Three Man Weave: Storylines To Watch As Bearcats' Prepare To Tipoff 2021-22 Season

Cincinnati finished 12-11 last season.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Updated:
Nov 8, 2021 5:09 PM EST

Wes Miller and the Cincinnati Bearcats have gone through a tumultuous offseason and are ready to come out of the other side a fresh program. Cincinnati hired Miller as the 28th coach in program history after a decade as the head coach at UNC Greensboro.

The Bearcats are hopeful that Miller is the man to lead them into early success once they join the Big-12 and a return to prominence over the final few years in the AAC. Miller struggled to start his tenure with the Spartans but went 70-20 in SoCon play over the last five years and made two NCAA Tournament appearances. He finished out his time at UNCG with a 185-135 record.

Let's run a three-man weave and look at a few of the storylines to watch when UC tips off its 2021-22 basketball season next week against Evansville.

Washing Away 2020-21

Miller replaces a coach in John Brannen, who went 32-21 across three seasons but never connected well enough with his players. The school opened an investigation into the former coach, and he was relieved of his duties.

The Bearcats lost a few faces to the transfer portal in the fray as Miller brings in seven new players to this team in his opening campaign. Establishing an identity and good habits to lean on is the goal in year one. Mick Cronin's tenure in Clifton was marked by consistent forces on defense.

From Cronin's first season in 2006 to 2018-19, Cincinnati allowed over 67 points per game just twice—both coming during Cronin's first two years. Last year, Cincinnati allowed 72.1 PPG, which ranked 213th out of 347 teams.

Towering Transfers

Speaking of defense, two of the seven new faces on this roster come into the season with the most shot-blocking experience nationwide in 7-foot-1 center Hayden Koval and 6-foot-11 Mississippi State transfer Abdul Ado.

Koval followed his coach and transferred from UNCG as he gets set to make up a defensive tandem with Ado. Koval (337) and Ado (249) are the active NCAA leaders in career blocks. They have plenty of experience denying opponents across their time in college basketball and were both near the top of the country in blocks per game last season.

Koval (2.17) ranked 25th, and Ado (2.03) ranked 31st in blocks per game in 2021-22. The pairing should offer Miller flexibility to keep one shot denying maven on the court for all 40 minutes.

Dialed In Davenport

The Bearcats lost their leading scorer to graduation—leaving a big opportunity for returning combo guard Jeremiah Davenport. Keith Williams averaged a team-high 14.3 points per game last season, and Davenport checked in right behind him at 11.7 PPG.

After going through a tumultuous offseason, the Cincinnati native is the old voice in the room, and he is ready to shine throughout the season. The Bearcats’ leading returning scorer averaged 11.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.7 assists a season ago. That earned him the Bearcats lone spot on the preseason second-team All-AAC list.

Davenport was a massive part of the Bearcats run to the AAC title game last season. The Moeller High School grad posted 12.7 PPG and 6.0 RPG to go with nine triples as he captured All-AAC Tournament honors. Picking up where he left off in Fort Worth, TX, would go a long way towards starting the Wes Miller era off on the right foot.

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