A new era dawns in the rich tradition of Cincinnati basketball as it plays host to American in the season opener for both programs on Nov. 2.
Cincinnati enters this season with new head coach Jerrod Calhoun. He took over for Wes Miller, who was fired after the team posted an 18-15 record in 2025-26 — marking a fifth straight season of missing the NCAA Tournament under Miller and seventh overall.
Calhoun is a Cincinnati graduate and former student assistant under Hall of Fame coach Bob Huggins.
Tied for eighth out of 16 teams in the Big 12 Conference preseason coaches’ poll, Cincinnati projects as a bubble team from the get-go. Calhoun coached Utah State to the NCAA Tournament last spring and guided the Aggies to a first-round win over Villanova.
Calhoun has brought with him from Utah State star guards MJ Collins Jr. and Elijah Perryman, while also adding guard Akai Fleming from Georgia Tech and Tulsa transfer Tylen Riley, who scored 31 points and had 13 assists in a preseason loss to No. 3 Illinois. Collins led Utah State last year with 17.5 points per game.
“Since this new portal world started many years ago, we’ve been pretty successful, and we really try to evaluate every single position, make sure those guys kind of play the way we want to play,” Calhoun said. “You have to have the right people. The University of Cincinnati deserves a winner in men’s basketball. This city deserves to be rockin’ and rollin’ again. People need to fear us in the state of Ohio.”
American is led by swingman Greg Jones and guard Madden Collins.
Jones averaged 12.5 points, was voted the Patriot League preseason Defensive Player of the Year and was selected to the preseason All-Patriot League Team.
Collins led the Eagles in scoring last season at 13.4 points per game.
American is coming off a season in which it finished 16-16 (9-9 Patriot League) in its third season under head coach Duane Simpkins. In addition to playing at Cincinnati, the Eagles also play on the road at Clemson, Maryland, UCF and George Washington before opening the conference schedule on Dec. 30 at Lehigh.
“Conference play is what you work for all year,” Simpkins said. “Every contest presents a different challenge, and there are no easy games in the Patriot League. We’re excited about this group, we’ve had a really productive offseason.”
