Wes Miller Hints At Looming Cincinnati Lineup Changes Following Latest Loss To Clemson

CINCINNATI — Wes Miller had some fresh thoughts on Cincinnati basketball's lineup rotations moving forward after another Quad 1 loss in his tenure, 68-65 to Clemson on Sunday.

UC only played starters Kerr Kriisa and Shon Abaev for a total of three minutes in the second half after those two combined to go 1-6 in the game with three rebounds. Both were big minuses in the +/- gauging.

The Tigers raced out to a 14-0 start and led by as many as 27, but a different lineup in the second half helped UC win that frame 47-30.

"I thought you saw some things that were positive to finish the half," Miller said about the lineups. "And so we just decided to stick with that group to start the second half. And then we won the first four minutes of the second half. And then we added a couple of guys, just because you can't play the way we were playing, pressing in that way. You know, those guys can't play 20 full minutes, but we tried to find some other guys that were going to play the same way. I thought Halvine (Dzellat), Jalen Celestine, those guys gave us really nice minutes in that five-minute rotation as well."

Cincinnati is out of margin for error entering conference play with at least five losses for the first time in Miller's tenure.

Various injuries and lack of offensive execution in the halfcourt have brought the offense to its nadir this decade. Maybe a week holiday break to rest the lineup structure helps steady the ship, but it's unlikely to fortify it.

Cincinnati likely has to go 14-4 at least in the Big 12, assuming it beats Lipscomb next week to make the NCAA Tournament. That puts them at 22 wins before the conference tournament, and even then, 15-3 may be the only path to completely guarantee a bid before the Big 12 bracket comes out.

Zero Quad 1 or Quad 2 wins before Christmas leaves you in this spot (0-4 in those games).

"You start to assimilate a player like Jizzle (James) back into the team, and there's just a gravity that he has on the floor, and he's done this tremendous job of doing it with honesty, with grace and with being humble, being so humble," Miller said about James after he went 3-9 shooting against Clemson but ended a +12 in the game. "There's a presence that he has on the floor, and that's going to certainly, you know, affect rotations and lineups. It's just no way around it as we move into league play here. But to speak on the specifics of that at this point would be a mistake after an emotional loss."

Jumbling the lineup at this point in the season, with Day Day Thomas as the only reliable player in the rotation, is a nightmare scenario for Year Five of the Wes Miller era.

It's a big reason why Bart Torvik has them projected to finish 14-17 overall, which would be the worst UC record since 2008.

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