CINCINNATI — At this point, you have to just feel for Wes Miller.
He’s a Division I head coach at a power-5 conference doing his best to find wins for Cincinnati. It just hasn’t worked out. Even on a night like Thursday, where they jumped out to first-half leads of 14-2 and 27-14, and then 37-23 with 16 minutes left, his Bearcats couldn’t find a way to hold on and fell, 59-54, to West Virginia at Fifth Third Arena.
Thursday shouldn’t have ended this way. Cincinnati held West Virginia without a basket for six minutes in the first half as the Bearcats ripped off a 12-0 run to take a 14-2 lead. Jizzle James sparked the offense in the run with a pair of threes and eight of the 14 points. James scored 10 points in the opening five minutes of the game. The Bearcats built their lead up to as many as 13 in the opening 20 minutes, leading 27-14 with 10 minutes left in the first half. Down only 28-20 in the closing 90 seconds of the half, West Virginia had a chance to get closer, but Harlan Obioha missed a pair of free throws and DJ Thomas missed an open three. Baba Miller drove to the basket for a layup in the closing seconds and Cincinnati led at the break, 30-20. Miller and James led the Bearcats with 10 points apiece in the first half.
The crowd booed in the closing moments when their fate was sealed. But it wasn’t a venomous reaction but one of fatigue and resignation. Funny, that matched the feel from Wes Miller in three different poignant moments postgame. His talk with Dan Hoard and Terry Nelson on the team broadcast on WLW signaled what was coming when he said, “Everyone deserves to be frustrated with me. I’m sorry. It’s not OK. There isn’t an excuse. We have to finish games. That’s the expectation of this program.”
Then he greeted frustrated fans outside the locker room and again acknowledged that what happened in the second half wasn’t acceptable.
“You guys deserve to be frustrated,” Miller told them. “I understand the responsibilities of this job. It ain’t OK.”
An emotional Wes Miller approaches fans postgame:
“You guys deserve to be frustrated. I understand the responsibilities of this job. It ain’t okay.”pic.twitter.com/0Ci3AEhgG1
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) February 6, 2026
And then moments later, Miller took the podium with Baba Miller to answer questions from the media about the meltdown in the second half that saw the Bearcats make 7-of-23 shots and score 24 points, repeating what he told Hoard and Nelson minutes earlier.
“I want to apologize to our fans and all the people who support Cincinnati basketball,” Miller said. “It’s not okay. I don’t want for one second for people to think that I think it’s okay. It’s not okay. In this program, there’s a higher standard. There’s no excuse. None of the circumstances matter. We have to close games out. We have to play better down the stretch. Nobody takes it harder than me. I accept people’s frustrations. They deserve it, but I promise you, I’m putting my heart, my soul, everything that I can put into having to close games out. We’ll get back up tomorrow and fight, and we have another opportunity on Sunday.”
At this point, it fairly obvious that barring a miracle championship run in the Big 12 tournament, Miller will have a fifth straight non-NCAA tournament season on the resume at Cincinnati. Adding to the indignity, the Bearcats fell below .500 (11-12, 3-7 Big 12) for the first time in the Wes Miller era and for the first time since March 4, 2021, when they were 9-10 following a 78-64 loss to Vanderbilt, the final year of the John Brannen era on the Cincinnati bench. The Bearcats haven’t had a losing season since 2007-08 season, the second of the Mick Cronin era in Cincinnati.
The Bearcats are headed in the wrong direction under Miller. But it’s not because he’s not trying. He is. Sometimes, a program and a coach don’t fit. There were certainly signs in the first two years that it might work itself out. Miller had the North Carolina Tar Heel basketball pedigree, he absolutely had success at mid-major UNC-Greensboro, and NCAA appearances in his final two seasons there. He was hired to bring that success and recruiting ability to Clifton. He brought the players but not enough wins.
He could also be the victim of bad timing, as Cincinnati was making the big leap from American Athletic Conference to the Big 12. Houston made the same switch and has come within a whisker of winning a national championship. Houston has Kelvin Sampson, a legit Hall of Fame-caliber coach. Wes Miller is still trying to brand his identity on the Bearcats program.
At this point, it’s probably too late. Everyone knows, Power-5 basketball and football are bottom-line businesses, judged by wins and stature that generate NIL sponsorship from satisfied alumni and fans and athletes who draw the biggest paychecks.
Miller will likely get his $4.69 million buyout after March 31 and Cincinnati will be in the market for a head coach for its high-profile basketball program. Cronin was given five years to get the program turned around and his fifth season was a 23-win season that culminated in an NCAA berth. Miller’s fifth season sees the Bearcats under water heading into the second week of February. Still, Miller has to find a way to get the mojo back for the final eight games of the regular season and whatever is left after that in the Big 12, NIT, Crown, etc.
“They’re big-time players, they are. These are big-time players,” Miller said. “They’ve already performed in big-time moments and had success. I believe in them. I mean, certainly in the under eight time out, I was having the conversation with them that you asked, ‘Hey guys, don’t drop your heads. It’s a one-possession game again, in a Big 12 game at home, let’s respond, let’s fight.’ I thought they clicked out of it a little bit, and tried to do that, but again, we weren’t able to convert down the stretch, that’s for sure.”
The 79-70 win over No. 2 Iowa State on Jan. 17 is now just a hazy spot in the rear view mirror.
“I want the results so bad,” Miller said. “I want it so bad for our fans, for all the people that have invested in our program, for the people in our athletic department, and the leadership in our University. I want it so bad for our players, most importantly, and the investment they put in, I want it so bad. The level of frustration that I feel internally for the people in our athletic department, and the leadership in our university. I want it so bad for our players, most importantly, and the investment they put in, I want it so bad. The level of frustration that I feel internally, I can’t express in words, because I want it so bad for everybody.
“That said, basketball has been such a blessing in my life, and the number one thing it’s taught me is how to deal with things and sports in general. It’s just been unbelievable as a kid going through it, because it teaches you how to deal with things, and it’s made me a really tough-minded human being that wakes up the next day and fights, and so that’s how I deal with it. I believe deeply in what we’re doing, and the people that we have in the locker room and the people in our organization, and I just wake up and fight, and that’s what I’ve learned in sports. But to say that I’m not deeply frustrated and hurt because I want it so bad then that wouldn’t be fair. It kind of goes both ways. But tomorrow I’ll be fighting, and I believe in these kids in this locker room, and I believe in what we’re doing. There’s a lot of basketball left.”
Miller and Miller will get another chance at redemption on Super Sunday against Central Florida, the team that beat them 73-72 on Jan. 11 in Orlando.
Wes Miller is a good man, with a passion and dedication to the sport he loves. There’s no questioning that. His best player knows how hard he is working to try and get every last drop out of a team that has never really meshed this season, fighting countless injuries and a lack of on-court cohesion. Look at how Miller treated Jizzle James. He gave him every chance to work his way back onto the roster, get mentally and emotionally prepared to help his teammates, which he clearly has. The way he handled Jizzle James might be the best example of the best of Wes Miller – trying to do what’s best for his team and his players at the same time.
“We definitely want it bad,” Baba Miller told me. “Everyone in the locker room wants it. We all want the same thing as coach (Miller), which is to win. As he said, we just need to put our heads down and get to work again. We still have a good amount of games left. We can go on a run. We just need to keep fighting and believing.”
Wes Miller has done his best but everyone knows, it’s a bottom line business.
