Three Man Weave: Bearcats Beat Dan Skillings Jr., Baylor Wire-To-Wire At Home

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats got back to above .500 on the 2025-26 season Wednesday night through a 67-57 win over the Baylor Bears at home.

Dan Skillings Jr. (10 points, seven rebounds) returned to Fifth Third Arena mostly with a thud. The veteran player who suited up in the Queen City for three seasons couldn't find an answer for Cincinnati's strong defense this season.

Baba Miller (18 points, 17 rebounds, three assists) continued his team-leading consistency, while Jizzle James (17 points, four rebounds) popped for the first time since the big win over Iowa State. Both took great care of the ball like most of the team (eight total turnovers).

Baylor shot just 35.4% from the floor and now leads the all-time series 4-2, splitting a pair of meetings last year.

Threes Stay Afloat, Carr Sinks

Cincinnati got just enough shooting touch to factor into Wednesday's win over the Bears. UC shot 8-29 from outside to continue the rough shooting numbers from there, but just enough in a defensive war.

Baylor shot terribly from the other side as a normally good deep shooting team (6-26), and it snowballed from there. Cincinnati gave up open outside looks, but it just wasn't the Bears' night. That rang through the most for Bears top scorer Cameron Carr (four points), who entered the game averaging 20-plus points and a 62.7% effective field goal rate.

That evaporated inside Fifth Third Arena en route to his lowest point total by far this season and his first game under 10 points. The big guard couldn't find any pathways to his hot shooting spots and didn't find any of those open three-point looks to start creating clear space in the paint. Cincinnati played great overall defense against him, and this entire top-25 scoring offense nationally after giving up 82 points to Arizona State.

Skillings had a rough time finding the bottom of the net in his return to Cincinnati (5-12 from the field), and continued to look like the same high-potential player who can't quite put it together. He attacked the rim well at times but had poor rim touch on those close shots and couldn't get much else going offensively.

He ended up being a big black hole for the Bears, who got little playmaking from him all game, despite one of the highest usage rates on the team. Skillings may have been too eager to prove something in this contest, and that played into Cincinnati's favor.

His return marked the first time a key part of Wes Miller's former teams came back to face the Bearcats in a contest.

Bearcats Player of The Game: Baba Miller

Miller has been the Bearcats' clear best player all season long, and he continues to dominate our Player of the Game tallies. The forward was assertive early, getting to hot spots around the rim and not worrying about trying to find that elusive outside shot.

His aggression set a strong tone for Cincinnati that boosted a full-half lead for his team. The Spaniard's rebounding continues to be among the best in the country as he helped keep up with a solid rebounding team nationally in Baylor, and flew around for huge missed heaves.

Add in strong interior defense on the other end, and you get a much-needed complete game from the potential All-Big 12 performer.

Miller and the Bearcats get a few days to prepare for their next Quad 1 outing against No. 10 Houston Saturday at noon on FOX.

Bookmark Bearcats Talk for the latest news, breakdowns, and so much more. Check out our YouTube page as well, starting with the video below.

Also, don't miss the podcast, Bearcat Blitz, wherever you get your shows!

Apple: http://apple.co/4fI26zj

Spotify: http://bit.ly/3OqvD4l

YouTube: http://bit.ly/414XiQ6

-----

Be sure to keep it locked in on Bearcats Talk, as we cover the trials and tribulations of the Big 12!

Follow Bearcats Talk on Twitter: @BearcatsTalk

Like Bearcats Talk on Facebook: Bearcats Talk