CINCINNATI — Wes Miller and Bearcats men’s basketball added the program’s first commitment to the 2024-25 recruiting class in the form of hometown product and four-star prospect Tyler McKinley.
A Cincinnati native and 6-foot-9, 220-pound forward, McKinley is ranked No. 62 nationally according to the 247Sports Composite. He would be the second-highest graded prospect of Miller’s tenure, if those ratings hold, just behind incoming freshman Jizzle James. The announcement builds on an already strong 2023-24 recruiting class for the Bearcats and momentum Miller has established ahead of Cincinnati’s inaugural season in the Big 12.
McKinley officially announced his commitment on Thursday evening after silently committing late last week. He chose the Bearcats from a finalist list that included Xavier, Ohio State, Michigan State, Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia Tech.
“It was time,” McKinley told The Athletic, saying that it was important for him to be Cincinnati’s first commitment of the cycle. “It’s a statement, for sure. I feel like I can try to get some guys over here with me.”
McKinley — a lanky, versatile, inside-out big-man — has been a priority target for Miller since he was hired by the Bearcats in 2021. McKinley, attending local Walnut Hills High School at the time, remembers Cincinnati being at “pretty much every one of my games” at the Nike Peach Jam grassroots event that summer. He took an unofficial visit to campus in August 2021 and was officially offered a scholarship a month later, even before the start of his sophomore season.
“(Miller) told me he wanted to make sure I was a priority and wanted to show me he could take me to the next level,” said McKinley, who added that assistants Andre Morgan and Chad Dollar have also been heavily involved in his recruitment. “He’s building something special at Cincinnati.”
After playing his freshman and sophomore years under coach Ricardo Hill at Walnut Hills, McKinley transferred to Missouri’s Link Academy, one of the top basketball prep programs in the country, and a school Miller has deep ties to through friend and founder Adam Donyes as well as a number of previous recruits. McKinley also joined Mokan Elite, one of the best premier grassroots teams on the Nike EYBL circuit.
Despite growing up in the Carthage neighborhood just north of downtown, McKinley acknowledges he wasn’t necessarily a huge fan of UC hoops growing up and was more of a football fan, Bearcats and Bengals. But attending Cincinnati has always been front-of-mind, first after he blossomed on the recruiting scene as a sophomore, and later after transferring out of state. His friendship with incoming 2023-24 four-star freshman and fellow Cincy native Rayvon Griffith helped with that.
“That did (nudge me toward Cincinnati) for sure, just because Rayvon and I have been friends for so long, since elementary school,” said McKinley. “When I saw him commit, I knew Cincinnati was doing something.”
McKinley, who will begin his senior year at Link Academy in a few months, said Miller and his staff view him as a stretch forward “who can do a little bit of everything,” and that he will fit well in Miller’s transitional, free-flowing system. There’s a special appreciation for playing for his hometown school, too, an example Griffith set and one McKinley believes is part of the culture Miller is establishing.
“I think this is really big. I feel like you don’t see this as often anymore in college hoops, people staying home,” said McKinley. “(Rayvon and I) being from Cincinnati, we’re trying to put Cincinnati back on the map again, or help keep them on the map.”
(Photo of Wes Miller: Peter G. Aiken / Getty Images)