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We are still a couple of months away from the tip-off of the college basketball season this fall, which means that we have plenty of time to start preparing for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with new Xavier coach Sean Miller, who talked about being back in the Big East and his expectations for this season.
You showed off your ball-handling skills in The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh at age 11 and on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at age 14: how did you enjoy your time in front of the camera? That was a long time ago! I grew up in a gym as the son of a high school coach and there were only 10-foot baskets to shoot on. I learned how to dribble and had a great teacher.
You played basketball at Pitt where you averaged a career 41.6 3P%/88.5 FT%: what is the secret to being a great shooter? Repetition: to be great at anything you need a great teacher and have to spend a ton of time on it. There is no way of getting around it: you have to invest a lot of hours over the years. My dad was an excellent teacher of fundamentals.
In 1991 you won a gold medal with team USA at the World University Games: could you have ever imagined that more than 3 decades later you and your teammates Hubert Davis/Bobby Hurley would all be head coaches at big-time programs? I think back to that team every once in a while because it was so talented. As a young person who wanted to be a coach I was lucky to have an amazing staff including Pete Gillen/Roy Williams/PJ Carlesimo. We were together for 3 weeks of games in Europe and a month of tryouts/practices at Seton Hall. Winning a gold medal is something you never forget.
You previously coached at Xavier from 2004-2009 when you won 3 straight A-10 regular season titles: what is your favorite memory from the 1st time you coached in Cincinnati, and how does it feel to be back in the Big East for the 1st time since you were a 2nd-team All-Big East player as a senior in college? I loved all of my prior years at Xavier because the school believed in me and gave me my initial opportunity to be a head coach. Being a part of 2 Elite 8s with the winner getting to go to the Final 4 was special. We lost to Duke in Atlanta with JJ Redick when I was an assistant in 2004 but we had a great chance to win. As a head coach my team took on all of the great characteristics of a great team but we ran into an unreal UCLA team in 2008 with guys like Russell Westbrook/Kevin Love. It laid the foundation for a lot of things that we were doing. The Big East is 1 of the best leagues in the country and the only 1 that is basketball-centric. Whether you are a player/coach you think about the Big East tourney at MSG: it is magical and I am super-excited to be back here and competing in the Big East.
You won more than 300 games as head coach at Arizona and made the Sweet 16 5 times from 2011-2017: are we going to see the Wildcats on your schedule anytime soon? We will see: if we play them in the future I hope that it would be as part of the NCAA tourney. All 3 of my sons went to UofA and after 12 years in Tucson I got to know a lot of great people at a deep level.
You were hired last March for your 2nd tour of duty at Xavier: why did you take the job, and how is it going so far? It was an opportunity that I could not refuse. They believed in me the 1st time when maybe not a lot of other people did: I had no head coaching experience and I did not take it lightly. I went from not coaching to having this place believe in me again that I could return to do great things. I believe in the mission here: we have the #1 graduation rate in the history of college basketball and thanks to student-athletes who compete in the classroom and on the court.
You have 19 NCAA tourney wins on your resume and your current squad had a 1-PT win over Texas A&M in the NIT title game last March: what kind of advantage (if any) does all of that prior postseason success give your team this year? All of us relish experience whether as a coach/player. There is equal value in winning/losing: a moment of failure can teach you a lot. The 1 thing we do not have is a lot of players who have been in past NCAA tourneys: I think Jack Nunge might be the only guy in that category. Beating teams like Vandy/Florida/Texas A&M in the postseason and ending your season on a win is not easy to do, so the goal now becomes getting into March Madness. At 1 point from 2001-2018 this program made 16 NCAA tourneys in 18 years, which is pretty rare, so we are eager/hungry to get back there. We have a lot of good returning parts so hopefully our staff can help put them over the top.
1 of your biggest off-season additions was Souley Boum, who has 122 games under his belt from his time at San Francisco/UTEP: what kind of role do you expect him to play? We lost a lot of firepower in our backcourt with guards like Dwon Odom/Paul Scruggs/Nate Johnson. We have 2 incoming freshmen who will be important to our future but Souley gives us experience and much-needed firepower. He can shoot the ball and is also 1 of our best ballhandlers.
Your non-conference schedule includes games against Indiana/West Virginia/Cincinnati as well as a trio of top-notch opponents in the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament: will 1 of these games in particular present your biggest test? No, but in March none of the experts will be able to say that we did not challenge ourselves. This is also the 1st year ever that we are playing 20 Big East games (note: the Musketeers only played 19 conference games last year due to the cancellation of a game vs. Georgetown that was never rescheduled), so when you add in our non-conference schedule and the Big East tourney I think we will have 1 of the toughest schedules in the nation and give ourselves many opportunities for both quality wins/losses. 1 thing that I hope happens is that the non-conference schedule toughens us up for Big East play so that we can hit our stride heading into March.
What are your goals for this season, and what are your expectations for this season? The expectation is to be a postseason team and get back into the NCAA tourney. I do not say that lightly: I have been a head coach for 17 years so I know that it is a marathon rather than a sprint. We have an experienced team with prior March success so I hope we have enough depth/size/experience to get there.