Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Suffers Horrific Home Loss To Eastern Michigan

CINCINNATI — A brutal way to enter Thanksgiving for the Bearcats. Cincinnati suffered the worst loss of the Wes Miller era on Wednesday night to Eastern Michigan 64-56.

It was a massive upset, with EMU entering the game as long as a 20-1 underdog on the betting moneyline. There was never a doubt the whole game as the Eagles didn't trail and smallest lead was one twice in the night. They led by as much as 17 points.

The Eagles came in ready to slow the game down, not foul, and play multiple defenses to stifle a stagnant Bearcats offense (34.5% shooting, 7-28 from three). This is easily the worst team to come into Fifth Third Arena and beat the Cats' during Miller's tenure. Eastern Michigan is a -6.93 on Sport Reference's Simple Rating System. The only other negative-numbered losses in the Miller era are Monmouth in 2021 and NKU in 2022. Those came with far less-talented teams.

It sparks zero confidence in the rest of the season, which is only getting harder after Monday's game against Tarleton State. UC has to find a reliable way to score without Baba Miller, and they haven't yet.

UC is now 1-1 all-time against Eastern Michigan.

Fastbreak Storyline: Horrific, Sleepy Showing

Cincinnati got pantsed in the first half of this game. EMU is nowhere near the top tier of the Division 1 hierarchy, and they came in with a sound plan to take a huge 15-point lead into the second half.

They boxed out much better than UC, confused them with multiple zone looks, and hit some big-time shots on the road. Cincinnati continues to have a puke-on-the-floor offensive flow that doesn't work the ball inside and keeps missing Baba Miller too much. Shon Abaev (five points on 2-8 shooting) cooled off completely from his big game on Monday.

EMU used its rebounding strength to win the second-chance points battle and just overall wanted it more than UC (36-29 EMU rebounding advantage). They continue to get outrebounded at home and just haven't shown the board fight you need in this pace-up style. UC couldn't rely on fouls in this one either, as the Eagles stayed disciplined to somehow miraculously pull the all-time series even at 1-1.

Thanks in large part to a 19-22 free throw mark as one of the better freebie teams in the nation.

It was already bad enough that Miller entered the game 6-21 against Top 25 teams, but now he just added arguably the worst loss of his tenure with another trip to visit Xavier looming next week.

Cincinnati has to find a way to run a consistent offense in the halfcourt, or they won't come close to double-digit wins in the Big 12, which they likely have to do to go to the NCAA Tournament. There was little inside-out movement throughout the shocking night.

Cincinnati trailed the entire game at home to a mid-tier MAC school. A sobering result for a team with a five-star freshman talent for the first time this decade.

Star of the Game: Sincere Harris

Buck Harris (12 points, three rebounds) was a bulldog in tonight's game and showed the most consistent fight on either end of the floor during one of the worst shooting performances UC's posted at home under Miller.

Harris played great defense, drawing multiple fouls, and was the only efficient shooter in the Bearcats' rotation. He contributed too many turnovers on the night (three), but you'll take that with how many times he found offense himself in the desert that was the EMU zone defense.

His speed broke down the 2-3 zone at times, but it wasn't enough to feel good about this offense at all. It was ranked outside of the top-160 nationally, coming in and will only fall further. Harris is a big reason why they have a top-three defense in the country by efficiency, but they will lose far too many games playing offense like this.

A shocking, shocking night in Fifth Third Arena.

The next matchup is against Tarleton State at home on Monday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

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