Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Beats Utah 73-66 In First Round Of 2026 Big 12 Tournament

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats basketball team handled Utah 73-6 in the first round of the 2026 Big 12 Tournament.

Cincinnati shot terribly to open the game, but turned things on at the end of the first half to set up a matchup against No. 8-seed UCF tomorrow at 3 p.m. ET.

UC has to win that game and likely get some major help around the bubble if they can't take out No. 1-seeded Arizona on Thursday. They'll hope for more hot shooting from Jalen Celestine (19 points, 5-8 from deep).

He found shooting lanes all over the dynamic glass floor in Kansas City and led the team in scoring while Baba Miller (11 points, 14 rebounds, six assists) was the best player on the floor again. The Bearcats won as big betting favorites to go 2-0 against Utah this season.

The win kept Cincinnati's chances to make the 2026 NCAA Tournament largely stable. Bart Torvik gave them a 25% chance entering today and the win over Utah moved them to 27.6% at 18-14 overall. A decisive win over UCF and a close battle with Arizona could be enough to sneak them into the final four spots.

Flipped The Switch

Cincinnati was 6-23 from the field in this game before waking up and controlling the rest of the contest.

Utah's lead scorer, Terrance Brown (22 points, 7-19 shooting), scored a big total, but through his usual inefficient ways and outside of big man Keanu Dawes popping a bit, the Utes couldn't get enough jumpshooting going against the Bearcats' strong defense throughout this season.

Celestine almost had enough shooting on his own to get another highly efficient outing, going 5-8 from deep. He's been scorching the nets this season, especially over the last five games leading into today (47.2% from deep, 69.2% effective field goal rate).

Cincinnati also got a nice boost from its bench to help that nine-point Utah lead evaporate down the stretch of the first half. Shon Abaev (three points, six rebounds) gave Cincinnati some of his best minutes of the season and ended up a plus-12 in the outing.

The Bearcats have a shortened rotation due to injuries and more. Getting Abaev to contribute tomorrow and beyond in this tournament would be a massive positive wild card should he continue to scorch the twine after a rough injury midseason.

Cincinnati turned the ball over just seven times, including none from the five-star freshman Abaev.

Bearcats Player Of The Game: Baba Miller

The man seems to take this almost every game, and it was another worthy performance on Tuesday. Miller stuffed the stat sheet again and showed why he will likely be the first Bearcat drafted to the NBA this decade.

He ate on the glass and diced up the Utah defense with great cross-court passing and good decision-making overall after a slow start from the team.

In a game with plenty of missed shots, Miller was a key factor in keeping Cincinnati up 40-37 on the glass. He does a great job tracking bounces off the basket, and UC reaped the fruits all afternoon with him snagging nearly half that total, including four offensive rebounds.

Cincinnati now takes on rival UCF in a huge matchup tomorrow at 3 p.m. ET. The game is airing on ESPNU.

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