Cincinnati Bearcats basketball hosted Arizona Saturday afternoon in their Big 12 home opener. Here are takeaways from UC beat reporter Scott Springer.

This will be another crack at a Quad 1 win for the Bearcats who hope to leave their conference-opener sluggishness in 2024 in Manhattan as they greet the new year.

Shortly after the Kansas State men’s basketball team closed out the nonconference portion of its schedule with a humbling loss against Wichita State, Jerome Tang said it was time for the Wildcats to hit the reset button. “We are 0-0,” the K-State coach said.

Cincinnati Bearcats basketball embarks on their Big 12 schedule when they face Kansas State Monday night in Manhattan, Kansas.

After falling to Kansas State, the UC Bearcats will now lace up for their second conference opponent: the Arizona Wildcats.

Wes Miller's Cincinnati Bearcats wrapped up the non-conference schedule Sunday with a win over Grambling State. Here's what we learned.

UC is looking at its shortest betting spread of the season on Saturday. The Bearcats are 3.5-point betting favorites over Arizona as of this writing. The point total is set at 147.5 points. UC has been favored in every game it's played this season and this marks a tie with Dayton for the lowest spread they've had to cover yet against an Arizona team rated higher than them in the NET and on KenPom.

Contenders in the Big 12 meet for a rivalry tilt. We begin our College Basketball odds series with a Arizona-Cincinnati prediction and pick.