UC Bearcats on Beale Street for basketball with Memphis Sunday

One win better than last year's squad and one win away from 20 on the season, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats play their final regular-season road game Sunday afternoon in Memphis. UC comes in 19-10 after winning a pair of squeakers this past week at Central Florida and at Fifth Third Arena against Temple.

Both games featured late Bearcat leads that were lost in the final minute. At UCF, David DeJulius was the hero with a last-second floater, while Landers Nolley II helped the Bearcats to the overtime win against Temple scoring nine of his 20 points in the extra period.

In their previous meeting Jan. 22, the Bearcats trailed by 10 at halftime and could never surpass the Tigers, losing 75-68.

SMU transfer Kendric Davis, who averages over 21 points per game, tallied 21 that afternoon. However, he suffered an ankle injury in the 64-63 Memphis win over UCF on Feb. 16 and did not play in their 72-64 loss at No. 2 Houston last Sunday. Davis returned for the Memphis win over Wichita State Thursday night.

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Memphis sits ahead of UC in the American Athletic Conference standings, with both trailing Houston. Sunday's game will affect AAC tournament seeding the following week in Fort Worth.

"It's about the next practice and the next game and whenever that's over you wake up the next day," UC coach Wes Miller said of his postseason outlook. "It sounds boring and cliché but I really think we've got to try and stay in the moment. If we can control that, we can look up at the end of the season and say we took some incremental steps from this point last year to now. But it's too early to me. We're in the thick of league play still."

UC vs. Memphis preview

Tip: 2 p.m. (EST) Sunday, FedEx Forum (18,400)

TV/Radio: ESPN2/WLW-AM (700)

Series info: Cincinnati leads 47-38

Memphis Tigers scouting report

Memphis 21-7 (10-6 AAC)

Coach: Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway (106-50, fifth season)

Offense: 80.0 ppg

Defense: 73.1 ppg

Projected lineup

(Position, Height, Stats)

DeAndre Williams (F, 6'9", 17. 4 ppg)

Kendric Davis (G, 6', 21.2 ppg)

Elijah McCadden (G, 6'5", 7.8 ppg)

Chandler Lawson (F, 6'7", 5.0 ppg)

Jayden Hardaway (G, 6'5", 5.8 ppg)

Cincinnati Bearcats scouting report

Cincinnati (19-10, 10-6 AAC)

Coach: Wes Miller (37-25, second season)

Offense: 77.4 ppg

Defense: 69.3 ppg

Projected lineup

(Position, Height, Stats)

Landers Nolley II (G/F, 6'7", 16.4 ppg)

David DeJulius (G, 6', 14.6 ppg)

Viktor Lakhin (F, 6'11", 12.4 ppg)

Mika Adams-Woods (G, 6'3", 9.1 ppg)

Ody Oguama (F, 6'9", 4.9 ppg)

Players to watch

DeAndre Williams/Kendric Davis

The fifth-year player Williams is a former teammate with Nolley. Williams is second on the team in scoring this season at just over 17 points per game. In the 75-68 Memphis win over UC Jan. 22 he led the Tigers with 26 points and pulled down eight rebounds. He has twice been the AAC Player of the Week.

Guard Kendric Davis can't be ignored as evidenced by his 21 points last month against the Bearcats. He was the AAC Player of the Year last season at SMU. This year he's scored as many as 42 (against UCF Jan. 11) and has been held below 10 points just once. Davis is coming off an ankle injury which caused him to miss the Houston game. At Wichita State Thursday night, he led Memphis with 19 points. The Tigers will be without redshirt senior guard Keonte Kennedy who was averaging 9.2 points per game as he has suffered a season-ending broken hand.

Landers Nolley II

It's been less than a year since Nolley was wearing Tiger blue, playing in an NCAA second-round loss to top seed Gonzaga last March 19. A little over a month later, he was a Bearcat. While at Memphis he made the John Wooden Award Preseason Watch list and was the Most Outstanding Player of the Tigers' NIT championship in 2021.

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Nolley had 18 points and six rebounds in UC's January loss to Memphis and was also assessed a technical early in the game as referees were trying to keep the talking between former teammates at a minimum. He appears to have an extra gear when challenged, as evidenced by his nine points in five minutes of overtime Wednesday after a brief altercation with Temple's Damien Dunn.

"That kind of sparked my fire," Nolley said after the game. "From there, the rest was history. That's why I was so mad I missed that last shot in regulation."

Keys to the game

Silence the crowd

The FedEx Forum seats 18,400 and hosts the NBA Grizzlies as well as the Tigers. Both draw well. Hardaway's Tigers top the AAC in home attendance at 10,847 per game with UC second at 9,604. This game will be the closest UC sees to a Big 12 road game in terms of attendance and noise level. Memphis has only lost once in their building this season, to Tulane, a team UC defeated in December and might have beaten earlier this month had Lakhin not rolled an ankle.

It's a tall order, but the Bearcats led AAC top-seed Houston by seven at the half in front of their sold-out crowd and had every opportunity to win. UC hasn't beaten Memphis since an overtime win at Fifth Third Arena in 2020 when Jarron Cumberland, Trevon Scott and Keith Williams were in the starting lineup. Their last win in Memphis was Feb. 7, 2019, in Mick Cronin's final season as Bearcats coach.

Put 90 on the board

Yes, it's easier said than done. The Bearcats have scored 90 or more five times, but only once in league play in the 101-94 loss at Tulane. However, every team that has reached 90 on Memphis has prevailed: Saint Louis (90), Alabama (91), Tulane (96 and 90) and Central Florida (107).

NCAA NET: Memphis is No. 38, Cincinnati is No. 79

KenPom.com: Memphis is No. 38, Cincinnati is No. 67

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: UC's basketball Bearcats road trip to Memphis hoping for a key AAC win