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Arizona Coach Sean Miller to Dissatisfied Fans: Go Cheer for ASU!!!

When you are a Sean Miller, and coaching an Arizona, you should be getting to the Final Four. It's not a birthright and I am not saying it needs to be every year--but he needs to get there, and often. Every typical four year player should experience at least one final four playing for that program. I think Miller will do it...but until he does, the criticisms are fair.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
How badly would the board tear into Dixon if he said this?
 
He wouldn't be that crass. Miller???

I do think Sean getting heavy criticism is totally unwarranted. UA fans seem to be as "entitled" as UCLA fans.

That tweet will be used against him after every loss.
 
Re: He wouldn't be that crass. Miller???

People get on Dixon for not getting to a Final Four, but it's a hell of a lot easier to recruit at Arizona than Pitt. They should make it more regularly. Lute made four Final Fours and won a NC and built a pipeline to CA. Miller has been at Arizona 6 years and has not gotten there yet. Sorry, Sean, you knew what the pressure to win was like at Arizona before you took the job. They don't want "feel good" seasons because they have been there numerous times before. They want Final Fours and another championship.
 
Re: He wouldn't be that crass. Miller???

No offense to TJ McConnell, but he had the least upside of the Zona starters aside from maybe their C. Miller's needs a dynamite C and a more skill scorer at PG. Shouldn't be problem to recruit that at Zona. Honestly, they'll likely make it two years from now.
 
Here's one man's (critic) view on Dixon's tenure at Pitt.

2004 Losing to Okie State as a 3 seed in the Rd of 16: Hey, we played to seed, we got totally screwed on the seeding, Okie State should have been a 1 seed that year, we even had to play 6 seed Wisky in Milwaukee for Chrissakes

2005 Losing to Pacific as a 9 seed. Hey, we played to seed, it sucks, we went 2-5 down the stretch, the players in many cases quit on JD.

2006: Lost to Bradley as a 5 seed. Bradley was a 13 seed, they upset Kansas, Bradley loss sucked, but I think this was a year we played above our talent level big time. But man.....we had an easier path to another Sweet 16.

2007: Losing to UCLA as a 3 seed in the Rd of 16. Hey, we played to seed, UCLA was really tough. Went to the Final 4. The NCAA matched the teacher vs pupil, No shame.

2008 We got Izzo'd. Young team, we lost to MSU as a 4 seed, they were 5 seed. What has become a common theme in most cases, we aren't that good defending good guards.

2009. #1 seed. We lost to Villanova in the Elite 8. You guys remember this. We had a great team. Just a huge disappointing loss. But even after this, you can explain "it was a great play". We were dominate team that year, we dominated teams, but the best guards we played, we struggled a bit. Nova, L'ville gave us problems.

2010. Transition year. We still managed to get a 3 seed, but again, did not make the seeded round losing in the rd of 32 to Xavier.

2011. #1 seed. Lost in unbelievably excruciating manner in the Rd of 32. Didn't even get out of the 1st weekend as a 1 seed.

NOW....I start to really question Jamie and his ability to get us to the next step.


Point here, it took me a lot of time and a lot of rope. So I don't think most Pitt fans have been unfair to Jamie or our expectations.
 
On a semi-related note, Arizona fans are some of the most unpleasant people I've ever met. I root against them almost as hard as I root against WVU and Duke.
 
It also deserves mention that a couple of those underdogs we lost to ended up in the Final Four.

Also, "playing to seed" should never be the expectation, unless you're a 1.

I think the most valid criticism of JD is that he hasn't "played up" against many opponents in the NCAA tourney. We haven't beat anyone we weren't supposed to beat. In 8 NCAA tournaments under Dixon, that's kind of remarkable. It's puzzling, because he has always been able to play up during the regular season and in a few BE tournaments as well. At the same time not beating anyone higher seeded in all 8 NCAA appearances can't be sheer bad luck or coincidence.

