Things are unraveling fast for Cincinnati basketball, and Thursday night’s 59-54 home loss to West Virginia only added more weight to a season that’s already teetering on the edge. The Bearcats have now dropped to 11-12 overall and just 3-7 in Big 12 play-numbers that paint a clear picture of a team struggling to find its footing in one of the toughest conferences in college basketball.
But the loss itself wasn’t just about the final score. Cincinnati led by as many as 14 points in this one-at home-and still couldn’t close the deal.
That kind of collapse stings, especially when it’s against a West Virginia team that already handed them a loss earlier in the season. And for head coach Wes Miller, it was another gut punch in a year full of them.
After that first loss to the Mountaineers in early January, Miller made headlines with a defiant postgame message, telling critics, “Everybody can quit on us.” It was raw, emotional, and perhaps a reflection of the pressure building around him.
Fast forward to Thursday night, and the tone had clearly shifted. As he walked off the court, Miller stopped to address fans directly, saying, “You guys deserve to be frustrated.
I understand the responsibilities of this job. It ain’t okay.”
It was a moment of accountability from a coach who knows the expectations at Cincinnati-and knows he hasn’t met them.
Let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Miller is now in his fifth season at the helm, and the Bearcats have yet to make an NCAA Tournament appearance under his leadership.
Not only have they missed the Big Dance, but they haven’t really come close. The only season they finished above .500 in conference play was back in 2022-23, when they were still in the American Athletic Conference.
Every other year has seen them finish at least four games below .500 in league play.
Now, in their first year navigating the grind of the Big 12, the challenges have only intensified. The Bearcats have eight games left on the schedule, and five of them come against UCF, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and BYU-all teams capable of exposing Cincinnati’s weaknesses if things don’t turn around quickly.
And let’s be honest: the way this team is playing right now, 12 or more conference losses isn’t just possible-it’s likely.
Of course, the conversation around Miller’s future is already heating up. If Cincinnati were to part ways with him before March 31, it would cost the university $9.9 million.
That number drops to $4.69 million after that date, and down to $1 million after next season. Financially, the clock is ticking, but from a basketball standpoint, the urgency is already here.
There’s no sugarcoating it: the Wes Miller era in Cincinnati hasn’t delivered what fans hoped for. Thursday night’s game-blowing a double-digit lead at home in a must-win situation-felt like a microcosm of his tenure to this point. The effort is there, the emotion is real, but the results just haven’t followed.
And in a program with Cincinnati’s history and expectations, that’s a tough sell.