Sean Miller Restless On The Move?

[TD_6082]

4 Final Fours and 1 National Title in 24 years isn't all that. Calipari has already accomplished that in just 6 years at UK.

AZ is a good program, not a blue blood that can hire any bum and still sign elite players.

 

[Pittbaseball11]

4 Final Fours and 1 National Title in 24 years isn't all that. Calipari has already accomplished that in just 6 years at UK.

AZ is a good program, not a blue blood that can hire any bum and still sign elite players.

Considering what Sean Miller is doing, I think the evidence would say they can.

And come on, not being UK is a whole lot different than not being one of the most elite programs in the country.

 

[TD_6082]

Depends on the coach. Neither Tubby Smith or Gillispie recruited that well at UK. Has anybody other than Olsen & Miller had much success at Zona.

 

[Pittbaseball11]

I mean, Miller and Olsen span 3 decades but it appears they had some success in the years leading up to Lute. It was was Lute who established them, for sure, but that's probably irrelevant over such a long period of relevance.

And it's a little unfair to say Tubby and Gillespie didn't recruit well at UK. Gillespie coached 2 seasons and got commitments three 5-* and five 4-*. That's a strong haul.

Tubby coached 9 seasons and brought in 14 Top 50 kids (19 Top 100s), many of whom were closer to top 10 than the 50s.

They did very respectable jobs at recruiting to their schools by the rankings. I'm not sure any fanbase could reasonably ask for more.

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

Excellent comments, facts, opinions, and the beat goes on...New Headline!

Damon Stoudamire will leave Arizona to rejoin Memphis Tigers' staff

Arizona assistant Damon Stoudamire has reached an agreement in principle to leave his alma mater and return to Memphis as an assistant on Josh Pastner's staff, a source told CBSSports.com on Monday.

WildcatAuthority.com reported earlier that Stoudamire has already informed recruits.

Despite playing at Arizona, where he was a First Team All-American in 1995, Stoudamire has actually spent more time living in Memphis than Tucson. He played for the Memphis Grizzlies from 2005 to 2008, then was an assistant with the Grizzlies from 2009 to 2011. The 1996 NBA Rookie of the Year then left the Grizzlies to work for the Tigers, where he established himself as an elite recruiter before joining Sean Miller's staff at Arizona in 2013.

Stoudamire spent the past two seasons at Arizona.

He helped the Wildcats make back-to-back Elite Eights.

The specifics at Memphis are still being worked through, a source told CBSSports.com. But Stoudamire will replace one of Pastner's fulltime assistants. On that note, it's worth mentioning that two of the Tigers' current assistants (Keelon Lawson, Robert Kirby) are related to Dedric and K.J. Lawson, the heralded brothers set to enroll at Memphis; one (Aki Collins) is not. So the most likely scenario has Collins as the so-called odd man out.
LINK:
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/25188706/assistant-damon-stoudamire-returning-to-memphis-after-stint-at-arizona

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

Excellent comments, facts, opinions, and the beat goes on...New Headline!

Arizona's Sean Miller Continues To Be America's Most Snake-Bitten Coach;
By Sam Vecenie | CBSSports.com
March 28, 2015 10:49 pm ET

LOS ANGELES -- It's hard not to feel bad for Arizona coach Sean Miller. I mean, what does the guy have to do to get to a Final Four?

The easy answer? Beat Wisconsin, either last season or on Saturday, when the Wildcats were beaten by the Badgers 85-78 in the West Region final, ending the UA's season in the Elite Eight again.

In Miller's last eight seasons as a head coach (six at Arizona, two at Xavier), Miller has reached four Elite Eights, bowing out each time before getting a chance to play in the national semifinals. Yeah, his team has been the higher seeded team only once in those games, but you would think the cards would fall in his direction at least once, right? He certainly feels that way.

"Yeah, no question," Miller said while laughing when I asked if he felt snake-bitten by his luck in these games. "I mean, when you lose in this game, it's hard. You lose four times in eight years, and that's probably a record, right? It is what it is."

He's actually wrong on that. There is recent precedent for going to four Elite Eights in eight years without getting to the Final Four. Current Kansas coach Bill Self took his Tulsa, Illinois and Kansas teams to the Elite Eight four times in eight years from 2000-2007. What happened with Self and Kansas in the next year?

Kansas won the national championship. Now, I'm not saying that Miller and Arizona are going to go out and win the national title in 2016. But we shouldn't look at Miller's track record and say that the guy can't win the big one, either. After all, what happened against Wisconsin was an offensive performance that we likely won't see replicated any time soon.

The Badgers made 10 of their 12 3-point attempts in the second half, and dropped 1.62 points per possession with a ridiculous 105 percent effective-field goal rate (yes, the Badgers shot better than 100 percent when accounting for the fact that a 3 is worth more than a 2). And they did it against the fifth-best defense since 2006 according to KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency metric, which makes it all the more crazy. And the last time a team dropped 85 points on an Arizona/Sean Miller team? Try Feb. 27, 2013.

Even Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan -- who has been coaching college basketball for 40 years -- said after the game that he can't remember one of his teams getting hot the Badgers did in the second half of this game.

"I can remember getting hot the last five minutes, hitting like your last seven shots, 10 free throws in a row," Ryan said. "I can remember some of those. But this one I'm going to enjoy quite a bit because Arizona gave us everything they had. And I'm sure Sean is looking at that and going, 'Come on, how many times is that going to happen?' You know, they're a team that won their league, won the conference tournament, got to this point. We were in the same position. One of us had to stay home. But, no, I don't remember one like that, not for a half." Miller felt the same way when he compared this one to his other Elite Eight defeats.

