Previewing The Cincinnati Bearcats v. The Temple Owls

The Cincinnati Bearcats have another critical game tomorrow night, this time on the road and this time against Temple, The Owls are 8-3 in the AAC and riding a five game winning streak behind spectacular defense.

KEY NUMBERS

The Owls are a carbon copy of the Bearcats in that they play excellent D and struggle to shoot the ball at times.

Temple is forcing opponents to score at a rate of just 0.91 points per possession, shoot just 29.9% from three, and averaged 0.82 assists per turnover, all of which ranks 2nd in the AAC. Cincinnati is 1st in the conference in opposing points per possession, for what it’s worth. Part of the Owls’ success defensively are the way they attack the offensive boards, averaging 12 rebounds per game (3rd). The other part is their ability to create turnovers, which they are doing so at a rate of 13.3 per game (7th).

Cincinnati Bearcats

But Temple is a mess offensively. They’re a volume shooting team that likes to get up the floor quickly but can’t turn those posessions into points (10th in scoring efficiency, 9th in points per possession). Where the Owls hang their hats are on their guards and propensity to take care of the ball. They don’t turn the ball over, much like the East Carolina Pirates two Saturdays ago (shutter), which could prevent the Bearcats from creating easy points off their defense.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Will Cummings (#2): He missed Cincinnati’s blow out win a month ago, fortunately for UC, and has been on a tear since, averaging 14.2 points per game. Temple’s offense runs though Cummings, he takes the most shots of anyone on the team, and how he goes the Owls will go. The guard doesn’t shoot all that well from the field but where he makes most of his money is by setting up the other players around him for success.

Cummings is averaging a whopping 4 assists per game, which indicates he has the perfect vision and passing abilities of a point guard. That poses a problem for the Bearcats as they can’t key in on him too much because his biggest threat is an ancillary role for his teammates, who will undoubtedly find a way to get open for easy shots.

BEST MATCHUP

Jaylen Bond (#15) v. Octavius Ellis: How Cincinnati wins this game is by dominating around the basket. That’s been the recipe for success this season as a strong inside game has prevented the defense from cherry picking on the perimeter, thus opening up the guards for open threes. The biggest (literally) road block in accomplishing that is Jaylen Bond (7.9 points, 8.0 rebounds per game).

UC did a nice job shutting him down in their last match up as he posted just 9 points and 5 boards. Octavius Ellis was key to eviscerating his presence in that game and will have to have a stellar performance tomorrow night as well.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND PREDICTION

I have no clue who’s going to win this one tomorrow night. This is clash of far too similar teams for me to gauge just how this one will go. Both Cincinnati and Temple play stellar defense. Both struggle shooting the ball at times. Both will make points a premium tomorrow night. I doubt we’ll see the Bearcats drop a 55-spot in the second half and they’ll probably struggle to hit 55 in general. Unfortunately I can’t make a deeper prediction than that.

This is a cop out. I know, I suck.

Cincinnati: ???

Temple: ???