Baba Miller, Jalen Celestine Eager to Tip Off 2025-26 Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Season

 New Bearcats basketball talents Jalen Celestine and Baba Miller took the podium on Wednesday to meet with the media ahead of Monday's season opener at Fifth Third Arena against Western Carolina.

Miller is excited about the growth he's shown this summer as part of a deep, dynamic roster that's been largely overhauledover the last six months.

The 6-11, 215-pound junior posted 11.3 points, 1.7 blocks, and seven rebounds on 48.6% shooting this past season for Florida Atlantic.

"I feel like I've grown a lot since I've been here," Miller said after transferring in during the spring. "I feel like Coach Miller has really pushed me to be the player that he envisioned me to be when he was recruiting me, especially just using my God-given talents, like my size, my athleticism, to impact the game. So he's really trying to get me to impact the game every possession. I feel like these past few weeks I've really improved.

Celestine is just as excited, getting fully healthy over the last few weeks in time to earn action in the 89-61 exhibition loss to Arkansas. He was on a minutes restriction against Arkansas.

The sharpshooter has Big 12 experience coming from Baylor, and he mostly attempted threes this past season, shooting 35.4% from outside and 78.6% from the free-throw line. Celestine averaged 7.1 points and 3.5 rebounds on 38% shooting from the floor in his final season at Baylor.

"I think that the Michigan game was good as we won against a good team, but we're not as good as we felt after that game, just like we're not as bad as we felt after the Arkansas game," Celestine declared in his first UC presser. "So it's good, and we're just excited to go in front of our fans at Fifth Third and get the regular season rolling."

Both should be big contributors on Monday at 7 p.m. ET against WCU.