Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Bigs Power Massive Upset Win Over No. 8 Kansas

CINCINNATI — A historic Saturday in Kansas for the Cincinnati Bearcats.

UC banked an 84-68 win over the No. 8 Kansas Jayhawks to keep their at-large NCAA Tournament hopes alive on the road. It was arguably the best win of the season and their second against a Quad 1 opponent overall.

They handed KU head coach Bill Self his largest home defeat by scoring margin and posted the program's first top-10 road win since 1990. On top of that, Action Network's Evan Abrams posted on X that this is the worst betting spread margin in a loss at home in Allen Fieldhouse in over three years & they haven’t lost by 15-plus points as an 8-plus point home favorite in the last 20 yers.

Kansas was an 8.5 point betting favorite entering the game.

Moustapha Thiam (career-high 28 points, eight rebounds) and Baba Miller (18 points, eight assists, seven rebounds) ripped through a great KU frontcourt to keep up the good vibes that have built around this very talented UC team over the last few weeks. The top-20 talent nationally was always in this team, and they are starting to get some good bounces to go their way.

They didn't need a lot of that luck on Saturday, ripping off a 13-2 run in the final few minutes to close the game as the offense continues to play closer to a top-75 level nationally over the last few weeks.

Mix that with a top-10 defense, and you get a confident Bearcats team that still needs to keep winning, but has plenty to play for down the stretch. UC is now 6-5 all-time against Kansas.

Forwards Fight For A Huge Upset

Thiam and Miller were the spotlight stars in today's classic against Kansas. Cincinnati got 40-plus points from its two top frontcourt options in a massive spot on the road.

Thiam was a paint artist throughout the day, guiding a career-best scoring performance. He toasted one of the best interior defenses in the country, time and time again, mixing in an outside shot that found itself in Kansas. He was 0-4 in the past five games from deep and went 2-5 against Kansas.

Three of Cincinnati's worst three-point shooters (Thiam, Miller, and Sencire Harris) went a combined 5-8 from deep. The Bearcats' brutal luck this season (332nd in Luck on KenPom) finally regressed to the mean positively on the road.

Cincinnati leaned on the great three-point equalizer like so many teams have against Kansas this season, and it went in more than enough to keep them in the game all day. Six different Bearcats hit an outside shot, while the whole rotation did a nice job taking care of the ball against a team that lacks turnover volume.

UC's consistent discipline in one of the toughest Big 12 environments helped them lead Kansas15-3 in points off turnovers. The Bearcats are clawing and scratching for a Wes Miller era that's on life support, but not dead yet entering another big Quad 1 road matchup against No. 13 Texas Tech on Tuesday.

Bearcats Player Of The Game: Baba Miller

Cincinnati's best player came to play in a big way against the Jayhawks and was a huge reason why the Bearcats offense popped around him and Thiam.

Miller scored from every level of the floor for the second game this season, all in the past two weeks. The outside shot found twine at a flawless rate on Saturday. When that shot goes, Miller's game expands to one of the best in the conference.

He used some more jumpshooting gravity to funnel plenty of playmaking to other Bearcats. The lanky leader did turn it over five times but had his hands on the ball throughout one of Cincinnati's more tightly contested games this season.

Miller and Thiam were massive in a spot where they had to be against a very formidable big-man pair on the other side. They outplayed Flory Bidunga (18 points) and Bryson Tiller (four points) to keep Cincinnati in front for much of the second half.

UC hits the road against Texas Tech on Tuesday, trying to stack five wins in a row on its pursuit of a miracle NCAA Tournament run.

That game tips off at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

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