Wes Miller Makes Ridiculous Claim After Bearcats Loss to Xavier in Crosstown Shootout

CINCINNATI — The Xavier Musketeers beat the Cincinnati Bearcats 79-74 on Friday night in the Crosstown Shootout. It was their 11-straight home win over Cincinnati at the Cintas Center.

Xavier has won 10 of the last 13 matchups in the inter-city rivalry and four of the last five.

Bearcats head coach Wes Miller is 1-4 against Xavier. Cincinnati is 6-3 on the season, with losses to Louisville, Eastern Michigan and Xavier.

Only one of those losses is acceptable (Louisville).

"We're all very disappointed in the result," Miller said after the game. "Disappointed for our players."

Losing to Eastern Michigan at home is about as bad of a loss as you can have. Then Cincinnati beat Tarelton State 76-58 in a game that was much closer than it should've been.

Those underwhelming performances put Cincinnati in position to bounce back with their first win at Cintas Center since 2001.

Naturally they'd play better after multiple games of going through the motions against teams they should beat.

That didn't happen. Xavier took control of the game midway through the second half. While Cincinnati rallied back from a 13-point deficit, it wasn't enough to secure a win.

Miller took more from Cincinnati's rally than the rest of us did.

"I think we showed why we're going to have a good year and be a good team," Miller said in his opening statement.

The fifth-year head coach is clearly tone-deaf.

I get it. Miller has to get these guys ready for next week's game against Georgia. That doesn't mean he should pretend the Bearcats played well on Friday night.

The last decent game the Bearcats played was a 10-point loss to Louisville. That was on Nov. 21.

Since then, they've lost to Eastern Michigan, had a two-point halftime lead on Tarleton State (who?) and lost to Xavier at the Cintas Center.

If the Bearcats wanted to prove to everyone that they were a good basketball team and were going to have a successful season, then they should've went into Cintas and beat a Xavier team that has a first-year head coach in Richard Pitino.

They didn't.

There are no moral victories. This Cincinnati team needs to make the NCAA Tournament. And right now they don't look remotely close to a team thats going to do that this season.

"I think we showed why we're going to have a good year and be a good team."

No one believes the Bearcats a good team right now—and that needs to change fast.

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