Though young and somewhat inexperienced in NCAA Division I basketball, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats have a solid 1-2 punch in their backcourt.
This was proven in their recent 86-81 overtime win at Howard University. Junior college transfer Day Day Thomas made some key free throws down the stretch, then ended the game with a dunk off of a John Newman III steal. Thomas wears No. 1.
Wearing No. 2 and playing 15-20 minutes per game thus far is Jizzle James. The son of NFL Hall of Famer Edgerrin James runs with a round ball instead of the oddly-shaped pigskin his father toted with tremendous success.
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With Edgerrin on hand in Washington D.C., Jizzle gave the Bearcats solid minutes off the bench in the second half and led a Bearcat surge after the Bison had gone on a 12-0 run.
James finished with nine points, four rebounds and two assists in 20 minutes, As Coach Wes Miller has noted, there are times when he doesn’t play as a freshman.
“Jizzle’s minutes during that five-minute stretch he had toward the end of regulation were incredibly impactful and some of the better minutes he’s given us this year,” Miller said.
James refers to himself as being a battery pack off of the bench.
“I’ll do anything just to get the job done,” James said. “I’m always going to be there, I’m there for the team. That’s my goal always to do the little things to help our team get over and get the meaningful wins.’
How James left Orlando to be a Bearcat
With offers from Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss, Providence, Tulsa and others, James canceled all of his visits after coming to Cincinnati and committed in October 2022. Last February, he thoroughly enjoyed watching UC take down his hometown UCF Knights 73-71.
Now he’s in a position to help the Bearcats again against UCF and the rest of the ever-challenging Big 12. That same month Miller and staff had seen James put up 47 points in a high school game, cementing their decision to pursue an athlete with the competitive DNA of an NFL Hall of Famer.
A dunk for Dad
Not only did Edgerrin James see his son Jizzle throw down his first college dunk at Howard, but he also saw older son Eden, a Bison running back, honored at halftime. Eden ran for 572 yards this season for Howard with a high of 177 against Northwestern. The sophomore and his teammates were Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champions and will play in the Dec. 16 Celebration Bowl in Atlanta.
“My son (Eden) is excited and all of a sudden we’ve got basketball so I’ve always got something to do and that’s the way I planned it,” Edgerrin James said.
As for that runaway slam?
“I know I’ve got to add it to my game, so I’m glad I got it out of the way,” Jizzle James said.
Why no football for Jizzle?
It’s probably a question James answers every day, along with his father.
“It was all premeditated,” Edgerrin James said. “It’s one of the things that we kind of scheduled and laid out. He was a great quarterback when he played football but basketball was his passion. You’ve got to sit football down. To be a basketball player you have to put in so many hours.”
Playing for a point guard
As an accomplished walk-on turned starter at point guard for North Carolina, Miller demands a lot from those who bring the ball up the court. Some players don’t take hard coaching well. James is not one of those.
Perhaps having heard the hard truth before, James enjoys the tough evaluations.
Turn out the lights
On more than one occasion, Miller has mentioned the practice habits of James. Arrive early, leave late has been a solution for success for years at UC and James came into Fifth Third Arena fully conscious of that equation.
“To date, I’ve never had a freshman that worked this consistently and intentionally every single day,” Miller said on his recent 700WLW radio show. “We have to make him leave the gym. He’s insane and I mean that in a complimentary way.”
With a father who was a Parade All-American, University of Miami Hurricane Hall of Famer and inducted into Canton’s Pro Football Hall of Fame, hard work is in the family tree.
“He’s getting a little bigger, a little bit more mature,” Edgerrin James said. “Those are things you anticipate. It’s just a matter of not settling and not being content, continuing to build on what you started. He’s just feeling his way through. Once he realizes this is the same game he’s been playing since he was a child, you’re going to see him go to another level.”
Plus/minus
While not often published in box scores, the plus/minus stat reveals how a team did while a player was on the floor. Going into the Florida Gulf Coast contest Sunday, James had the highest rating of the season with a plus-29 against Georgia Tech. He had eight points, three assists and a steal in 15 minutes of play.
“We were at our best when he was in the game in the first half,” Miller said after the 35-point win. “I thought that was his best game as a Bearcat. He has a lot of great games ahead of him.”