CINCINNATI — Sunday’s 63-50 home loss to West Virginia was just the latest display of poor effort, lack of competitiveness and slip further into the pit of misery this season has become for the Cincinnati men’s basketball program. While it’s the latest indictment on coach Wes Miller, who was booed when introduced before Sunday’s game, there’s something bigger coming out of Sunday’s latest debacle. Sunday’s fifth Big 12 loss by double digits is a wake-up call for John Cunningham, Cincinnati’s Director of Athletics.
Wes Miller was Cunningham’s first hire and first major hire. The Bearcats men’s basketball program needed Miller to come in and resurrect it from the dire straits it was in at the time. His fiery approach to coaching brought back some level of competitiveness the last three seasons. But this season has proven he’s probably not the head coach to get this Bearcats program back to the NCAA Tournament.
That was the baseline expectation this season, and it’s been the baseline expectation for more than 30 years. Fans are growing impatient. Cunningham made the smart, but perhaps knee-jerk decision to fire John Brannen after just two seasons. The move was needed given the dire straits the program was in and the uncertain future for it coming out of COVID-19, even though there was not a lot of evidence of on-court shortcomings to warrant a coaching change.
Now, four years into Wes Miller’s tenure and two years into the Big 12, there’s enough evidence for a coaching change. Six seasons without an NCAA Tournament appearance, a roster that has severely regressed this season and a head coach who’s now being booed when he’s introduced at home games. That’s enough evidence for John Cunningham to consider a coaching change at the end of the season… if not sooner.
Other area programs like Ohio State and Louisville are fighting their tails off and getting better with first-year head coaches. Ohio State made a coaching change during the season last year, and it led to a run in the NIT. Now, they are poised to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
There are former Bearcats, led by Sean Kilpatrick, making their voices heard loud and clear. Sean Kilpatrick. Outside of Oscar Robertson and Kenyon Martin, arguably the biggest face and name in the history of the Bearcats program is making his voice heard loud and clear about how their program has lost their identity.
As much as this is Wes Miller’s program, Cunningham oversees it. The Bearcats haven’t made the Tournament since he became Cincinnati’s director of athletics in December of 2019.
His decision to fire Brannen for cause is one that deserves praise. Cunningham acted swiftly to change the direction of a program, with a lot of good rich history, that was going downhill and was at just four scholarship players on its roster at the time.
Fans are growing apathetic. Former players are voicing their frustration. Several other of the country’s best college basketball programs of the last 30 years have emerged from the COVID-19 Pandemic the last four years as really good programs. Cincinnati still hasn’t rebounded from those two seasons heavily impacted by the pandemic. And as this team, and season, continues to spiral downward, change is needed. Money aside. Pride and fan support is at stake here.
When a head coach says he’s disgusted with the way his team played, after they just suffered their fourth star fight loss, that’s adding gasoline to the fire that’s already burning within the Bearcats program. It’s one thing to say that, let’s just say, if your team had won five of six coming in and just had a bad day at the office. But to say that after your team just lost its fourth straight game and eighth in its last 10 is a huge sign that there may be a fracture internally between the players and the head coach.
The players on this year’s team are severely regressing. That falls on the head coach. This is Cincinnati’s signature program, and it’s coming apart at the fabric that makes it what it is. There’s no effort, competitiveness and toughness that has made it what it’s been for the last 35 years. Former players are voicing their frustrations on Twitter. Fans are venting on social media and public. John Cunningham has to see that and realize a change is needed.
Wes Miller should be fired at the end of the season. That belief is growing stronger and stronger as this season continues to plummet. This was supposed to be Wes Miller’s best team, with their top three scorers and six of their top eight from last year, in his tenure as the Bearcats head coach. It’s now becoming his worst team, having significantly regressed over the past month.
If this season continues to go the way it’s gone, and all signs point to that happening, Cunningham has to act. He has to make a change. This program is heading towards its sixth straight season of not playing in the NCAA Tournament. And keeping Wes Miller beyond this season would send this program more towards irrelevancy and away from contention than it would towards contention.
The Bearcats are now in the Big 12. Fans are heavily invested, but they won’t show up if the status quo is kept, especially within this University’s signature program. Sunday was a wake-up to John Cunningham that things are not good within the Bearcats Men’s Basketball program. Change is needed. For Bearcats fans and former players, Cunningham needs to answer the wake-up call.
