Practice doesn't necessarily make perfect, but it can come pretty darn close. During Bob Huggins' 12 years as University of Cincinnati basketball coach, the Bearcats are 40-4 (.909) when they have at least six days off before regular-season games, including 12-0 in season openers.

        UC plays at Southern Mississippi on Saturday, one week after the Bearcats' victory over DePaul at home.

        Cincinnati (15-7, 5-4 C-USA) has won its last six with at least a week between games; its last loss under those circumstances was at Xavier in 1997-98. The Bearcats are 30-0 in such games at Shoemaker Center, 3-0 at neutral sites and 7-4 at opponents' arenas.

        “I think preparation has a lot to do with it,” UC coach Bob Huggins said Thursday. “We have enough time to make them understand what we want them to do. We can take things away from people. We know what we're doing. We don't have as many breakdowns.”

        Huggins said UC has nothing to do with how the Conference USA schedule works out and can only somewhat control the nonconference schedule because of television demands and other teams' scheduling needs.

        This will be the fourth time since the start of C-USA in 1995-96 that the Bearcats have a week be tween league games. They won the first three.

        Southern Miss (16-6, 6-4) is coming off a loss at Tulane on Wednesday night.

        The Bearcats have had two days off this week (Sunday and Tuesday) and had a light workout Monday. This kind of break allows players to catch up academically and allow nagging aches and pains to heal. It lets UC work on its own plays and better prepare for the upcoming opponent.

        “And you're more hungry to come out and play because you're accustomed to playing two games a week,” UC junior Jamaal Davis said.

UC takes good advantage of time off UC women 72, DePaul 64 UC football team loses another coach

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