WVU Basketball

5 Things to Know Before WVU vs. Cincinnati

Published

3 months ago

January 31, 2024

Kelsie LeRose / WVSN

WVU Basketball will host Cincinnati on Wednesday night in Morgantown, W.Va. Let’s take a look at five things to know before the game.

Meet the Opponent: Cincinnati

Cincinnati enters Wednesday at 14-6 and 3-4 in their inaugural Big 12 season. UC has notable wins over BYU and TCU while all of their conference losses are within five points.

The Bearcats are led by third-year head coach Wes Miller, who has rebuilt UC’s program back into NCAA Tournament talks. Miller has eight players averaging over seven points per game. UC big man Viktor Lakhin is averaging 12.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game.

Cincinnati is a top-40 rebounding team in the country and is No. 15 in KenPom’s adjusted defense ranking.

Edwards Available vs. Bearcats

WVU C Jesse Edwards returned to the floor for the Mountaineers on Saturday, playing 16 minutes against Oklahoma State. West Virginia interim HC Josh Eilert was asked about Edwards’ progress in returning to his original playing time from the beginning of the season.

“Game conditioning you could tell wasn’t there,” Eilert said on Tuesday. “It’ll be a gradual process. It isn’t going to happen overnight to get him to be where he’s playing the minutes he was playing prior.”

“[Starting Edwards] is something we’re looking at whether that’s time to do that yet or not. I’m on the fence with that one,” Eilert added.

Eilert mentioned it depended on how Edwards did in practice on Tuesday.

Eilert ‘On the Fence’ About Starting Jesse Edwards vs. Cincinnati

WVU-UC Meet For First Time Since 2012

West Virginia and Cincinnati will match up with each other for the first time since the Big East era. The Mountaineers won the final game vs. UC 77-74 in January 2012 and are on a four-game winning streak. WVU and UC are all tied at 10 wins each in the series’ history.