Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Storylines: Dayton Flyers

 The Cincinnati Bearcats take a big step forward in competition on Tuesday night. Wes Miller's team is welcoming rival Dayton to Fifth Third Arena for a 7 p.m. ET tipoff.

Both teams are 2-0, and Cincinnati enters the game as 6.5-point betting favorites. The Bearcats are ranked 43rd nationally on KenPom, while the Flyers are 60th. ESPN's Matchup Predictor gives Cincinnati a 70% chance to win and continue their dominance in this series.

The Bearcats hold a 60-31 lead all-time in this series.

"You want to have the opportunity to really build your team throughout your non-conference schedule. Dayton is one of the best programs," Miller said after Friday's win over Georgia State. "We don't think of it as a non Power Four game. It's a Power Four game to us. I think anybody who watches basketball thinks that.

"There are so many good basketball programs in the driving radius of Cincinnati that we should all be playing each other. That's more fun for the fans; the environments are better. And so excited to get this going with Dayton, but it'll be a real dang challenge here on Tuesday, we've got to play it. We play like we just did on Tuesday night; it's not going to be a fun night. So we got some work to do."

Baba Ballin

Cincinnati has found a go-to scoring option early on this season in the long, rangy Baba Miller. He just got named to the first weekly Big 12 Starting Five on Monday and likely has to keep up this consistency as Cincinnati's new rotation keeps finding its legs.

Miller tipped off his hot start with 18 points and 10 boards in the Bearcats’ 94-63 victory over Western Carolina last Monday before tallying 24 points, 11 rebounds, and three blocks on 8-of-9 from the field against Georgia State. He has been one of the nation's most productive players, sitting as one of 18 nationally with multiple double-doubles this season.

“I feel like just doing my role as hard as I can or as efficiently as I can helps me, but also helps the team," Miller said after Friday's win. "I feel like running hard, cutting hard, doesn't just give me shots but also my teammates. So that's something that I definitely try to do every night.”

Miller hit a three on Friday and has been hyper-efficient, taking just five shots away from the rim or three-point line this season (14-15 from two-point range through two games). It's produced a whopping 140 offensive rating for Miller, to mix with his 21 rebounds (elite 37% defensive rebound rate)

Cincinnati needs one or two stars to rise from this new crop of players, and Miller is the strongest candidate so far.

Major Competition Jump

It's likely not a coincidence that Cincinnati scheduled two teams outside the top 200 nationally on KenPom to start the season. Miller's team has committed 31 turnovers through two games (299th nationally) and is clearly working through some early growing pains as they push, push, push that possession total north of 80 per game.

Cincinnati has hit that number in both games as they try to be the fastest team Miller has coached at UC. A clear path to raise their ceiling in the Big 12 after building the new roster in this image.

“How fast we want to play is going to come with some growing pains, so we just have to get better as the season goes on," Baba Miller said on Friday. "It's November. We want to play our best basketball in February. The way we play right now, we've got to live with those mistakes where we're definitely going to improve on that and work on that as the season goes on.”

Dayton will be a fantastic early test for this strategy. The Flyers do not like to run (349th nationally in tempo) and will directly try to slow down the game as a way to get variance on their side, in the opposite way that playing fast brings more winning opportunities. The Flyers also bring a dynamo scoring force to the table in guard Javon Bennett (18 PPG, 4.5 APG on 59.1% shooting so far).

Miller's teams have consistently struggled to contain explosive scorers, and keeping him out of the paint on Tuesday will be imperative to a win.

Baba and Moustapha Thiam should have plenty of physicality ready in those moments. The game is airing at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+.