Williams: Bearcats coach Miller apologizes for another loss to Xavier at Cintas Center
Well, hold on. The Cincinnati Bearcats aren’t back.
They’ve still yet to win a Crosstown Shootout or a big conference game in the Wes Miller era.
Xavier 84, UC 79. Read it and weep, impatient Bearcats fans. UC still hasn’t won at Cintas Center since 2001. The Bearcats have lost five straight against Xavier.
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This one particularly hurts for the UC program. The Bearcats came into Saturday’s game at Cintas Center undefeated this season, teasing Bearcats fans into thinking the proud UC program was on the cusp of being back. The Bearcats may still be close, but it doesn’t get any easier as their first season in the Big 12 Conference looms.
Meanwhile, Xavier had lost three straight games, including at home to Delaware and Oakland. The Musketeers have 10 new players, and only one guy who played Saturday had previously played any significant minutes in the Crosstown Shootout.
This was prime for the Bearcats’ taking, but the young Musketeers took it to their rival most of the game. When Xavier’s Abou Ousmane refused to stop trying to wrest the ball from Aziz Bandaogo on a jump ball two minutes into the game, you knew UC was in trouble. The Cintas Center crowd was fired up, and Xavier came focused and ready.
Yeah, it’s a rivalry. Throw out the records. Anything can happen. All cliches apply here. And there have been plenty of times throughout this storied rivalry where the team that should’ve won didn’t.
But it’s getting time for Wes Miller’s Bearcats to win a big game, and few are bigger than the Crosstown Shootout. UC is 0-3 vs. Xavier under Miller. The Bearcats’ win over then-No. 14 Illinois in November 2021 remains the only signature win for Miller’s Bearcats. That came in the first month of his first season at UC.
Miller knew the oncoming narrative. Without being prompted in his postgame press conference, he apologized to the fans.
“Guys, I’m pissed,” Miller said. “I’m sorry to all our fans that we couldn’t get over the hump tonight. It’s been 20-some years since Cincinnati won over here. I want to get over the hump (here) for a lot of reasons. But I like my team a lot. We’ll learn from this.”
The Bearcats do seem to be an improved team. Their 7-0 record may have been a little deceiving, with a home victory over Georgia Tech as the only noteworthy win. Miller acknowledged that his team hadn’t been “tested” in a tough road environment like the sold-out Cintas Center.
Maybe UC will look back once it’s knee-deep in the rough-and-tumble Big 12 portion of the schedule and be better the next time it's in a tough road environment. But that’s no consolation right now.
“This team is going to be OK,” Miller said. “I really believe that.”
I’m not dismissing what Xavier did. Sean Miller showed why he’s one of the best coaches in the nation. The Musketeers didn’t return any healthy starters from last season. Xavier could’ve started to fold after a rough start to the season. But that’s not characteristic of Sean Miller’s teams.
The players held a players-only meeting after Tuesday’s ugly loss to Delaware. They talked about being more accountable to each other. Miller then shook up his starting lineup and didn’t substitute as many players.
The Musketeers played like a team that had been battle-tested against the likes of Purdue, Washington and Houston. They have talented players. They just need more experience playing together. They could be dangerous come March, and the Crosstown Shootout win could’ve been the confidence boost they needed to get going in the right direction.
Said Sean Miller: “Our best basketball is in our future.”
Contact Enquirer columnist Jason Williams by email at jwilliams@enquirer.com.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Bearcats coach apologizes for another loss at Xavier
