Walter

2025 Purcell Marian (Cincinnati, OH) G/F Dee Alexander committed to UC yesterday. Highest rated commit ever for the Bearcats on the women's side. She is rated sixth nationally, number 1 player in Ohio, and has won Ohio Miss Basketball as a sophomore and junior...only the seventh player in state history to win it in consecutive years. Former Ryle grad Abby Jump was a big part of her recruitment and is absolutely killing it on the recruiting trail.

2005 Region Champs as well with Duran Jefferson, Austin Hill, Nate Edmondson, and Greg Rice as sophomores. Doubt we ever see another run like that again from Holmes.

Class of 2018. Redshirt freshman year Redshirt freshman/sophomore year at Iowa Redshirt junior year- sat out at UK with injury Redshirt senior year at UK Grad year at UC Has one year of eligibility left with his Covid year...not 100%, but I'd think he could potentially qualify for a medical redshirt as well, if he really wanted it

Year two in the Big 12 and the Bearcats should be a preseason top 25 team. Returning: 6'6 Dan Skillings: 12.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg 6'8 Simas Lukosius: 11.4 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.8 apg, 38.5 % 3FG 6'1 Day Day Thomas: 10.1 ppg, 3.4 apg 6'2 Jizzle James: 8.8 ppg 7'1 Aziz Bandaogo: 7.0 ppg, 7.4 rpg 6'6 Josh Reed: 2.2 ppg2.4 rpg Incoming freshmen: 6'7 Rayvon Griffith: 4* #64 nationally (2023 class- redshirt) 6'8 Tyler Betsey: 4* #41 nationally 6'9 Tyler McKinley: 4* #74 nationally Incoming transfers: 6'3 Connor Hickman: Leading scorer at Bradley this season - 4* transfer rating 6'11 Arrinten Page: 4* top 60 prospect out of high school Departing: John Newman, Ody Oguama, Jamille Reynolds, Vik Lakhin, Sage Tolentino Cj Fredrick will likely return as well but hasn't posted anything publicly yet. Regardles, this will be the most talent UC has had on a roster since Mick's 2019 team that earned a two seed in the NCAA tournament.

Bradley's Connor Hickman and USC's Arrinten Page to UC. Hickman was Bradley's leading scorer this past season and chose UC over Indiana. Previous connection to UC assistant Drew Adams. Recruited him to Bradley prior to coming to UC. Page is a former top 60 four-star that chose USC over UC last year to go play with high school teammate Isaiah Collier. Both good gets for Wes Miller with the departures of Newman, Oguama to graduation and Lakhin, Reynolds, Tolentino to the transfer portal. Lakhin committed to Clemson today.

Ran in to Jeff Goodman last night before the UC game and he had the same opinion as me. Beat Baylor and have other teams lose on the current bubble and it gets interesting. Make it to the finals and they're a lock as a 10 or 11 seed. They're currently #34 in the NET following this win.

Skillings 25 pts 7 rbs... 15 pts over the final 10 mins. Kid took over this game. Newman 12 pts, 7 rbs Jizzle James 11 pts Lukosius 10 pts Thomas 8 pts Bandaogo 9 rbs Kansas really struggled against UC's size, length, and athleticism without McCullar and Dickinson. UC out-rebounded KU 49-38. Baylor up next. They beat UC by 3 on January 13th but Aziz Bandaogo did not play in that game. Will be interesting to see if UC can keep this momentum going. A win over Baylor and they're back in the bubble conversation.

Big 12 has five teams in the Top 15 of the Net and 10 in the top 40. Next closest conferences are the SEC and ACC with five teams in top 40. Pretty much every road game in the Big 12 is a Quad 1 opportunity. It is the deepest conference in the country, hands down.

Bearcats go on the road and get a road scalp over the 15th ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders. Pop Isaacs made a 3 with 35 seconds left to give Tech a 72-71 lead. Simas Lukosius came down the floor and made a jumper just inside the paint to give UC a 73-72 lead with 21 seconds left. Isaacs shot at the other end went off the back side of the rim, Skillings grabbed the rebound and threw it ahead to Newman for a dunk with 4 seconds left. Isaacs 3/4 heave was short and UC walked off the floor with their second top 15 road win of the season. Lukosius: 16 pts Skillings 14 pts Newman 11 Bandaogo 10 pts, 10 rbs Bearcats improve to 15-7 (4-5 B12) with Houston up next on Feb 10th.

I had Cooper as my preseason #1 team that year so I have to stick to my original thought that Cooper was better in 2017. Two high level future P5 starters in college basketball- Sean McNeil and Adam Kunkel NFL caliber D1 athlete that ended up at Indiana State for football (under-recruited)- Dante Hendrix Three future D1 baseball players: Brayden Runyon, Blaine Walters, Tyler Ollier Then had Chris McNeil at point guard. Covcath was really good that year as well with CVH, Fredrick, Walter, Mayer, and Ruthsatz, but I still think Cooper had the better core.