Of all the issues plaguing the University of Cincinnati men's basketball team over the last three weeks, dissension isn't one of them.
The Bearcats (16-9, 6-6 American Athletic Conference, entering Thursday night's home game against Wichita State) have been inconsistent defensively, dealing with some nagging injuries, and their up-and-down shooting (mostly down) has been an even greater issue.
But despite losing four of its last six games, including a 22-point drubbing at home to then-No. 6 Houston, first-year Cincinnati coach Wes Miller said he hasn't seen any lack of togetherness among his players.
"I don't have any problems with our team's approach or the things going on within the locker room," he said following Tuesday night's 81-74 loss at home to Memphis. "These kids have been fantastic."
After inheriting a program full of dysfunction and dissension in April 2021 following the firing of former UC coach John Brannen, and walking into a locker room that had only three major contributing players remaining in it (Jeremiah Davenport, David DeJulius and Mika Adams-Woods), Miller had to scrape together a roster and a staff in a hurry.
Milled was able to snatch a total of eight players out of the transfer portal, including Mason Madsen and Mike Saunders Jr., who withdrew from the portal and returned to Cincinnati.
With so many new faces both on the court and within his staff, Miller needed to build chemistry fast while also preparing a bunch of guys – who had never coached or played together – for a season and get them to play together.
Fast forward, and Miller's done it.
"This team's got great character," Miller said. "And for a group that hasn't been together very long collectively – all of us, right? – to this point, I always say, 'To this point,' because they've got to do it again tomorrow. The togetherness and resilience, the stuff that you want in a team, this group has been great in that way and it's got to continue to grow."
With about a month left in the season, Miller's Bearcats are in seventh place in the American with six regular-season games to play. They have no shot at playing beyond the AAC Tournament (March 10-13 in Fort Worth, Texas) unless they win it.
Cincinnati's goal at this point is to keep getting better, continue to build chemistry, find some consistency, sustain it and string together some victories.
"We've just got to keep coming together," Saunders said. "That's what coach said makes teams different. When things get hard, because it gets hard for every team in the country, he told us that we've got to keep coming together, and don't start complaining, don't question all the work we've put in as if it doesn't work, because we showed during the course of the season that it works.
"So we've just got to get back to playing Cincinnati basketball and just getting more connected. That's all we can do. That's what the different teams do; they just get connected regardless of what's going on."