESPN's matchup predictor has Cincinnati winning 75.7% of the time.

Wes Miller is surely hoping his team can bottle some of the makes from their best shooting performance of the season on Thursday and transfer them two days later. It won't be easy against one of the nation's top field goal defenses.

Temples ranks 23rd nationally, allowing a 45.2% effective field goal percentage this season. In the AAC, they own the second-best FG% allowed (39.5%) and top three-point defense (26.1%). The entire roster has bought in on that side of the floor—only Damian Dunn and Hysier Miller have AAC defensive ratings over 100 among Temple's rotation players.

Speaking of Dunn (team-high 17.2 points in conference play, 3.4 rebounds), the guard gave UC fans nightmares from his second-half performance in the first game and has been in double-figures every game but two this season.

Dunn relies on one efficient weapon to lead Temple's offense. Overall, the guard is a poor shooter, posting a 29.4% three-point line on 5.1 attempts per game and hits 43.9% of his two-point shots. That leaves him 33-of-36 in eFG% among qualified AAC players (44.2%).

Free throws are the only reason Dunn can crack that list. He's hitting 83.3% of his 6.6 conference attempts per game. That ranks him sixth among AAC players in FT rate (43.1%) and fifth in FT percentage on the whole season (84.8%).

The 6-foot-5 guard doesn't do much playmaking (two assists per game), and neither do the Owls in general. Temple is ninth in the AAC at 11.8 assists per game. Dunn likes to probe the defense all shot clock then make something happen driving to the basket. He ranks fifth among AAC players this season in usage rate (27.2%) and shot percentage (27.4%).

If Cincinnati can make him hit those usual inefficient shooting marks and keep him off the FT line, they'll be sitting pretty towards the end of the game. Unless Temple's leading assist man can orchestrate the offense in his own right. Jeremiah Williams (10.7 points in conference, team-high 3.8 assists, 3.4 rebounds) has found a knack for setting up teammates over the past month and a half.

The guard matches Dunn at 6-foot-5 and is the only sufficient playmaker on the team, but struggles with turnovers (2.2 TOVs in AAC play, second-most behind Dunn). He also has the second-highest turnover rate on the team of anyone that's played 400-plus minutes the entire season.

He counters that with a scorching 30.1% assist rate—which ranks fourth among all AAC players this season. Look for Cincinnati to use a trapping scheme in this game to force the ball out of the backcourt and over to players like Nick Jourdain (10.5 points in conference play, six rebounds, team-high 1.9 blocks) and Jahlil White (8.6 points in conference play, 43.1% eFG, team-high 7.1 rebounds) to beat them.

Those are the two players you want controlling the offense, especially Jourdain, who sports a 41.7% eFG rate in conference play (worst of any Temple rotation player). The forward is more than willing to take the reigns and seal Temple's fate against Cincinnati's defense—judging by a 22.5% usage rate this season (third-highest on the team).

Temple is a classic grind you out, few mistakes, win ugly type of team. They rank 50th nationally in offensive rebound rate (32.2%), 115th in turnover rate (17.7%), and is an elite free throw hunting team led by Dunn (37.8% FT rate, 23rd nationally).

Cincinnati faced a similar opponent on Thursday and blitzed them early at home. Starting fast, setting the tempo, and getting breathing room is essential against Temple and that defense. The Bearcats showed encouraging ball movement tendencies against the Shockers that can translate here.

UC surely doesn't want to be in another tight crunchtime scenario with Dunn running the show again. They'll have their chance at revenge and can gain some momentum down the stretch of this season starting at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday inside Fifth Third Arena. The game is airing on ESPN2.

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