Four Factor Preview: Cinicinnati vs Morehead State

The Eagles are not going to be the most efficient scoring team in the country, but they are very effective on the offensive end for two really clear reasons, they have been hammering people on the offensive glass and they get to the line at a ridiculous rate. The two caveats to that are that 1) it is really early in the season and small sample sizes can do wonky things with the data, for example a Mick Cronin coached team will never turn the ball over at a 28% clip for the season. If it did everyone would die. 2) The Eagles followed up their tight UNLV loss with a nice cushy game against Cincinnati Christian, that inflated the numbers a bit, but not by that much. The Eagles pounded the other Eagles for a ridiculous 43.6 offensive rebounding rate, but even against a pretty decent UNLV team they rebounded at a 35 percent rate. This is a good offensive rebounding team, which will be a good test for the young Bearcats front court.

The other question is can the Bearcats knock down perimeter shots. This group was billed as one that is more replete with shooters than any other in the Mick Cronin era, but it sure didn't look that way on Friday when the Bearcats bricked their way to a 2 for 14 night from deep. One would hope that the Bearcats will show that before they head down to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday.