The Cincinnati Bearcats (6-2) and Xavier Musketeers (6-3) are set to face off Friday night, going head-to-head at the Cintas Center. The 2025 Crosstown Shootout will tip off at 7:30 p.m. ET on TNT.
The Musketeers are 1.5-point favorites at home with -115 moneyline odds, and the total has been set at 145.5 points. Here is a preview of the rivalry matchup featuring odds and lines from DraftKings Sportsbook.
Cincinnati vs. Xavier Preview
Cincinnati Preview
The Bearcats are well on their way to an 18th consecutive winning season, but they have shown some flaws to start the year. Early victories over Western Carolina and Georgia State set the stage for a 74-62 win against Dayton. But after handling Mount St. Mary’s, Cincinnati couldn’t get by No. 6 Louisville, losing by 10. In between wins over NJIT and Tarleton State, the Bearcats also lost by eight points at home to Eastern Michigan.
Baba Miller, a transfer big man from Florida Atlantic by way of Florida State, missed the Eastern Michigan and NJIT games with a hip injury he suffered against Louisville. Cincinnati’s leading scorer returned against Tarleton State, though, and he is expected to play on Friday. The 6-foot-11 forward is averaging 14.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, two blocks, and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 64.6% from the field. Senior guard Day Day Thomas ranks second on the team with 13.8 points and 4.4 assists per game, followed by freshman Shon Abaev and his 11.5 points per game.
Journeyman guard Kerr Kriisa, who made previous stops at Arizona, West Virginia, and Kentucky, is averaging a team-high 4.8 assists per game to go along with 8.1 points. Then there’s 7-foot-2 UCF transfer Moustapha Thiam with his 9.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game.
Cincinnati comes in at No. 72 in the updated KenPom ratings, albeit with a very unbalanced profile. The Bearcats rank No. 4 in adjusted defensive efficiency but No. 219 in adjusted offensive efficiency. Their opponent-adjusted 71.3 possessions per 40 minutes are also good for No. 53 in the country, thanks in part to the 17.5 turnovers they force per game.
Xavier Preview
The Musketeers opened the season with a pair of wins, but they only beat Marist by four and Le Moyne by five. Then, Santa Clara pummeled Xavier 87-68 on its own home floor, and Iowa beat the Musketeers 81-62 in the Hawkeye State. While Xavier appeared to get back on track with a 99-69 win against Old Dominion, they fell to Georgia by one point in South Carolina three days later. The Musketeers have since recovered, beating West Virginia by 10 before blowing out Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Saint Francis.
Florida Atlantic transfer Tre Carroll currently leads Xavier with 15.9 points per game. The 6-foot-8 forward is shooting 39.5% from distance and 74.1% on free throws, all while averaging 5.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists a night. Former UC San Diego and Boise State standout Roddie Anderson III ranks second on the team with 13.9 points per game, also shooting 37.8% from beyond the arc. But while Anderson has topped 20 points three times, he is averaging 6.0 points per game on 18.5% shooting against high major opponents.
Coach Richard Pitino brought forwards Jovan Milicevic and Filip Borovicanin with him from New Mexico. The former is averaging 12.6 points per game while shooting 44.2% from deep and 38.9% from two. The latter is averaging 8.1 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Valparaiso transfer All Wright is averaging 11.3 points per game on a clean 50% 3-point efficiency.
Xavier is No. 81 in the latest KenPom rankings, which is eighth-highest of the 11 Big East programs. The Musketeers boast the No. 103 offense and No. 71 defense in terms of adjusted efficiency, plus the No. 78 adjusted tempo.
Cincinnati vs. Xavier Pick, Best Bet
In a non-conference matchup between two defensive-leaning teams — one more so than the other — it’s easy to see the final score coming in below the 145.5 point total. Taking the under feels like a safer play than picking either side of a virtual toss-up, especially between two bitter rivals. Cincinnati broke Xavier’s five-game winning streak in the series last December, so that trend has been shaken up, too. But while the Bearcats’ statistical profile might be slightly superior, the Musketeers haven’t lost to Cincinnati at the Cintas Center since 2001.
The Bearcats have only gone over 139 points — let alone 145.5 — twice in eight games this season. Their two matchups with top-100 KenPom teams, Dayton and Louisville, both finished at exactly 138 points. And while four of the Musketeers’ eight regular-season games have topped 145.5 total points, only two of their three games against high-major opponents did.
Over the last seven years, the Cincinnati-Xavier game has only cleared 145.5 total points twice.
