Tylen Riley keeps turning heads, and Saturday night against Illinois may have been his most complete showing yet.
After also standing out against Ohio State, Riley looked even sharper against the Illini, attacking from every level of the floor and finishing with 31 points, 13 assists and five rebounds to lead Cincinnati. Illinois tried to take away his path to the rim by going underneath on ball screens, but Riley answered by stepping into 3s and knocking down three of six.
Brad Underwood came away impressed afterward.
"He's a really good player with the ball, and I thought that if you let him go right he's a problem. I think in their first scrimmage, if I'm not mistaken, he had 15 free-throw attempts.
So he's very crafty in there. He's got great touch.
I give him props 'cause we were going under him and daring him to shoot 3s; he made those. When he makes that shot, he's a really hard guard, and then he's proven that he can elevate others, and that assist total's pretty impressive.
I think he'll be one of the better guards in the Big 12."
Riley, for his part, pointed back to the talent around him. He said the players on the floor created the kind of space that let him take what the defense gave him.
"When you just play with a lot of good players, which is what we have on this team, the floor just opens up," Riley said. "It was just my night tonight. And as I said before, it could just be anybody's night, but when you just have a lot of good players, the gravity, it just spaces out, and you can just do whatever you wanna do out there."
That kind of production is starting to raise a bigger question for Cincinnati. Jerrod Calhoun has already said this team probably won’t lean on a single 17-20-point scorer because of its depth, but after two exhibitions, Riley looks more and more like the guy who can still take over games. He’s shooting it, getting downhill, drawing fouls and making free throws at better than an 80% clip.
The frontcourt battle was another major piece of the night. Cincinnati lost the rebounding margin 39-32, even though both teams scored 42 points in the paint.
Illinois finished with one more offensive rebound, 13-12, and six more defensive boards, 26-20. There were also questions raised about how well Illinois’ bigs actually rebounded, so that part of the game is worth watching moving forward.
Still, the biggest concern for Cincinnati was that Riley led the team with five rebounds. Jayden Hastings, Riley Allenspach, Eric Mahaffey and Adlan Elamin combined for 11 boards, with Hastings, Allenspach and Mahaffey all grabbing three.
Calhoun said the issue came down to allowing too much penetration, which put Illinois in position to crash the glass effectively.
"Yeah, they got us by seven. Them and Houston historically are the two best rebounding teams in the country.
So I think there were points that they got deep penetration on the drives, that they were so close to the basket. We've got to do a better job of chesting drives and keeping 'em out of the paint.
But yeah, for a while it was even. That was the game, honestly.
Plus seven on the glass, that's it. That's how they got us."
Defensively, Cincinnati has work to do. The Bearcats gave up 105 points, and while Calhoun’s teams aren’t built to mimic a Mick Cronin- or Wes Miller-style identity, he still expects better after putting together a top-50 defense at Utah State last season.
The matchup also posed a tough test. Illinois put pressure on Cincinnati’s guards, and Tylen Riley and MJ Collins had trouble at times stopping drives, which opened the door for Andrej Stojaković to get to the rim, score or draw fouls. Calhoun said the Illini are especially difficult because they can put five shooters on the floor at once.
"There are a lot of details that have to be ironed out," Calhoun said of his defense. "And part of the negativity of playing it early, you have a lot of breakdowns, right?
And this is a team that will expose those breakdowns because they have five guys on the floor that can make a shot. Typically, you don't play a team like this.
That's why they made the Final Four. They got seven-foot-one and seven-foot-two guys making 3s, and they're elite cutters.
This is a team that runs their offense probably similar to us; our defense is very different."
Even with the defensive issues, the bigger picture for Cincinnati is hard to miss: this group has a lot of usable pieces. Riley looks healthy and comfortable.
Tyler Tejada has flashed real offensive punch, including a step-back 3 that stood out. Adlan Elamin scored 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting and hit three of seven from deep.
Myles Colvin hasn’t been loud through two games, but there’s confidence he can become one of the better shooters in the Big 12 and top 40% from 3-point range. Hastings has shown he can be a post presence and a finisher.
Trevian Carson keeps standing out on defense. And MJ Collins remains part of the mix.
There are also young players in the picture, including Elijah Perryman, Akai Fleming and Eric Mahaffey, plus Riley Allenspach as a big who can stretch the floor, which matters in Calhoun’s system.
The takeaway from these exhibitions is clear enough: Cincinnati doesn’t look like a team waiting on one perfect arrangement of pieces. It looks like a team with players who can all matter on their own. That’s the kind of roster that tends to make people pay attention.
In Other News...
Jerrod Calhoun Just Saw Cincinnatis Biggest Early Test Get Harder
Cincinnati has already had to learn a few things early under new head coach Jerrod Calhoun, and the biggest lesson so far has been how quickly a preseason look can change. The Bearcats are 1-1 in exhibition play after a 105-96 home loss to Illinois, and Calhoun said the team is still sorting through where it stands while trying to build habits, piece together rotations and get a feel for who can handle bigger roles.
The more immediate challenge is that the Bearcats are doing it while managing some injury concerns, even as MJ Collins has returned to game action and remains eligible under a recent executive order. Calhoun also had reason to smile about the way the backcourt responded against Illinois, with Eric Mahaffey taking on the point guard duties in a stretch that showed the staff how flexible this roster may need to be if the early-season tests keep getting tougher. [Read more 🡒]
Bearcats Get A Massive Homecoming Test With Extra Intrigue Attached
Saturdays homecoming matchup carries plenty of weight before the ball is even kicked, with Cincinnati set to welcome an unbeaten Texas Tech team in the Bearcats 100th Homecoming game. The setting alone gives the afternoon some extra shine, and the timing is even better for the program, with the UC Athletic Hall of Fame also staging its induction ceremony the day before. It should be one of those campus weekends where the game, the alumni buzz and the history all feed into one another.
There is also a layer of intrigue that goes beyond the record books, thanks to the Texas Tech roster connection to former UC quarterback Brendan Sorsby. His presence in the storyline adds a familiar face to an already compelling Big 12 test, even if circumstances will keep him from being part of the on-field drama. For Cincinnati, the assignment is straightforward enough and difficult enough at once: protect home turf on a milestone day and try to turn a celebratory weekend into a meaningful win. [Read more 🡒]
Bearcats Showed One Encouraging Sign And One Big Defensive Concern
An exhibition loss is rarely the kind of result that defines a season, but Cincinnati got enough of a look at Illinois to leave with a clearer sense of what still needs work. The Bearcats saw the Illini make shots from deep and control the glass, even as Illinois piled up 15 turnovers and showed some early-season sloppiness that kept the game from settling into a clean rhythm.
For Cincinnati, the more uncomfortable takeaway came on the defensive end, where Tyler Riley kept finding answers and stayed in control for long stretches. The Bearcats need that part of the tape more than the final score, because the kind of production Illinois got there is the sort of problem that can linger if it is not addressed before the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]