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Cincinnati Bearcats fire Wes Miller after five seasons

Danby: Daniel Hager5 hours agoDanielHagerOn3

Cincinnati has parted ways with head coach Wes Miller, On3’s Pete Nakos reports.

Across five seasons with the program, Miller led the Bearcats to a 100-74 (41-51) record. Cincinnati did not make the NCAA Tournament in that span.

Cincinnati won six of its final eight games to end the regular season, and knocked off Utah before falling to UCF in the Big 12 Tournament. The Bearcats, sitting at 18-15, however, look unlikely to earn a selection to the Big Dance.

Following the loss to the Knights in the Big 12 Second Round, Miller campaigned for Cincinnati to make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid.

“I’m not in the room with the selection committee,” Miller said, “but if it’s about the best teams at this point, we’re one of the best teams in the country. Like, we’re an NCAA Tournament team. If it’s about overall resume, I’m sure you can make some arguments that we’re not.

“But I think we’ve won seven of our last 10 Big 12 games. When’s the last time somebody won seven out of 10 in the Big 12 and didn’t play in the NCAA Tournament? Honestly? Like, we won seven out of 10 in this league.”

Cincinnati earned some major victories in Miller’s final season at the helm, including a 79-70 win over No. 2 Iowa State on Jan. 17 and an 84-68 blowout win over No. 8 Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 21. Disappointing Quad 2 losses (Xavier and UCF x2) and a Q4 loss to Eastern Michigan, however, sunk the Bearcats’ chances at a successful season.

Wes Miller becomes latest Power-Four coach to receive walking papers

Miller becomes the sixth Power-Four head coach to be fired so far this cycle, joining Arizona State‘s Bobby Hurley, Syracuse‘s Adrian Autry, Boston College‘s Earl Grant, Georgia Tech‘s Damon Stoudamire, and Kansas State‘s Jerome Tang.

Prior to his stint at Cincinnati, Miller enjoyed 10 excellent seasons at UNC Greensboro. Over that span, the Spartans compiled a 185-135 (109-66) record and made two NCAA Tournament appearances. Just like Hurley, Miller is primed to latch onto a new job sooner than later.

Now, the head coaching search at UC begins. The program is seeking its sixth different head coach in this decade. Miller goes down as the third longest reigning head coach at Cincinnati in the 21st century, behind Bob Huggins (16 seasons) and Mick Cronin (13 seasons).