Bearcats Beat: With Jizzle James Buzz, Bearcats Prep For Huge Week, Game Vs. Xavier

CINCINNATI — There’s no doubt Jizzle James could help these Bearcats.

According to head coach Wes Miller, he’s been around campus, still enrolled and working out. He just hasn’t been formally practicing with the team.

But what would his athleticism do for a team that’s desperate for offensive functionality?

No one knows until he would step on the court and rejoin the Bearcats. Will that come this week against – of all teams – Xavier? Jizzle James was back at Fifth Third Arena Monday night and he was shown on the video board, prompting cheers and support from the fans who showed up for the 76-58 win over Tarleton State. That provided the Bearcats a bit of a barometer on what the campus and the Bearcat community feels about the student who has been through a personal journey in the offseason that resulted in him leaving the team and getting his own house in order.

To head coach Wes Miller, who brought him to UC three years ago, all that matters is that he is in a good space right now personally and Miller made that very clear after Monday’s win.

“Well, Jizzle has never not been enrolled, so he’s never not been enrolled in school, and so that’s the case,” Miller began. “Number one, Jizzle is family. That’s my family. He’s not my son or a member of my blood family, but whatever, the closest thing you could call somebody that’s not blood family, that’s what I consider Jizzle and a lot of the other kids that I’ve coached. So, he’s never not been in our lives. He just hadn’t been on our team. But he’s enrolled here.”

Could he return soon?

“I know everybody wants to ask basketball questions, and I understand that, but if anybody wants to know, he’s doing well, personally, he’s doing great, and that’s what I care about, what I’m happy about, what I’m proud of,” Miller said. “I’m glad he’s on campus, he’s enrolled, he’s using our facilities. It’s not news, because it’s been going on for a while, but if somebody spotted them, you guys are asking a fair question. That’s what it is. As far as basketball, I don’t have any comments about it. There’s nothing to talk about or report. There’s no story. The story, basketball-wise, is about the guys that are wearing the jersey, playing on the court. But on a personal level, because he’s family to me and anybody out there that feels that cares about him, they should know he’s doing great, and I’m really proud of that.”

James averaged 10.7 points, 2.8 assists and 2.4 rebounds in two seasons in 2023-24 and 24-25. If he is in a good mental and physical space, he could come in and immediately contribute because of his familiarity with Miller’s system and Miller’s familiarity with James.

Stay tuned for what could be a fascinating week leading up to Cincinnati’s game with Xavier Friday night at Cintas.

Speaking of the Musketeers, Wes Miller shouldn’t need to say much this week to get the team motivated for their next opponent on Friday.

“We got a bunch of new faces, but you got a couple guys like Day Day Thomas, Tyler McKinley that grew up here, and so that those guys will speak up,” Miller said. “We’re Cincinnati. We’re going to play a ton of big games. Every league game’s a monster game, right? We have a ton of monster games left on our non-conference schedule.

“So the coach talk is that it’s just one other game, but it’s not one other game,” Miller said. “And I say that because it’s what it means to this community. I get that. I’ve been here long enough to understand how much the Cincinnati-Xavier game means to the community of Cincinnati and to the people here, and that’s why it means a little bit more. And there’s a history and a tradition to that within the community. There’s a history and tradition to the game. And I think when you’re here, you feel it. And I imagine the guys will feel that this week, and certainly we’ll explain that to them.”

If the Bearcats are to have a chance in the hostile environment that is the Cintas Center, the Bearcats will have to replicate their sharp-shooting from beyond the arc. It was the reason they were able to overcome more offensive dysfunction Monday night in the win over Tarleton State. Even with Baba Miller back in the lineup, the Bearcats struggled to run their motion and actions inside for 40 minutes. Wes Miller noted the actions were better early in the first half but not sustained. But the one thing they did do was shoot it with authority and confidence, thanks to ball movement and patience.

Kerr Kriisa scored 20 points and Day Day Thomas added 19 as Cincinnati (6-2) put the horrific loss to Eastern Michigan behind them. Kriisa, Thomas and Shon Abaev combined for 12 threes and went 12-for-26 from distance as the Bearcats finished 15-of-36 from 3-point range and used a 15-4 run midway through the second half to break open a four-point game.

Cincinnati opened the second half by making 9-of-13 from beyond the arc to finally pull away from the Western Athletic Conference foe.

“We’ve been trying to work on some things offensively the last couple of days, and I could see some of those things taking shape,” Miller said. “I thought we did a good job with our movement. You could see the movement early. I thought we got the ball to the inside with the dribble and with the pass early, and I thought we generated really good shots early in the first half. We didn’t sustain it throughout the whole game, but you could see some of the things that we were doing in the last couple of practices taking shape offensively.”

Helping Cincinnati’s cause was the return to the starting lineup of star big Miller, who finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Miller, who missed the last two games due to a hip injury, scored seven points with five rebounds in 12 minutes in the first half. But in showing his rust, Miller committed seven of Cincinnati’s 12 first-half turnovers.

“He hadn’t played basketball for eight days or whatever the heck it’s been,” Wes Miller said. “He ain’t 100 percent and he got hit, in my opinion, on not a real good play that he got hit on in the Louisville game that took him out. And he ain’t 100 percent and he sucked it up and played and that, to me, is more important than seven turnovers. That, to me, is what Cincinnati basketball is about everybody told him to sit out for another week or so. He didn’t want to sit down. He wanted to play. Nobody made him play. Nobody told him to play. He said, ‘I want to play with my teammates and and help Cincinnati.’ So yeah, he had seven turnovers. But I’ll take the guy that wants to fight through when they’re not 100 percent all day, every day. So I was pleased with that.”

Ocypher Owens led Tarleton State (5-4) with 16 points, while Kaia Isaac added 13 and Freddy Hicks chipped in with 12.

Injuries were also a big factor for Tarleton State, which was without the nation’s second-leading scorer in Dior Johnson, missing his second straight game with an ankle injury. Chris Mpaka also sat out the game as seven of the 17 Texans on the roster were unavailable due to injury.

Cincinnati appeared ready to take complete command early, scoring 11 straight points as part of a 15-2 spurt to turn a 10-9 deficit into a 24-12 lead with eight minutes left in the first half.

But the Texans managed to stay close, trailing by only two at the half, 31-29, as Isaac Kaia scored nine of his 13 points in the first half.

The Bearcats pulled away for a 45-31 lead with a 14-2 surge to open the second half, including a 9-0 run that featured three threes by Cincinnati and two by Kerr Kriisa.

But trailing 47-33, the Texans ran off 10 straight points, capped by back-to-back threes from Freddy Hicks to make it 47-43 Cincinnati with 13 minutes remaining in the half.