Grading Sean Miller

The first year when he took Steele’s team (minus Free) to the Sweet 16, I thought we were set up for a run at glory.

His first era (06-07, 07-08, 08-09 teams; specifically) was probably my favorite stretch of Xavier teams. They were long, tough, athletic and played with something to prove. The sum was always greater than the parts. I just assumed those characteristics were coming back. They didn’t. Something always felt like it was missing. Not sure why, but the mental lapses were an ever present reality of Sean’s second stint. It certainly wasn’t lack of effort on the player’s part.

I kept thinking when Sean got “his players” in here that it would all change. Unfortunately, the era of getting “his players” is gone as college recruiting has become nothing more than the equivalent of bartering at a flea market. That, or Sean never believed this was a long term destination from the beginning and never committed beyond short term thinking.

In conclusion, when I lump his entire tenure together, I have a more favorable opinion than his last 3 years in isolation. In terms of coaching, I’d rank Miller2 behind Miller1, Mack and Matta (in that order). I am not quite as familiar with the Prosser/Gillen/Staak years, but it wouldn’t take much to convince me they did equivalent with less.

TLDR: I rate B-/C like everyone else.

General Personality: A-
Using that personality to pull the wool over others eyes: A
Sense of Humor: C
Concern for his players:A
Concern for his employer:D-
Temperament/ Attitude with Media: A
Answering questions with meaningful content: A- (uses the “Amazing” far too often)
Ability to recognize issues his team is having: A-
Ability to fix those issues: B-
Having his team prepared: C+
Ability to get the most out of his team: B
In game adjustments: C-
Truthfulness of statements when being hired: D
Integrity: F

Likeliness to get his team to a Final Four: Not Likely

I forgot to add…

Taking a vacation right when the portal was going last year. Dumb.

I admit that my grade for him was inflated considering how I feared that the investigations into him were still ongoing when X hired him, and how at the time I wasn't sure if he'd be cleared or not, and if he wasn't cleared how that may really result in X crashing into the mountain and open up who knows how many issues. But, that didn't happen! He left because he has no loyalty, and that's a FAR better outcome than the one I was fearing!!

C+. One of Xavier’s best seasons of all time followed by one of most embarrassing. This past year was bare minimum but a fun end to the season, which brought an already tarnished great memory against Texas.

I think you need way more toughness than what he was bringing in, but his style was more attractive to guards. So he snagged 3 All Big East guards in the portal but defense was never great until the back half of this year. Think competition played a factor bc Marquette, Texas, and Oklahoma Illinois drubbed us on offense.

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Originally Posted by MHettel

I forgot to add…

Taking a vacation right when the portal was going last year. Dumb.

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Ah don’t bring up bad memories. I got scolded on here last year for saying this.

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Originally Posted by xuphan

Ah don’t bring up bad memories. I got scolded on here last year for saying this.

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Probably wouldn’t have brought an All Big East guy in and beat out Illinois and Louisville for a guard if he stayed home…wait

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Originally Posted by MHettel

Wow, you guys are nice.

C-

Aside from the areas you already mentioned, there are a few other ways to think about this.

Did he leave the program in a better position than when he got here? Emphatically NO. Nunge, Kunk, Jones, Free and Hunter is a pretty good start don’t ya think? He added Boum. He didn’t find Boum in a back alley somewhere….he was a 5th year guy and a 1st team all league player. Miller has left us with nothing.

Roster construction. Awful. We set out to play a super fast tempo so he goes out and gets a guy that needed to lose 40 pounds just to play? What was that? Was there ZERO tape on Hugley? I mean he was mostly awful out there and looked like a cross between Deionte Miles and Will Caudle. Just flailing about. And the prior year we lost Free of course and everyone gave him a pass. But, interesting, if you watch one of his Shows he said Free had the same injury that Durant had “which also took 3 surgeries to fix”. Ok! So after 2 surgeries you just count on the guy and have ZERO plan B? You said it yourself that it might take 3 basically. That’s on him for not having any options at all.

Roster construction part 2. McKnight is basically Dedrick Finn. Meh. I don’t know how far we expected to go with a guy that is the definition of average and shows zero emotion of leadership. Why didn’t he purge the roster when he got here. He stuck with Miles, Tandy, Edwards, and Tucker…..and then they all left anyway. Some of those spots could have been used on a couple freshmen that would have been possible stand ins last year.

Roster construction part 3. Dude, Fletcher and Anderson? I was fine with them until I heard that we gave them NIL dollars. Like WTF? I mean take Fletchers, Hugley, Maddox and Anderson money and just bring in ONE guy worth all of it. He spread it out too thin and used some of it on guys that were questionable to ever play at this level. Absolutely inexcusable.

Add in other weird situations like Green. What was that? He comes back and he just let him decide not to play? The plan was to facilitate a sham medical redshirt to give him an extra year? That’s our Coach? Willing to get outsmarted by a 20 year old kid AND walk the fine line of the NCAA rules?

Look even if Miller had stayed I’d still be giving him a C. The first item listed above (also known as the dumpster fire) is what takes him down to C-.

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Where are you getting the sham medical redshirt accusation from? It was just a regular redshirt, no? You are allowed to play in a certain number of games and maintain eligibility for a redshirt year and that what Green was doing.

Was decent enough the second go round. Steele flat out put together a good team and he knew it. He just didn't have the coaching acumen to see it through. Sean is almost the complete opposite. His greatest weakness is in his choice of players. He will coach up players all day long and win games he shouldn't because his in game adjustments are solid. I think it was proven this season, his guys, his team and he just didn't put together a team that was good enough for a second weekend. Sean absolutely needs quality assistants that can get talent in that door.

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Originally Posted by xubrew

I didn't realize this, but dating back to 2012 Xavier has won just three NCAA Tournament games against single digit seeds, and two were during the Elite Eight run as an 11 seed.

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I think all three were that year. Maryland was a 6 who we beat in the first round.