MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia and Cincinnati have failed to accomplish much of what each team set out to do over the first 14 games of the 2025-26 season.
As the Mountaineers (9-5, 0-1 Big 12) get set to welcome the Bearcats (8-6, 0-1) to Hope Coliseum for a 7 p.m. affair Tuesday that will air on ESPN2, both teams are trying to get moving in the desired direction.
The game marks the Big 12 home opener for WVU, which lost 80-59 at unbeaten Iowa State last Friday. The following day, UC was outscored 7-0 by Houston over the final 3 minutes of a 67-60 setback.
“It’s a mature group and for the most part, I thought we handled the environment,” first-year West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge said. “It wasn’t necessarily the environment that got us. It was more [Joshua] Jefferson and Milan [Momcilovic] that got us and our inability to execute what you’re supposed to be doing. The more times you get to do something together and be in those types of environments and situations, you should be improving and learn and grow from every new situation.”
WVU played at Hilton Coliseum without forward Brenen Lorient, who started each of the first 13 games and is the team’s third-leading scorer (10.7 points), second-leading rebounder (5.7) and has made 54-of-100 field-goal attempts.
Hodge wouldn’t go as far as to say Lorient returns Tuesday, but didn’t rule it out.
“He’s still in the concussion protocol and progressing nicely,” Hodge said. “Really is kind of like a step by step. He hasn’t had any setbacks and has been able to meet his checkpoints. At this point, questionable would be the best way to list him.”
Regardless of who is and isn’t available, both teams are in need of a positive result. Entering Monday, only Utah had a worse NET rating among Big 12 teams than Cincinnati and WVU.
If the season’s first two months are any indication, a defensive struggle could be in store.
WVU and UC are the two lowest-scoring teams on average in the Big 12 and 74.9 and 74.6 points, respectively. However, the Mountaineers allow the second-fewest points on average of any Big 12 team at 61.6, while the Bearcats rank sixth at 65.6.
“They’re a physical group. They may not be the best offensively, but they’ll guard you,” said Chance Moore, who led WVU with 17 points against the Cyclones and has registered double-figure scoring in seven of eight appearances this season.
Cincinnati’s Baba Miller is the team’s top scorer (13.4) and rebounder (11.3) and ranks in the top 10 nationally in the latter category. At 6-foot-11, Miller pairs with 7-2 Moustapha Thiam to give UC a pair of daunting rim protectors.
The Bearcats have defended the three-point shot well, allowing opponents to convert only 30.2 percent of their attempts to rank No. 3 in the Big 12. By comparison, WVU is 15th in the Big 12 with a three-point defensive percentage of 35.3.
“Baba Miller and 52 [Thiam] allow them to pressure the ball and kind of funnel them into shot-blocking, which allows them to guard the three at a pretty high clip,” Hodge said. “They have one of the best three-point defenses in the country and a lot of that is kind of a byproduct of their size and versatility. Their guards are good defensively, but it’s really that combination of length and athleticism around the rim that makes it difficult.”
Guards Day Day Thomas and Jizzle James are also averaging double-figure scoring at 13 and 11.5 points, respectively, though James has played in only four games after being reinstated to the team in mid-December.
“It gives them another dynamic playmaker that can get into the paint and make late clock shots,” Hodge said. “It gives them Big 12 experience. He’s played a lot of games and it gives them another primary ball-handler and playmaker that can make plays for others and make shots for himself.”
Two other UC guards — Kerr Kriisa and Sencire Harris — are names plenty familiar to Mountaineer faithful.
Kriisa is at his fourth power conference program in his sixth season of college basketball after spending the 2023-24 campaign with the Mountaineers. He averages a team-high 3.8 assists with 7.3 points.
Harris earned Big 12 All-Defensive Team Honors at WVU last season after previously playing at Illinois, and Hodge is aware of his ability to disrupt opponents in more ways than one.
“They’ve used him both to guard the ball and at times, they’ve chose to have him guard [shooting] guards or players that aren’t initiating the offense,” Hodge said. “So I could see them kind of going one or two ways. They could obviously put him on Honor [Huff] and say it’s your job to stop him or they could put him on the ball where he’s hawking your point guards and making it difficult to enter your offense.”