"You get to this level and lose -- tonight actually felt a little bit different in that it didn't come down to the last possession," Miller said. "The last couple that we've been in, [there] kind of was a single play that you hold on to. Tonight, I think over this summer when you have a perspective, I mean, my God, there were so many threes going in. It almost took the bite out of the loss somewhat."

Miller kept perspective and noted that the Wildcats' season shouldn't come down to the last 20 minutes they played, and in a way he's right. The Wildcats won 67 games in the last two seasons and lost only nine. He's won 147 games in the last five years. At some point, your track record speaks for itself, and anyone betting against the Wildcats having success at the highest level sometime soon is probably throwing money down the drain.

But, right or wrong, Miller will (still) be known as the "Best Active Coach to Never Make the Final Four" until he reaches it. It's something he's aware of, and something he takes on his shoulders instead of putting it on his players.

"The way the world is today, people will jump all over us for losing in the Elite Eight," Miller said. "And I just want to protect our players. Because if you're T.J. McConnell and you've won 69 games in two years and you never lost a home game and you've gone to back-to-back Elite Eights, no kid should walk out of here with anything other than their head held high." I'm sure McConnell will walk out of here with his head held high, as will whichever underclassmen decides to depart for the NBA this June.

As for the man that will be left over? He's optimistic about his chances the next time he gets to this point. "We'll see. Maybe the fifth time that I get back here, maybe I'll break through."

LINK:
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...tinues-to-be-americas-most-snake-bitten-coach

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

• 
  Sean Miller Invites Unhappy Arizona Fans to Root for Arizona State
  
  The Arizona Wildcats were eliminated in the Elite Eight on Saturday night as the Wisconsin Badgers advanced to the Final Four with an 85-70 victory. For the 2-seeded Wildcats, it was a reasonable ending to a 34-4 season. They won the Pac-12 for the first time since 2002 and lost to the top seed in their region. That’s a solid season for any team, but not all fans were happy with settling for a second Elite Eight exit in a row. (And third in five seasons.)
  
  Fans want titles. Fans do not have realistic expectations regarding the crapshoot that is March Madness. Many teams have good seasons. Many teams have disappointing finishes in the NCAA Tournament. Only one gets lucky and wins six straight games and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. Arizona coach Sean Miller thinks the people who don’t understand all that can go root for Arizona State.
  
  Sean Miller@UACoachMiller
  Finally to the people that try to make us feel like our season was a failure. Go cheer for ASU! #BearDown 2:48 AM - 30 Mar 2015

• 
  Before any ‘Zona fans get all hissy about the coach telling off the fans and consider taking Miller’s advice, they should know that the Sun Devils haven’t seen a Sweet Sixteen in 20 years and haven’t seen an Elite Eight in 40 years. So, things could be worse.

• 
  http://thebiglead.com/2015/03/30/sean-miller-invites-unhappy-arizona-fans-to-root-for-arizona-state/

• 
  
  
  
  

 

[TD_6082]

They didnt recruit well by UK standards.

 

[pittguy81]

Facts - SM has been a head coach for 11 years at 2 different institutions of higher learning, 5 at Xavier and 6 at AZU. He has taken 4 teams to the elite 8 and 2 additional teams to the sweet 16. In 5 years at Xavier he had an elite 8 and a sweet 16. During his 12 years, JD has 1 elite 8 and 2 sweet 16 appearances.

According to Rivals, SM's recruiting classes the past 5 years have been ranked 2, 4, 4, 3, and 4 (Far better than his predecessor at AZU did and far better than JD ever did).

I do no feel like doing the research, but I am pretty sure that during SM's years at Xavier of the A10, he out-recruited Pitt of the Big East. Obviously, he has bettered Pitt by a wide margin during his AZU tenure.

These are the facts, but please don't let them get in the way of your narrative.

JD beat him in their only head to head match up. Don't let that get in the way of your fawning.

 

[rgross83]

JD beat him in their only head to head match up. Don't let that get in the way of your fawning.

Why do you want to take this to a personal level? I believe that 2 intelligent people should be able to have a difference of opinion without personal put downs. I think based on facts and based on what I have seen that if I were an AD at a college looking for a hoops coach, given the opportunity, I would take Miller over Dixon. I can say this and state my reasons without attempting to belittle you.

Had I come after you personally, that's a different story. But, because you don't agree with an opinion, don't make it personal.

 

[Jpripper88]

A vey good friend from Beaver Valley that has lived in Tucson for over 30 years has heard Sean Miller is a tad restless there and may make a move in the future should an opportunity arise. Just a rumor but from a good reliable source that knows the UA Sports Programs. No other details given and leave it to others to think about that know Basketball far more!

Definitely not true. Miller loses A TON of money if he leaves anytime soon. The structure is like a C level executive with stock options that vest over the years. No chance at all.

 

[pittguy81]

Why do you want to take this to a personal level? I believe that 2 intelligent people should be able to have a difference of opinion without personal put downs. I think based on facts and based on what I have seen that if I were an AD at a college looking for a hoops coach, given the opportunity, I would take Miller over Dixon. I can say this and state my reasons without attempting to belittle you.

Had I come after you personally, that's a different story. But, because you don't agree with an opinion, don't make it personal.

So you can tell another poster "...don't let facts get in the way or your narrative." and that is not personal.

When I post another fact and say "..don't let facts get in the way of your fawning..." it becomes a personal attack. Gotcha.