Cincinnati Bearcats sophomore Dan Skillings Jr. hints at staying one more year

At the University of Cincinnati's sunny Saturday baseball game with TCU, Bearcat basketball forward Dan Skillings Jr. threw out the first pitch and a few hints.

After delivering a 52 mph strike to Tommy O'Connor with a 1,237 rpm spin rate, the 6-foot-6 sophomore settled in for the game. Later in the afternoon, O'Connor took center stage with a three-run home run.

In the fifth inning, Skillings joined the ESPN+ Bearcat in-house crew of Anthony Mazzini and Zach Segal. Around some talk about his previous baseball experience and his appreciation of Cincinnati's finer steakhouses, conversation went toward basketball.

Skillings said he's been working with Senior Associate AD/Sports Performance Mike Rehfeldt in the weight room and doing Pilates with his girlfriend, a member of UC's highly decorated dance team.

As talk drifted toward recent personnel moves, Skillings then offered to Mazzini:

"This year coming up will be my last year for sure. Then, I'll be going to the league. That's been the goal."

He added that players that want to learn things and not be misled, would like Wes Miller.

"He said, 'We don't see you doing more than two, three years here,' " Skillings Jr. said.

Chasing Skillings

Next season would be his third. Skillings added one of the reasons he was attracted to Miller was that he would FaceTime him often and not talk about basketball. Miller would spend 45 minutes sometimes asking him about his day at the beach.

The sophomore then told a story of how he pranked Miller on FaceTime. They connected and Skillings pretended to be sad and told Miller he had talked with his family and they had made a decision. After Miller's expression turned serious, he slowly said, "I've decided to commit to . . ." then dropped the camera to show his Cincinnati shirt.

Skillings said Miller was working out somewhere and took off running in celebration.

Improved Skillings-set

Skillings went from 35 games and no starts with a 5.3 points per game average as a freshman to leading UC in scoring this season at 12.9 per game and being second in rebounding at 6.4 per contest.

He had three double-doubles during the season, including 12 points and 12 boards in the NIT quarterfinal loss to Indiana State. His high game was 29 vs. Stetson and he twice had 12 rebounds (Florida Gulf Coast, Indiana State).

Skillings was the highest-touted recruit of the first freshman class signed by Miller at UC. He could still declare for the NBA Draft as Aziz Bandaogo recently did and return to UC. Thus far, he's not made an official decision other than what can be drawn from his comments during the baseball game.

Baseball 'Cats

UC defeated TCU 6-2 Saturday taking a 2-0 lead in their series which will wrap up Sunday afternoon. The Horned Frogs were a preseason Top 25 team.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: UC Bearcats player Dan Skillings Jr. alludes to another year in Big 12