Williams: 'Us against the world' not right message for UC Bearcats

Ask columnist Jason Williams anything − sports or non-sports – and he’ll pick some of your questions and comments from his inbox and respond on Cincinnati.com. Email: [email protected]

Subject: Cincinnati Bearcats basketball coach compared to James Franklin

Message: Is Wes Miller our version of James Franklin? Wins games he should, but always loses the Big Game, then in the press conferences states the same old thing: “We are close, just have to finish.” Another similarity would be that they can recruit some quality players, but they just don’t develop. I think we both agree that (Miller) needs to go.

Reply: To your last point, yes, we’ve seen enough. It now seems like a matter of playing out the string of the season, and Miller’s buyout dropping to $4.7 million from $9.9 million after March 31.

Miller, in his fifth season at UC, is acting like a coach who can’t handle the pressure. His comments in his postgame radio show after Tuesday’s loss at West Virginia were embarrassing.

UC play-by-play man Dan Hoard had hardly welcomed Miller to the interview before the coach defiantly popped off: “I don’t care what people think. … Everybody can quit on us. It’s us against the world.”

The whole “us-against-the-world” thing is basically a shot at your own fans, some of whom have been booing Miller during home games. It’s a divisive comment. However, Miller apologized Thursday night during his weekly 700 WLW radio show, saying his anger wasn't directed at anyone in particular and that he appreciates UC fans.

UC fans have been more than patient with Miller, who has not made the NCAA Tournament and shown time and again that he can’t consistently win big games.

The James Franklin comparison is fair. Franklin was fired midseason as Penn State’s football coach because he couldn’t consistently win the big game, earning him the unflattering nickname of “Big Game James.”

He went 4-21 vs. top-10 teams and 16-29 overall against top-25 opponents in 11½ seasons at Penn State. He failed against Big Ten standard-bearer Ohio State, going 1-10 vs. the Buckeyes.

Compare that to Miller, who is 0-12 against Associated Press top-10 teams and 5-20 overall vs. ranked opponents at UC. Miller is 0-10 against Big 12 standard-bearer Houston, whose coach modeled the Cougars’ hard-nosed playing style off the old Bearcats teams of Bob Huggins and Mick Cronin. (Six of Miller's losses to Houston came when the Bearcats and Cougars were in the American.)

Miller is 1-4 against rival Xavier.

The Bearcats have several cracks at top-25 opponents in the next few weeks, starting this Sunday, Jan. 11, in Orlando against No. 25 Central Florida. No. 3 Iowa State (Jan. 17) and top-ranked Arizona (Jan. 21) loom on UC’s schedule.

There is one big difference between Franklin and Miller.

Franklin never lost a cupcake, non-conference home game at Penn State. Meanwhile, Miller has been reeling ever since that late November loss to Eastern Michigan.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Wes Miller is reeling. Why coach being compared to James Franklin