Cincinnati Bearcats Basketball Topples Michigan 100-98 In Road Scrimmage During First Look At New Squad

 The Bearcats basketball team worked through some early kinks with their brand-new roster against Michigan on Friday night. UC ended up winning the road exhibition 100-98 on the road in the roster's first taste of competition together.

Michigan is widely considered a preseason top-10 team, and they performed like it throughout the contest, but UC held up very well and matched a high-powered offense with diverse scoring. Cincinnati had six players score in double figures, led by freshman phenom Shon Abaev (15 points, two rebounds), rising center Moustapha Thiam (15 points, two rebounds), and Kerr Kriisa (15 points).

It's a solid sign for the early portion of non-conference play, but as always, scrimmages have to be taken lightly. Shooting 55% with 32 bench points means everyone ate and thats the kind of vibe you want to spark a season. They didn't have any players take more than nine shots in a diverse offense.

Cincinnati ended up holding on in a pretty thrilling contest to bring UC hoops back to the ether.

UC head coach Wes Miller is less concerned with the final score of their two exhibitions this month and more interested in the minute-to-minute process.

"Certainly, there's a competitive nature to everything we're doing, and when the ball goes up, you're trying to win every possession," Miller said about his outlook on the scrimmage earlier this week. "But I've watched zero tape on the University of Michigan. You know, you guys think about that, if we had a real game, you think I'd ever stand in front of you? And I've not watched no tape. I've watched zero tape. This is a tool to develop our team, and that is the number one aspect of these exhibition games. 

"They are tools for our team's development. We're going to sit here in January. If we win by 150 on Friday night, you guys will not care. In January, if we lose by 150 on Friday night, you guys will not care. And it doesn't really matter. Listen, from a fanfare perspective, it's great you get a chance to see our team for the first time and all that. But for us, within our locker room and within this organization, it is a tool to improve, to learn from our team, to get out there against a different jersey. And I love that they've opened these; they used to be secret scrimmages. I love that they've opened them up, because now it's also a tool to get out in front of people with the lights on."

There is still plenty of time to get the Bearcats' new players gelled together, especially with just one true road game in the non-conference slate. They do face seven 2025 NCAA Tournament teams in that stretch.

Cincinnati has six scholarship transfers (Jalen Celestine, Sencire Harris, Jalen Haynes, Kriisa, Baba Miller, and Thiam), averaging 80 career games played at the college level. The Bearcats welcome a total of 12 newcomers to the roster in addition to three returners from a year ago. There isn't a lot of experience together, but there is a lot of college experience in general.

Cincinnati has a week before its next exhibition at Arkansas on Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. ET. The Razorbacks are also a projected consensus top-25 team nationally.