There's not a whole lot of positives Wes Miller will be able to pull from Saturday's film.
Xavier dominated the University of Cincinnati Bearcats in nearly every facet en route to a 83-63 win at Cintas Center in the UC coach's first Crosstown Shootout.
More:Jack Nunge powers Xavier past UC basketball in dominant Crosstown Shootout win
"We got our tail kicked in every way you can get it kicked," Miller said.
Cincinnati (7-3) lost in every statistical category other than 3-point shooting – the Bearcats shot 31.8% (7 of 22) from behind the arc, while the Musketeers shot 31.3% (5 of 16) – and suffered the most lopsided defeat in the series since Jan. 6, 2011, when UC defeated the Musketeers, 66-46.
The Bearcats have now lost three straight and 8 of the last 11 meetings against their rivals from across town.
Up next: Cincinnati has a three-game homestand before opening American Athletic Conference play Dec. 28 at No. 14 Houston. The Bearcats will host HBCU Florida A&M on Tuesday. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. on ESPN+.
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Here's what we learned from Saturday's loss:
Cincinnati had no answer for Jack Nunge
Once Xavier 7-foot reserve Jack Nunge hopped off the bench and onto the court at the 18:05 mark in the first half, the game was over.
Nunge asserted himself inside, drawing a foul on Cincinnati 6-foot-11 forward Abdul Ado. After knocking down the second of two free throws, Nunge added a 3-pointer and then made a layup on a fast break.
The Bearcats grabbed an 11-10 lead on a pair of free throws by Ody Oguama with 12:42 to play in the first half. But 22 seconds later, Nunge dunked home another two points to put the Musketeers back on top.
Cincinnati never led again.
Nunge, who came into the night averaging 11 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, had 14 points and nine boards by halftime. The Newburgh, Indiana, native finished with 31 points and 15 rebounds, both career highs for the junior forward.
"Everyone's running spread ball screens and ball-screen actions, so we've seen that almost every game we've played. In fact, we've seen it every game we've played," Miller said. "We've covered it really well. But we were really poor tonight. I mean, all they did was set a ball screen and they got a high, high quality shot. Whether it was Nungey (Nunge) for a three or the ball's at the front of the rim. We struggled to communicate. It got a little bit better at times in the second half, but it was really, really poor. I didn't do a good job of working on that this week or emphasizing the importance of it or preparing it the way that maybe Xavier does it."
With Nunge being so dominant off the Xavier bench, the Musketeers outscored the Bearcats 56-20 in bench points.
UC was dominated on the glass
Of Nunge's 15 rebounds, seven came on the offensive glass. Cincinnati was outrebounded 41-28 on the night.
"That's something we emphasize every day in practice, crashing the offensive glass and just trying to get good position on the defenders," Nunge said. "If the ball bounces your way, you've got to get it."
Miller has emphasized that too. A lot. But it didn't happen on Saturday for the Bearcats. Xavier owned a 27-16 advantage in defensive rebounds.
"Obviously, we've been harping on the defensive glass thing," Miller said. "I mean, you guys have heard that, anybody's that's been covering out team. We're just not doing a good job of coaching because people are beating them. We're still leaking out. We're still giving up long rebounds. They should be our balls. We're not blocking out our guy and pursuing the ball. Early in the game, when you still feel like you're in it, we're just getting our tail kicked to balls."
The Bearcats committed way too many fouls
Both Oguama and Mike Saunders Jr. fouled out. Ado had four fouls. By the end of the night, Cincinnati committed a total of 27 fouls, including 17 in the first half. In comparison, Xavier was called for 18 fouls (nine before halftime).
Xavier made 28 of its 35 foul shots. The Bearcats made 12 of 17 shots from the free-throw line.
"They shot 35 free throws," Miller said. "Our defensive discipline, we've talked a lot about having defensive discipline. I mean, we're just reaching in and fouling. We're not ready to play or we're getting beat off the bounce and nobody's rotating over to put a body on the ball. ... We looked like a poorly coached team tonight. That's when as a coach, you've got to look in the mirror and say, 'You've got to do dang better.' I've got to do better. That was bad."
Cincinnati struggled against Xavier's zone defense
Xavier coach Travis Steele doesn't whip out the zone defense very often. Steele switched from the Musketeers' customary man-to-man defense to a zone in the second half of Xavier's win last weekend at Oklahoma State.
On Saturday night, Steele went to the zone early and often and Cincinnati could not figure out how to get anything going offensively.
The Musketeers scored 13 points off of 11 UC turnovers.
"Offensively, gosh almighty, we looked like we haven't played against the zone," Miller said. "We really took 35 straight minutes early this week in practice and worked on zone offense. They hadn't played a lot of zone. They played like six possessions against Oklahoma State in the second half, so we wanted to prepare our team for it. We touched on it at shootaround today, but that hasn't been who they are. I thought them playing some zone early got us out of sync. I've got to do a better job of preparing us for playing against the zone. I did not do my job there."
Will the real Cincinnati team please stand up?
David DeJulius' play in the first half was about the only bright spot for the Bearcats on Saturday. The 6-foot senior guard scored 10 of his 12 points before halftime.
In that stretch, DeJulius looked like the player on the Cincinnati team that played two impressive games against top-15 opponents at the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, Missouri, before Thanksgiving. DeJulius earned a spot on the All-Tournament team.
Since those two games (71-51 win over then-No. 14 Illinois and 73-67 loss against then-No. 13 Arkansas), the Bearcats have looked bad at times and average at best. But DeJulius said that group in Kansas City is the real UC basketball team.
"That's us, but we also could take it up another notch from there as well if we buy in," he said. "Coach does a great job of having a great game plan for us. All the coaches dedicate themselves from early morning to late nights to set up a game plan for us to go out there and succeed, and I think we have the players offensively and defensively to do that. I think if we just put everything together, we'll get back to being that team that you saw in Kansas City. Not only that, but a better version of that as well."
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