I used to believe that it was because we were artificially over seeded due to Dixon;s regular season brilliance, and that our talent level was just being exposed in the NCAA tourney. I don't really believe that is the main explanation any more.

Maybe all we need is a group of really good guards, all of whom can be primary scorers in any given game, to get over the hump. We've never really had that for some reason.
 
thebadby2 posted on 4/1/2015...
I used to believe that it was because we were artificially over seeded due to Dixon;s regular season brilliance, and that our talent level was just being exposed in the NCAA tourney. I don't really believe that is the main explanation any more.


Actually, I still believe that is the main explanation. Not the only explanation, but the main one. Dixon coached an average bunch of guards to very good seasons, but the lack of talent gets exposed in the tournament with less time to prepare. Does anyone happen to know Dixon's record in Thursday/Friday games vs Saturday/Sunday games? Very little preparation time for those weekend games.

Some people call losing very close games to Final Four teams like Villanova and Butler choking, but being denied by fate might be a more accurate term. Ask Marv Levy or Greg Norman. Or Sean Miller. You work your way almost to the summit, but it's really, really hard to actually reach it. The real chokers are the ones who lose important regular season games or don't make the cut in majors.

Losing to Witchita St. looked bad at the time. Who could forsee that the Shockers would lose only one game in the next 12 months?

The problem is, there is not much difference between explanations and excuses.
 
The problem is, there is not much difference between explanations and excuses.

Well put.
 
Thanks. I have thought about using that line on here many times, but it seems like such a debate killer because it's too rational. Message boards are for back and forth banter, even when it gets kind of silly.
 
Kind of a high bar, don't you think? How many programs get to a final 4 at least once every 4 years.
 
There are unrealistic expectations everywhere. I remember attending the 1995 SEC tournament championship game between UK & Arkansas. Arkansas was the defending National Champion with almost everybody returning. They would eventually lose to UCLA in the Title game. Anyways, UK fell down by double digits and during a timeout, one guy shouted out how he was "tired of effing Pitino not taking the SEC tourney seriously" ...Hmmm...since UK was allowed to compete in postseason again in 1992 (after serving probation) UK won the SEC Tourney in 1992, `93, & '94. They also came back to defeat Arkansas in this particular game in OT.

Some fans are impossible to please and the bar is always higher.
 
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Fans are fans...they want to see their team win. This is not surprising. Wonder if the Arizona jackal is related to the Pittsburgh jackal? LOL Hail to Pitt!
 
I don't think its a high bar but an honest question on your part. if Sean Miller is as great as people think he is, then yes, once every four years is certainly doable-when considering his coaching and recruiting prowlness combined with Zona's status on the west coast. I'd say the same thing if he was at UCLA. I see the jobs as similar. And even all those final 4's for Ben at UCLA were not enough. Certainly Sean can do one every four years. Its Arizona!!! By contrast, I would have no doubts Dixon would get them there. And maybe once every four years too.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
I know you guys don't want to hear from a Penn Stater but Sean Miller wants out BIG TIME.

If ever there was a time for you to make a move now would be it. It seems like most of the people here don't want that but he is ELITE. Dixon is good.
 
Originally posted by thebadby2:

I think the most valid criticism of JD is that he hasn't "played up" against many opponents in the NCAA tourney. We haven't beat anyone we weren't supposed to beat. In 8 NCAA tournaments under Dixon, that's kind of remarkable. It's puzzling, because he has always been able to play up during the regular season and in a few BE tournaments as well. At the same time not beating anyone higher seeded in all 8 NCAA appearances can't be sheer bad luck or coincidence.
Yup, I'll give him that. We always win HUGE GAMES in the regular season, in the Big East days, we'd beat G'town, 'Nova, 'Cuse CONSTANTLY even when they where ranked way above us, top 5, even this year, one of our worst years in the last 15, we still beat ND and UNC when they where ranked high. We're always at our peak January and February kicking asss.
 
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