How to watch Utah basketball vs. Cincinnati: TV channel, game time and preview for Big 12 tournament matchup

The Utah men's basketball team heads to Kansas City, Missouri, for its matchup against Cincinnati in the first round of the Big 12 tournament.

Tuesday's tipoff between the Runnin' Utes (10-21, 2-15 Big 12) and Bearcats (17-14, 9-9 Big 12) from T-Mobile Center is set for 1 p.m. MT on ESPN+.

Here's what you need to know about the matchup, including how to watch and players to look out for.

How to Watch Utah vs. Cincinnati

Date: Tuesday, March 10
Game Time: Noon PT/1 p.m. MT
Where: T-Mobile Center | Kansas City, Missouri
How to watch (TV): ESPN+
Radio: ESPN 700
Live stats feed: www.statbroadcast.com
KenPom prediction: Cincinnati 76, Utah 66

Odds, Spread and Total for Utah vs. Cincinnati

Spread:

Utah: +9.5 (-102)
Cincinnati: -9.5 (-120)

Moneyline:

Utah: +330
Cincinnati: -430

Total: 140.5 (Over -115/Under -105)

Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook

Players to Watch

Utah

Terrence Brown: The 6-foot-3 guard leads Utah in points, assists, steals, field goals made and free throws, and ranks as one of the Big 12's best scorers with 19.8 points per game. Brown's on the verge of becoming the third Utes player since 1996-97 to average 20 points for an entire season, though scoring fewer than 26 points in a loss to Cincinnati would keep him just shy of that threshold.

Don McHenry: The fifth-year senior is the Utes' best 3-point shooter on volume (39.8% on 6.3 attempts per game) and is No. 10 in the Big 12 with 17.3 points per game. McHenry recently crossed the 2,000-point mark for his career after scoring a team-high 20 points in the regular season finale loss to Baylor.

Keanu Dawes: The 6-foot-9 junior does a little bit of everything for the Utes — from filling up the scoring column efficiently to grabbing a couple handfuls of rebounds, he can provide whatever his team needs on any given night. Dawes is No. 5 in the Big 12 in rebounding (8.7 per game) and has 10 double-doubles on the season.

Cincinnati

Baba Miller: The 6-foot-11 senior from Spain can pose problems for his opponent with his athleticism and size, allowing him to gobble up rebounds on a nightly basis. Miller is No. 2 in the Big 12 with 10.1 boards per game and No. 8 in the country in defensive rebounding rate (28%) according to KenPom. Oh, and he leads Cincinnati in scoring (13.4 ppg) on an efficient 54% field goal clip.

Moustapha Thiam: Cincinnati's 7-foot-2 center from Senegal makes opposing guards and wings think twice about driving into the painted area. Thiam's 1.5 blocks per game ranks in the top 10 for the Big 12 and he's top 100 nationally in block rate (6.6) according to KenPom. He can also fill up the scoring column, as evidenced by his run of three consecutive 20-point games at the end of February.

Day Day Thomas: The efficiency of Cincinnati's floor general often dictates whether the Bearcats come out on top in any given game. When Thomas doesn't commit a turnover, Cincinnati is 7-2 this season. The Bearcats are also 8-2 when he knocks down 50% or more of his field goal attempts.

Game Preview

To say Utah and Cincinnati are trending in completely opposite directions heading into the Big 12 tournament would be a very accurate read of the two team's body of work over the past month.

The Bearcats have spent the past month strengthening their case for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. Since starting 3-7 in league play, Cincinnati has won six of its last eight games, including a trio of convincing victories over tournament teams in UCF, Kansas and BYU. When parlayed with an earlier win over Iowa State, that stretch to end the regular season, plus a few wins in the Big 12 tournament, could get Cincinnati in the 68-team field on Selection Sunday.

Utah, on the other hand, has been trying to break a dreadful cycle of mistakes that have plagued the team throughout the season.

In many ways, the Utes' recent struggles are a microcosm of what's been a rocky start to the Alex Jensen era. Turnovers and mental miscues on both ends of the floor have reared their ugly heads for a majority of the 2025-26 campaign, and Utah's last two regular season games against Colorado and Baylor are no exemption. The intensity on the defensive end of the floor, especially, were evident as Utah gave up 96.5 points on average to the Buffaloes and Bears.

That said, momentum is not in Utah's favor heading into Tuesday. But what Jensen and his staff can look to for hope that their second matchup with Cincinnati plays out differently than Utah's last two regular season games is how the Utes handled their first meeting with the Bearcats last month.

The Utes did enough to put themselves in position to leave Ohio with a win after slugging it out with the Bearcats for 38 minutes of their Feb. 15 matchup, but it was the final 2 minutes that costed Utah from coming out on top at Fifth Third Arena. Specifically, a 9-0 run from Cincinnati to end the game wound up being the difference maker.

Had Utah connected on a couple more shots down the stretch, it might've been a different outcome. The Utes misfired on six of their final seven looks from the field, including three straight shots from behind the arc in the final 23 seconds. Cincinnati turned one of those missed 3s into a quick transition dunk for Baba Miller, putting the Bearcats up 66-65 with 40 ticks left in regulation.

If Utah is avoid a similar situation in the Big 12 tournament, it'll need to have more success inside the arc than it did in the first matchup. The Utes went 13-of-34 from 2-point range against the Bearcats, largely because Moustapha Thiam's presence around the rim made it difficult to get off any clean looks in the paint.

In addition to pacing Cincinnati with 15 points and 10 rebounds, Thiam tied his season-high of four blocks during that first meeting with Utah. And even if he didn't get a hand on the ball, he altered several of the layup and floater attempts Utah's perimeter players threw his way, making it difficult for the Utes to generate any sort of offensive flow that didn't end in a 3-point shot.

For that to change on Tuesday, the Utes will have to either knock down more perimeter jumpers or put Thiam in foul trouble. The latter has been easier said than done, though, considering Thiam has yet to foul out this season and has ended a game with four fouls just four times. Pushing the tempo and beating Thiam down the floor is another viable tactic Jensen and his staff could deploy, but that'd require getting more stops on the defensive end of the floor than the Utes did in their two most recent games.

It'll also be important for Utah that Terrence Brown plays well. The 6-foot-3 guard was 4-of-14 from the field and finished with 11 points in the first matchup with Cincinnati. That's not a recipe for success going into round two, especially if the Utes aren't able to rely on their bench to step up.

If Brown plays like his usual self and the Utes come ready to compete on the defensive end, Tuesday should turn out to be another competitive matchup between Utah and Cincinnati.