Learning the Big 12 ropes, Cincinnati prepares for No. 14 Baylor

It didn't take long for Cincinnati to learn that the margin between victory and defeat is very thin in the Big 12.

The Bearcats will try to rebound from a highly disappointing setback when they square off with No. 14 Baylor on Saturday night in Waco, Texas.

Cincinnati (12-3, 1-1 Big 12) was in position to win its first two conference games as a member of the Big 12 when it led by three points in the final minute of Tuesday's 74-73 home loss to No. 25 Texas.

The advantage was still one when John Newman III went to the free-throw line with 23 seconds remaining. However, Newman missed the front end of the one-and-one situation and Texas cashed in with the winning jumper by Max Abmas with 6.2 seconds to go to post the victory.

Bearcats coach Wes Miller made it clear he didn't feel the missed free throw was the difference in the game.

"What I don't want to hear about is free-throw shooting," Miller said afterward. "I hurt every time we lose. Our players hurt every time we lose. But nobody's going to beat himself up more than John Newman. And that just breaks my heart. And it ain't fair because he shouldn't do it. Because to him — one missed free throw on a one-on-one does not define the game — he's going to do that to himself.

"And I just hate that. And we're going to have his damn back because that's not it.

"There's a thousand reasons why we had a chance. We had two chances to get stops to win a game, and we didn't get stops. That's why we lost the damn game, not because of free throws."

Cincinnati defeated then-No. 12 BYU 71-60 on the road last Saturday in its first Big 12 contest.

Baylor (13-2, 2-0) enters with a four-game winning streak that includes Tuesday's 81-72 home victory over No. 18 BYU.

The Bears outscored the Cougars by 15 points in the second half to rally for the win.

Baylor coach Scott Drew felt a sigh of relief afterward but also noted his club is built for overcoming adverse situations.

"You've got to be tough in this league," Drew said. "When you're down, you've got to have that resiliency and toughness to come back. If you don't, you're not going to win many games."

Bears guard Jayden Nunn cited the turnaround to simply eliminating miscues.

"We knew we were just beating ourselves with silly mistakes," Nunn said. "Once we covered them, that's when we started taking the lead. It really just started with defense. The defense created our offense for us, for sure."

Nunn is one of six Baylor players averaging in double digits, scoring 10 points per game. Ja'Kobe Walter leads the squad in scoring (15.3 ppg) and 3-pointers (34), while RayJ Dennis is second at 13.9 points per game.

Langston Love averages 11.3 points, Jalen Bridges is at 10.7 and Yves Missi contributes 10.1 points and leads the team in rebounding (6.3 per game) and blocked shots (25).

For the Bearcats, Viktor Lakhin leads in scoring (14.1) and rebounding (8.1). Dan Skillings Jr. (10.9) and Day Day Thomas (10.3) also score in double digits.

This is just the second meeting between the teams. Baylor won the first, 55-45 at Cincinnati on Dec. 21, 1946.

—Field Level Media