Blown lead costs Cincinnati coach Wes Miller his job

The Cincinnati Bearcats were two minutes away from a win that would break their seven-year NCAA Tournament drought. But blowing an eight-point lead down the stretch cost them a likely berth in March Madness and cost their coach his job.

Cincinnati fired head coach Wes Miller after five years at the helm. Miller won a lot of games at Cincinnati, going 100-74 in his five seasons, but missed the Big Dance again after Wednesday's 66-65 overtime loss to UCF.

Wes Miller was just short of good enough at Cincinnati

Miller's Bearcats played very well down the stretch this season. They won seven of their nine games going into the Big 12 tournament's quarterfinals, where they faced fellow bubble team UCF. Before the game, ESPN "bracketologist" Joe Lunardi had UCF at No. 65, one of the last teams in the tournament, and Cincinnati at No. 72, making them the fourth team out.

That made the game a must-win for both programs, with the winning team likely punching their ticket and the loser left on the wrong side of the bubble. Thanks to three straight turnovers down the stretch, that loser ended up being the Bearcats.

It's an unfortunate end for Miller, who went 23-13 in 2022-23 and 22-15 in 2023-24. That was good enough to make the NIT, but not March Madness. Moving into the Big 12 helped the quality of Cincinnati's schedule, but also made it much tougher to earn their way in a brutal conference tournament.

Cincinnati has to make a crucial hire

The Big 12 has been the toughest conference in college basketball, so the Bearcats need a coach who can handle the elite level of play. Miller was a pretty good coach, but Cincinnati's decision showed they aren't content with "pretty good" anymore.

Could Miller have saved his job with one more win and an NCAA bid? It's very possible, especially since Cincinnati would have been a dangerous early opponent, having soundly beaten Kansas and BYU in the past month.

Whoever they hire has their work cut out for them with a program with an illustrious history and a disappointing present. The first priority? Holding big leads at the end of crucial games.