TicketsCincinnati head men's basketball coach Wes Miller met with the media on Tuesday afternoon to kick off the 2023-24 preseason, marking the Bearcats' inaugural Big 12 campaign.
Some excerpts below, followed by the full video:
On the point guard battle
"The point guard position is exciting. We have recruited two guys in Day Day and Jizzle James. Everyone is going to have to get used to DaVeon Thomas as going by Day Day. We are going to call him what his mom calls him. That's the way I've always done it. It's exciting because we believed in both of them in the recruiting process. We have two guys who don't have experience in Division I basketball. Day Day has some in junior college, but trying to get them up to speed is a fun challenge as a coach. So far, they have been incredibly hard-working, coachable, humble but also confident. Are they where we need them to be today? No, but they have done a nice job at doing their part in the summer and fall. We are working on getting them up to speed every day, because we know how important that position is in college basketball. It's certainly important to the way we are trying to play. Do we have a ton of depth at point guard? No, and that doesn't feel comfortable to say. I hope I don't have to say that any more at the University of Cincinnati, but we have two point guards with ability and who embody the values of our program. We hope to get them up to speed sooner rather than later. The other thing I can say is that Simas Lukošius has a lot of point guard qualities. His size dictates that he is more of a swing or forward player like he was at Butler, but he's real good with the ball in his hands. He's real good at on-ball action and in the open floor with the ball in his hands. He creates offensive plays for others, which is what I believe in for a lead guard, even if he is not the most conditioned with his size and athleticism to guard a point guard on the defensive end, but we think he will have some point guard responsibilities offensively along with Day Day and Jizzle."
On the new faces of the team
"That's pretty normal. So, trying to evolve and understand that as a head coach is really important. I've worked really hard at that, our staff has worked really hard at that. I will say with the seven new faces, it is 'oh man, there's a lot of new faces' and a lot of those guys are really important our success this year. The one thing we do have is we have a really solid nucleus of returners that make it feel like it's not just a brand-new team. I mean, Ody [Oguama] and Vik [Viktor Lakhin] and in particular, John Newman. I can keep kind of going down the list here, those six guys, but those guys bring that continuity and that older leadership to a group so it doesn't feel like you're just trying to work with a new team completely. They get into practice and they know the drills and they know the points of emphasis so we're actually a lot farther along this year in terms of where we are in practice and where we are as a team, given the transfers and the freshmen. I think that's more because of the guys that are returning. So we do have some good continuity, even though we have some new faces as well."
On the roster makeup
"I think we build it that way for certain. We have some versatility, some lineup versatility. People know how aggressive I want to play defense. Look at 12 years as head coach and over the overwhelming majority, we've been aggressive defense and a successful defense. We want to do that here at the highest level. You have to have rim presence to do that to really extend pressure. You got to have guys at the rim that make you pay for just getting down there and I think you have to have positional size to do that. So defensively, I think we've crafted a roster that that has some of those components. We've made sure our style of play allows for lineup versatility. The stuff that we've really spent time on in the summer and the fall is whether we have two big guys out there, the traditional big guys, or whether we have one big with some swing forwards, which we have quite a few of those as well. The habits of how we play offensively and defensively are very consistent so that we can sub or change a lineup which may really impact our opponent but doesn't have us thinking a whole lot. It's pretty seamless. I'm proud of the roster that's been crafted, but also proud of some of the kind of structure our staffs come up with to make it all work, going into a new league."
On Dan Skillings Jr.'s upcoming sophomore season
"Listen, and we sat in here all year last year. I think I was really clear. The confidence I have in Dan [Skillings] and his ability, his talent. He was just so young. Not young just because he was a freshman, but young in basketball, right? Most of us started basketball when we could walk, most college players are like that. Dan got to organized basketball much later than most people. Certainly, played for great coaches back in Philadelphia, throughout high school and throughout summer stuff. There's things because of his long nature to basketball that just weren't there as a freshman and we spent a lot of time trying to get him up to speed. The first thing that I see with Dan [Skillings] , not just now but over the course of the summer and the fall is, there's just things he understands now that he didn't understand as a freshman. That learning curve just isn't quite as big and that's allowing him to go play with his natural instincts and gifts that we've all seen flashes of. I think we'll see that more consistently because he didn't have to think quite as much and he's worked really hard. He's worked hard on his body. He's worked really hard on his skill set in his game. You can see that kind of improvement. I say this to our team all the time, the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores. I tell freshmen, you don't have to wait till your sophomore year to become a sophomore. I keep telling Jizzel [James] every day and Rayvon [Griffith], you guys can be sophomores today if you'd like. We don't have to wait till this time next year. Dan's [Skillings] kind of going through that process this offseason and going from a freshman to what I'd call a sophomore, maybe the seasons college player and you'd expect us to see good results over the course of the year there."
