Cincinnati basketball made another late addition to the 2026-27 roster on Thursday. On3's Joe Tipton reported the team is signing former Akron Zips forward to the team.
He is part of the Class of 2022 and just earned another year of eligibility last week from Ohio Governor Mike DeWine's executive order.
"Akron transfer forward Amani Lyles has committed to Cincinnati," Tipton posted on X. "The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 14.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per game last season. He is currently eligible for a fifth season through the Ohio lawsuit."
Cincinnati was at a roster maximum of 15 players entering the day. Javontae Campbell has not appeared in either exhibition so far and has been wearing a walking boot. Lyles could be an injury replacement for him but that is not confirmed.
All in all, Cincinnati is getting another impact player in the frontcourt that should help seal up some holes game to game. The 2026 All-MAC performer was also on the conference defensive team.
He led the entire conference in player efficiency rating and could be a top-three player immediately once he ramps up. He is a great shooter all around that cashed 37.3% of his triples on 5.5 tries per game.
Lyles rolled all his shooting efficiency into the best effective field goal rate in the entire MAC (62.7%).
It's a major add this close to the season.
One more piece that has to gel, but Lyles has 116 career games played and should be able to learn quickly. Cincinnati is preparing for another exhibition next week.
"Your offense has to be married to your defense. Your defense has to marry your offense. We ran really good offense," UC head coach Jerrod Calhoun said last week after the Illinois loss. "We have a very unselfish team. The thing about our defense is there's a lot of details that have to be ironed out, and you know part of the negativity of playing it early is that you have a lot of breakdowns, right? And this is a team that will expose those breakdowns because they have five guys on the floor that can make a shot. Typically, you don't play a team like this. That's why they made the Final Four."
Lyles should help them compete even closer with teams like Illinois.
NEWS: Akron transfer forward Amani Lyles has committed to Cincinnati, source told @On3. ⁰⁰The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 14.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per game last season. He is currently eligible for a fifth season through the Ohio lawsuit. https://t.co/5GHom9Ghf0 pic.twitter.com/6UxOyBf4nV
— Joe Tipton (@JoeTipton) October 22, 2026
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