Three Man Weave: Cincinnati Rolls Past Alabama State In Jizzle James' Return

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats moved to 7-4 this season with an 88-51 walloping of the Alabama State Hornets at home. UC had Jizzle James (16 points, four rebounds, 6-9 shooting) return to the floor and help connect a stagnant offense against one of the nation's worst defenses.

UC shot 49.3% in the game to help their lowly season total on that front and smothered a small ASU team. The Hornets shot just 29% and got outrebounded by five in the game.

It's not a major sign of a turnaround this season, but a blowout win is better than the alternative heading into Sunday's matchup against Clemson. UC was monstrous in transition, outscoring the Hornets 17-0 in transition.

Wes Miller is now 43-2 all-time in UC Quad 4 matchups. This was the final Q4 game on UC's schedule that is ranked among the 30 toughest nationally the rest of the season.

Fastbreak Storyline: Jizzle Returns, Offense Hums

James ' return wasn't the sole reason UC's offense took a jump, but he definitely didn't have to go through many growing pains adjusting to game action with a lot of new teammates.

The midrange jump shot diet returned, but he also flashed an accurate three-point shot and played solid defense to give UC the guard depth it sorely lacked over the first third of the season. He was one of many Cincinnati players who just completely outclassed ASU athletically.

The Hornets rarely had any players taller than 6-6 on the floor, and it showed like a bedsore. They only made nine first-half shots due in large part to that size differential and great man-to-man timing by Cincinnati.

ASU was 5-4 against the betting spread entering this game, so they've shown good fight despite a 3-7 record, but UC played its first complete game of the season to leave no doubt who had a top 20 most-talented team in the country by 247 Sports's composite ratings and who didnt't.

Shon Abaev (13 points, six rebounds, five assists) and Baba Miller (career-high 26 points and 14 rebounds) have a lot to do with that rating. They were great on Thursday night. Miller was disciplined with his fouling, and it let him just unleash all over the floor, particularly as a deadly weapon in the dunker spot.

Abaev played with his best rhythm of the season, getting downhill at will, posting up at his hot shooting spots, and earning fruitful foul line trips. UC needs this to become a trend after he entered the game shooting below 38% this season.

Cincinnati is one of the 20 worst free-throw shooting teams in the country, but went 14-20 from the line on Wednesday.

Bearcats Player Of The Game: Baba Miller

Cincinnati's front court star defined efficiency on Wednesday night. He was slashing and mashing the paint in this game to the tune of a whopping 41 efficiency score. I've never seen one that high by a UC players.

Miller has logged multiple double-doubles so far this season as one of the best rebounders in the country, and he turned plenty of those rebounds into quick scoring chances during a dominant fastbreak night from the Bearcats.

Miller has been the Bearcats' top player this season, slowly overtaking Day Day Thomas over the past couple of weeks. If he can maintain even 80% of this production the rest of the season, UC may be able to climb from the depths. It won't be easy, though, after torching the 309th-ranked defense in the country on KenPom.

That was Cincinnati's final Q4 game of the season, but Miller made the most of that opposing mince meat with a career-best scoring night and looks primed to eat against Clemson's 41st-ranked defense on Sunday.

That game tips off at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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