Some excerpts below, followed by the full video:
On the point guard battle
"The point guard position is exciting. We have recruited two guys in Day Day and Jizzle James. Everyone is going to have to get used to DaVeon Thomas as going by Day Day. We are going to call him what his mom calls him. That's the way I've always done it. It's exciting because we believed in both of them in the recruiting process. We have two guys who don't have experience in Division I basketball. Day Day has some in junior college, but trying to get them up to speed is a fun challenge as a coach. So far, they have been incredibly hard-working, coachable, humble but also confident. Are they where we need them to be today? No, but they have done a nice job at doing their part in the summer and fall. We are working on getting them up to speed every day, because we know how important that position is in college basketball. It's certainly important to the way we are trying to play. Do we have a ton of depth at point guard? No, and that doesn't feel comfortable to say. I hope I don't have to say that any more at the University of Cincinnati, but we have two point guards with ability and who embody the values of our program. We hope to get them up to speed sooner rather than later. The other thing I can say is that Simas Lukošius has a lot of point guard qualities. His size dictates that he is more of a swing or forward player like he was at Butler, but he's real good with the ball in his hands. He's real good at on-ball action and in the open floor with the ball in his hands. He creates offensive plays for others, which is what I believe in for a lead guard, even if he is not the most conditioned with his size and athleticism to guard a point guard on the defensive end, but we think he will have some point guard responsibilities offensively along with Day Day and Jizzle."
On the new faces of the team
"That's pretty normal. So, trying to evolve and understand that as a head coach is really important. I've worked really hard at that, our staff has worked really hard at that. I will say with the seven new faces, it is 'oh man, there's a lot of new faces' and a lot of those guys are really important our success this year. The one thing we do have is we have a really solid nucleus of returners that make it feel like it's not just a brand-new team. I mean, Ody [Oguama] and Vik [Viktor Lakhin] and in particular, John Newman. I can keep kind of going down the list here, those six guys, but those guys bring that continuity and that older leadership to a group so it doesn't feel like you're just trying to work with a new team completely. They get into practice and they know the drills and they know the points of emphasis so we're actually a lot farther along this year in terms of where we are in practice and where we are as a team, given the transfers and the freshmen. I think that's more because of the guys that are returning. So we do have some good continuity, even though we have some new faces as well."
On the roster makeup
"I think we build it that way for certain. We have some versatility, some lineup versatility. People know how aggressive I want to play defense. Look at 12 years as head coach and over the overwhelming majority, we've been aggressive defense and a successful defense. We want to do that here at the highest level. You have to have rim presence to do that to really extend pressure. You got to have guys at the rim that make you pay for just getting down there and I think you have to have positional size to do that. So defensively, I think we've crafted a roster that that has some of those components. We've made sure our style of play allows for lineup versatility. The stuff that we've really spent time on in the summer and the fall is whether we have two big guys out there, the traditional big guys, or whether we have one big with some swing forwards, which we have quite a few of those as well. The habits of how we play offensively and defensively are very consistent so that we can sub or change a lineup which may really impact our opponent but doesn't have us thinking a whole lot. It's pretty seamless. I'm proud of the roster that's been crafted, but also proud of some of the kind of structure our staffs come up with to make it all work, going into a new league."
On Dan Skillings Jr.'s upcoming sophomore season
"Listen, and we sat in here all year last year. I think I was really clear. The confidence I have in Dan [Skillings] and his ability, his talent. He was just so young. Not young just because he was a freshman, but young in basketball, right? Most of us started basketball when we could walk, most college players are like that. Dan got to organized basketball much later than most people. Certainly, played for great coaches back in Philadelphia, throughout high school and throughout summer stuff. There's things because of his long nature to basketball that just weren't there as a freshman and we spent a lot of time trying to get him up to speed. The first thing that I see with Dan [Skillings] , not just now but over the course of the summer and the fall is, there's just things he understands now that he didn't understand as a freshman. That learning curve just isn't quite as big and that's allowing him to go play with his natural instincts and gifts that we've all seen flashes of. I think we'll see that more consistently because he didn't have to think quite as much and he's worked really hard. He's worked hard on his body. He's worked really hard on his skill set in his game. You can see that kind of improvement. I say this to our team all the time, the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores. I tell freshmen, you don't have to wait till your sophomore year to become a sophomore. I keep telling Jizzel [James] every day and Rayvon [Griffith], you guys can be sophomores today if you'd like. We don't have to wait till this time next year. Dan's [Skillings] kind of going through that process this offseason and going from a freshman to what I'd call a sophomore, maybe the seasons college player and you'd expect us to see good results over the course of the year there."