Wes Miller Comments On Cincinnati's New-Look Team Entering 2025-26 Season

CINCINNATI — Multiple Bearcats basketball voices, including head coach Wes Miller, met with the media on Tuesday, and Miller put a final bow on the rough Jizzle James saga that ended last month with the star guard getting removed from the program entering his junior season. He did not offer further comments on the situation, but did highlight the clean slate Cincinnati is entering with.

Cincinnati is rolling with Day Day Thomas, Kerr Kriisa, and Keyshuan Tillery as the projected main point guards and among the whole roster, Thomas is the only player returning who played significant minutes.

"I've enjoyed them. I've really, genuinely enjoyed the time on the court with this group," Miller said about his new team. "Like anything else, you got to find your why, and like one of the things that's my why is, is how much I enjoy just walking out onto the court and doing what I love to do every day. And today, this group has been as fun to work with as any group I've coached. And again, we got a long way to go and a lot to go through, but I have enjoyed this group a lot, that'd be something that stuck out to me so far."

James had been posting odd things on social media throughout the summer and was eventually removed from the team after a profanity-laden direct message exchange with teammate Sencire Harris went viral.

A 2025 All-Big 12 honorable mention player, James was Cincinnati's scoring (12.7 ppg) and assist leader (3.5) last season. He was one of just three Bearcats to start all 35 games, and he scored in double-figures 25 times. Cincinnati will have to get a little bit extra from everyone on this new-look roster to make up for his production.

They added Brazilian guard Lucas Atauri last week to help do just that. He's one of multiple Bearcats that has international pro experience and gets to learn the ins and outs of Clifton from Thomas.

He is tracking to be the heartbeat of the team this season.

"What we do have is Day Day," Miller said about the player leadership hierarchy in college basketball getting washed away by the transfer portal. "And I think that's rare that he's in year three. He's a fifth year college player. He'll be a three year Big 12 player. He understands what it means to play at Cincinnati. He understands playing in the Big 12, and he has the right values and characters internally.

"And so the team respects him, the coaching staff respects him. And so we do have that. So there'll be years in college basketball that you won't have that anymore. And we maybe don't have it in the old school sense, but we have it with Day Day, and I think that's been pretty good from a coaching standpoint. I'm proud of that."

Cincinnati starts the 2025-26 season on Nov. 3 against Western Carolina.

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