Better Know a Conference: Big 12 (Part II)

Wes Miller's rebuild takes root, BYU starts over, UCF tries to level up, and everything else to know about the new Big 12

Photo credit: USA Today

Better Know a Conference is Buzzer’s league-by-league preview of the 2024-25 season, featuring Bubble Watch-length narrative looks at every team in every major league — and other conferences and mid-majors along the way — in rough order of expected finish.

To read the full series (and start posting on the best college hoops comment section on the Internet!) consider becoming a paid subscriber today. Today: Wrapping up the Big 12. For Part I of the Big 12 preview, click here.

Cincinnati

You know what's nice to see? A classic rebuild. Time was, this is how it basically always had to go: An energetic rising coach arrived at a distressed program and spent his first year circling the wagons and building culture. In year two, the goal -- beyond finding your first wave of program-building players -- was to get competitive. In year three, the goal was to get good.

Wes Miller's first three teams have essentially followed this pattern, from 101st in adjusted efficiency to 50th to 39th a year ago, when the Bearcats, still playing the kind of nonconference schedule coaches make when they aren't sure how good their team is actually going to be, entered the brutal Big 12 and competed for an NCAA Tournament bid deep into February.

It's not that Miller hasn't used transfers; he has, and to good effect. But he has also approached Cincinnati's required rebuilding phase methodically and sustainably, with minimal short-term panic. In year four, it sure seems like the process is about to pay off.

Miller has fully found his guys: Dan Skillings, Jizzle James and Day Day Thomas (great names!) are all organic recruits (Thomas came to the program via junior college) and all back for the 2024-25 season, the core of an established, balanced rotation. Simas Lukosius was good in his first year after transferring from Butler; Aziz Bandaogo was a top rim protector. Miller also added Texas forward Dillon Mitchell, yet another rangy wing/forward hybrid who will guard well at multiple positions. Alongside Skillings and Lukosius at the three spots between a clearly delineated point guard (Thomas) and center (Bandaogo), Cincinnati -- the third-best defense in the Big 12 last season -- should continue to be a force on that end.

As is often the case with defense-oriented teams full of athletic hybrids, shooting was and is a concern. Cincinnati shot 29.6 percent from 3 in league play last season, worst in the Big 12, and attempted 3s on just 35 percent of their field goals. Former Iowa and Kentucky sharpshooter C.J. Fredrick, who has been around forever (and been injured for significant portions of his last three seasons) kind of has to stay healthy. Fredrick is a career 41.3 percent 3-point shooter, an immediate value-add to any well-run offensive setup (i.e., not Kentucky's 2022-23 team, when he shot the ball worse than he ever has in his life). Good news is that perimeter improvement isn't all about forcing touches to Fredrick; incoming transfer (and Bloomington, Ind. native) Connor Hickman went 74-of-182 for a very good Bradley team last season. And James, while inconsistent as a rookie, did have more than a few games where his 48.4 percent shooting from 2 and 28.7 percent mark from 3 looked destined to improve over time.

The idea here, essentially, is to double down on what Cincinnati already did well -- positional versatility and defensive grit, with Mitchell only adding to that equation -- while peppering in more technical scoring skill over the top. It's a combination of new personnel and the kinds of improvements kids can make when they develop in a steady environment for years at a time. Immediate transfer-driven reloads are fun, but there is also something especially satisfying -- and in Cincinnati's case, anyway, rewarding -- about doing it like this.

BYU