Many new faces in 91st Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout between UC, Xavier

The numbers to know for Saturday's Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout between the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and Xavier are important to know.

The teams have met 90 times with UC winning 51. Xavier has won the last four with UC's last victory coming Dec. 8, 2018, at Fifth Third Arena in Mick Cronin's last season as Bearcats head coach.

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UC hasn't won at Cintas Center since Dec. 14, 2001, when Steve Logan was still playing and Bob Huggins was coach. It was Thad Matta's first season at Xavier.

That's coming up on 22 years ago, before many of the current players were born.

Who is missing from last year?

For UC, gone are starters David DeJulius, Landers Nolley II, Mika Adams-Woods and Jeremiah Davenport from the team that was blown out in the first half, 41-24, but rallied to tie at 77 on a DeJulius three-pointer and a foul. In the final 11 seconds, three free throws from Souley Boum gave Xavier a fourth straight victory.

Gone from Xavier's starting five are Boum, Jack Nunge, Colby Jones and Adam Kunkel. Zach Freemantle is on the current roster but is out injured.

Points returning

UC brings back 25 points from last year's squad as Viktor Lakhin had 16 points and eight rebounds in 2022. Ody Oguama, who was starting by January, had nine points and four rebounds in 25 minutes. Off the bench, Josh Reed played 13 minutes and Dan Skillings Jr. played five minutes but neither scored.

Xavier has 20 points from the last game on the roster, but 14 of those came from Freemantle. Otherwise, Desmond Claude had four points in nine minutes and Jerome Hunter, two points in 12 minutes. Kam Croft played a couple of minutes and didn't score.

Transfers still trying to figure out favorite Skyline Chili meal

From UC's starting lineup, Day Day Thomas is from Kilgore Junior College in Texas and Aziz Bandaogo had stops in Akron and Utah Valley. Simas Lukošius actually has experience vs. Xavier having played at Butler for Thad Matta. Last winter he had 12 and nine points, respectively, in two match-ups with the Muskies. In his freshman year, he hit for 27 points against them in the Big East tournament.

Jizzle James is a freshman from Florida and Jamille Reynolds (awaiting eligibility) was in Philadelphia for Temple last season and previously played at UCF.

C.J. knows 3-way, 3-ball

The Covington Catholic grad who has knocked down treys at Iowa and Kentucky has never played against Xavier. Saturday will be the first for the grad student who grew up either watching or attending many Shootouts.

"I remember the one when Cincinnati had Yancy Gates and Xavier had Kenny Frease and there was the big scuffle at Xavier," Fredrick said. "I remember watching that one and it was so competitive and so intense. It was also a fun and enjoyable game for me and my family."

Having played in the Big Ten, SEC and soon, the Big 12, the atmosphere is something a competitor craves.

"It's going to be a tough road environment," Fredrick said. "We know we're walking into a gym where they obviously don't like us. This is a big one for everybody. I think the team knows the importance of this game and the hype on it for sure."

Xavier's newbies

Top transfer Quincy Olivari just scored a season-high 34 points in the loss to Delaware and last year was a Conference USA star at Rice. Forward Abou Ousmane is also from C-USA and North Texas, while Dayvion McKnight comes from the same league and Western Kentucky. Forward Gytis Nemeikša comes from Bypaupas Magnes University in Lithuania where one might assume chili on noodles is not served.

Hello Newman (again)

Graduate student John Newman III missed last year's Shootout because he was injured. In his first season at UC after transferring from UNC-Greensboro, he led the Bearcats with 14 points in their 83-63 Cintas Center loss in 2021.

"It's the biggest game in the city and means a lot to our fans," Newman III said. "I'm excited to go out there and perform and get back on what I missed on last year. We didn't get the W. The most important thing is to come back with a win."

Outside of Lukošius from his time at Butler, no current Bearcat has experienced a win vs. Xavier.

"I think we have a big opportunity on Saturday," Newman III said. "We're going to be in noisy gyms all year long. It's good to get a test like this early. One of my favorite things in a hostile environment is everything is against you. You really get to see what you're made of. It's a challenge to your execution, how well you can keep your focus, your temperament, your composure. I love challenges and getting to see what it makes of me."

UC is 7-0, Xavier 4-5

If you think that means anything, you haven't seen enough of these 40-minute wars between the two schools separated by less than four miles. As any Xavier fan will be happy to point out, the Musketeers twice defeated UC when they were the national No. 1, in 1996 and again in 1999.

Bearcats by venue

Cintas Center: 1-9

Fifth Third Arena: 9-7

Heritage Bank Center (formerly US Bank Arena, Firstar Center, The Crowne, Riverfront Coliseum): 8-4

Armory Fieldhouse: 2-1

Cincinnati Gardens: 28-15

Schmidt Fieldhouse: 3-3

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: A new star could be born in Skyline Shootout with new faces at UC, XU