Josh Eilert explains West Virginia's approach to facing Cincinnati after recent blowout loss

On Tuesday, West Virginia will square off against Cincinnati at 3 p.m. ET in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. Only three days prior, the Mountaineers fell in devastating 92-56 fashion to the Bearcats. WVU head coach Josh Eilert addressed his team’s chance to avenge their loss.

“We’ll find out what type of resilience, what type of fight our guys have,” Eilert said. “We were embarrassed there in Cincinnati and I ran out of time. I was trying to stop the bleeding and they just kept on pouring in. We’re gonna see what type of competitiveness, what type of resilience our guys have.”

Eilert was a late hire for West Virginia after the program parted ways with former head coach Bob Huggins following his arrest. Eilert wasn’t handed an easy situation. With Huggins’ departure, WVU lost seven players in the transfer portal. Josh Eilert admits WVU has faced its fair share of growing pains.

“I want to play the right way,” Eilert said. “We’re still learning to play with each other to be honest with you, in terms of our chemistry. You see flashes of it, but you also see times where it’s a struggle to get on the same page because we didn’t have the opportunity to work together as much as so many other teenagers who started from the summer.

“It’s kind of like coaching a G-League team in a lot of ways. We’re trying to figure things out and hopefully we get hot here late.”

Final score predictions for West Virginia vs. Cincinnati

BPI Predicted winner: Cincinnati
BPI Predicted point differential: 13.3
BPI Win probability (for Cincinnati): 88.9%
BPI Matchup Quality: 65.8

ESPN’s BPI is a model designed to provide a statistical comparison between two teams and predict future success. It agrees with Vegas about what to expect from this game. Leading into the game, BPI is projecting a point differential of 13.3 points in Cincinnati’s favor. It also gives the Bearcats an 88.9 percent chance to win the game over the Mountaineers. 

BPI also gives this game a matchup quality score of 65.8, which is in the middle of the road for Tuesday’s competition. 

How to watch West Virginia vs. Cincinnati

Time: 3:00 p.m. ET
Channel: ESPN+, FuboTV (streaming)
Location: T-Mobile Center | Kansas City, MO

West Virginia and Cincinnati are set to tip off at 3:00 p.m. ET. It will be played at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO, with a raucous crowd expected to be at the showdown.

TRY FUBO FOR FREE: For a limited time, new subscribers can save $20 on Fubo’s Pro, Elite, and Premier plans 

For fans outside of the area, the game can be watched on ESPN+. It’s also going to be available to fans on streaming through FuboTV, which does have an option to save for new subscribers.