Returning home was the perfect remedy, and Oklahoma is now back on firm ground. At the Lloyd Noble Center, the No. 15-ranked Sooners defeated West Virginia to end their two-game road losing streak. However, OU (14-3, 2-2 Big 12) will travel again on Saturday to face the challenging Big 12 schedule. The Cincinnati Bearcats (13-4, 2-2), who are fresh to the nation’s toughest league, are waiting for the Crimson and Cream. Viktor Lakhin and Aziz Bandaogo, two 6-foot-11 big men, are used by Wes Miller’s Bearcats to create a unique challenge for teams throughout the league. With an average of 13.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, Lakhin leads the club in scoring. Bandaogo contributes 8.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. The Bearcats lead the country in rebounding margin—a whopping 10 rebounds per game—so their success shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Taking care of the basketball will once again be a top concern for the Sooners, who just defeated the Mountaineers on Wednesday despite turning the ball over 19 times. Sam Godwin and John Hugley IV will be competing down low. Porter Moser, the coach of OU, stated on Friday, “Turnovers are— they’re very hard.” “You keep addressing them because you can address them, but you need to be more firm with the ball.” It’s the ones that, when we attempted to toss them to John, a bounce pass was taken. We also flung the other one, leaving our feet adrift. Therefore, those are the ones that need cleaning up. We must reduce that number. Although Cincinnati only manages 6.4 thefts per game on average, the Bearcats physically exhaust opponents over the course of 40 minutes.
“That TCU vs. Cincinnati game was the most physically intense college basketball match you will ever witness.” For that, you have to be prepared. Without fouling, I felt like we played physical defense. We needed that going against West Virginia.
Now that Northweather has joined the team, OU has nine players in its rotation, which enables the Sooners to distribute the scoring around the whole group rather than just on the backs of Javian McCollum, Milos Uzan, and Otega Oweh.
The Sooners and Bearcats are scheduled to tip off at 12 p.m., with the game airing on ESPN+.
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