When he sees an opening, Cincinnati basketball coach Wes Miller likes to get on the court with his players and show them that the 42-year-old former North Carolina guard can still hold his own. “Coach is into the game like he’s still a player,” senior guard Day Day Thomas told HoopsHQ. “He wants to hop into the drills, the shooting drills or the defensive drills, to show he’s still got it a little bit.”

So 17 years removed from his last professional game, in England, does Miller still have it? “He’s still got a little bit,” Thomas said with a laugh. “He can shoot the ball. I’m not going to lie. He can shoot it.”

What Miller doesn’t have, at least not in his four seasons with the Bearcats, is an NCAA tournament appearance. He was part of a national championship team as a player at North Carolina. As a coach, his 10-year run at UNCG ended with two NCAA appearances in his final four seasons. But since taking over at Cincinnati, Miller has been on the outside of March Madness, looking in. He’s the first to acknowledge that that isn’t enough.

“Cincinnati belongs in the NCAA tournament,” Miller told HoopsHQ. “I expect us, every year, to be in the NCAA tournament.”

Cincinnati hired Miller in 2021, back when NIL still meant no goals being scored in a soccer match. The Bearcats wore Under Armor uniforms back then and played in the American Athletic Conference. Four years later, NIL payments dictate rosters around the nation, Cincinnati is now a Jordan brand school, and the Bearcats compete in the Big 12, which during that time has established itself as arguably the best basketball league in college. 

“It’s been an awesome challenge,” said Miller, who is 82-59 at Cincinnati with two NIT bids, and last year’s College Basketball Crown appearance. “I feel like I’ve learned so much in the last four years. I’ve improved a lot as a leader, as a coach. I’ve learned a lot about business. I think I’ve learned about areas professionally that I never thought I’d even dip my toe in. I feel like me personally and our program are a lot better for all these things.”

Those lessons, however, need to translate to victories, to NCAA tournaments, to a deep run this March. And that task got a bit harder last week when Miller dismissed the team’s leading scorer, guard Jizzle James, from the program. “Jizzle James has been dealing with personal issues throughout the summer,” Miller said in a statement released by the school. “We removed him from the team last month. He is currently not a member of our basketball program. As this is a personal matter, I will have no further comment at this time.”

James reportedly had been away from the team for some of its activities this summer and had recently  appeared to be at odds with new teammate Sencire Harris, a West Virginia transfer guard, on social media. Thomas expressed support for James while declining to discuss specifics surrounding James’s departure.

“That’s my guy. That’s my little brother,” Thomas said. “I’m always going to have his back no matter what. But we just gotta get ready for this year and see what we can do.”

It’s hard to say just how tenuous Miller’s job security might be. Cincinnati gave the 42-year-old Greensboro native a two-year contract extension in 2022, which will take him through the 2028-29 season. It pays him just under $3 million per year.

With James no longer on the squad, Cincinnati returns just three players from last year’s team, with Thomas as the only returning starter. Still, pulling from the NCAA transfer portal, Miller built a club with a deep, versatile frontcourt and experienced and skilled backcourt. Baba Miller, the Spanish forward who started his career at Florida State and played last year at Florida Atlantic, headlines a frontcourt that has height (7-foot-2 center Moustapha Thiam from Central Florida), bulk (255-pound forward Jalen Haynes from George Mason) and depth. Baylor transfer Jalen Celestine and McDonald’s All-American Shon Abaev bring scoring punch to the wing position.

Last year, Thomas shook off a preseason foot injury that cost him the first three games of the Bearcats’ season and started the final 15 games. He averaged double figures and connected on 40.2 percent of his three-point attempts, forming an explosive backcourt duo with James.

But even without James — the son of former NFL star running back Edgerrin James — and his team-high 12.7 points per game, Cincinnati has options at guard. Thomas will be joined by West Virginia transfer Sencire Harris and Kentucky graduate Kerr Kriisa. Thomas opted to return to Cincinnati, in part, because of the relationship he’s forged with Miller. “I have unfinished business that I didn’t achieve while I was here,” he said. “That’s the main goal. Just getting a conference championship, and making an NCAA tournament.”

For Miller, even going into his fifth year, he said he’s still working to establish his program and get it where Miller said it needs to be to win in the Big 12. “I think we’re still evolving to play with the identity, night and night out, in the Big 12 that I want our program to play with,” Miller said. “But we’ve taken great steps forward, whether it’s style of play, whether it’s roster build.”

As for the notion that this could be a make-or-break year for his tenure with the Bearcats, Miller said he’s learned throughout his career not to waste any time thinking about those scenarios. “The external pressures of college basketball have never consumed me or concerned me,” Miller said. “That said, internally, I know Cincinnati belongs in the NCAA tournament. I expect us every year to be in the NCAA Tournament. There’s an internal pressure that I feel as a coach to maximize the level of performance for my team every year and every week. And that doesn’t change. Had we been to the last four NCAA tournaments, I’d still feel that same level of internal pressure. This program belongs in the NCAA tournament. That is a minimum expectation.”

Miller is the first to acknowledge that he has yet to meet that expectation at Cincinnati. The big question he faces heading into year five is whether this will be his final shot.