Sean Miller: The Thread

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Originally Posted by MHettel

Ok I’ll write it down. Right next to that 13 win big east total you insisted on.

Also, by the way, if you’ve been watching this team recently, you will see that when their backs were to the wall and they still had a chance to salvage a tourney run, they QUIT.

The last half dozen or so games have included some of the most listless, lifeless effort I can recall in an XU uniform.

Rick Pitino has 10 new guys too. He lit his guys up and they stole one against Creighton. We wilted.

Grade this team out at the end of the year. Q gets an A-, and nobody else higher than a B. Lots of C-, Ds, and Fs. Miller grades out as a C….maybe.

I’m sorry if you don’t like my viewpoint, but this seasons has been garbage and it’s laid at the feet of the players AND the coaches

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Rick pitino had an all conference big East big man that came back. Wonder how he would have done without Soriano. How many of his ten new guys were freshmen? How many international? Did he have two guys gone down late in the portal/recruiting window we didnt know about?

Pitino is a hall of famer, arguably the best coach ever and he has a half game up on x with a fifth year second team all big East big man that came back.

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Originally Posted by MHettel

That’s a miss in my book.

No we are 7-8 guys away. I see things in Claude, McKnight, swain and green that I like as individual players. I even like Abou if he can just be a defensive first guy. I’d give another year to Nzeh and Ciani as well. As individuals. But these guys together didn’t work.

I can’t see next year being competitive. We may have some NIL money to fish with, but let’s not forget that we may need to make competitive offers to our existing guys just to keep them.

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You just named 4 guys you like with a 5th as a potential guy. And say we need 8 more. How big of a rotation you think we should be playing?? Lol.

We played 7 guys last year. (I know, you don’t think Sean did a good job last year- but it was one of better season in X history). All I’m saying is- I don’t anticipate X regularly playing even a 9 man rotation almost ever. 7-8 guys is all you really need.

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Originally Posted by Drew

X will never have the bucks to pay our players competitively and the coach competitively. Long term the better play is probably to prioritize funds for the players. Best coach in the world can't win without players.

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That is a very astute observation made succinctly . A wordier rendition goes like this. At schools like Xavier that don’t have seemingly unlimited athletic funds like the big state schools, Athletic Directors will weigh whether a high priced coach is needed to coach average players. Said otherwise, if a school has a $3 M coach and a $ 1M collective would they be better off with a $ 1M coach and a $3M collective. Look at the NBA. What percentage of the players salaries is the coaches’ salaries.? Why shouldn’t colleges be the same?

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Originally Posted by Drew

X will never have the bucks to pay our players competitively and the coach competitively. Long term the better play is probably to prioritize funds for the players. Best coach in the world can't win without players.

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Yeah x should go cheap with someone like Steele.

Heck maybe x should just do a Nil fundraiser every year. each dollar to nil gets you a raffle ticket and at the beginning of the year, a ticket is pulled. The person with the winning ticket gets to coach for the year for 500k or so.

I’m joking of course but my point is, I’ll take the good coach.

I think there is a little bit of overestimating nil imo.

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Originally Posted by Xavier

You just named 4 guys you like with a 5th as a potential guy. And say we need 8 more. How big of a rotation you think we should be playing?? Lol.

We played 7 guys last year. (I know, you don’t think Sean did a good job last year- but it was one of better season in X history). All I’m saying is- I don’t anticipate X regularly playing even a 9 man rotation almost ever. 7-8 guys is all you really need.

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I like those guys as individual players. But together it didn’t work. I would keep a few of them. I think we will need a bunch of new guys and a couple more years. 7-8 addition new guys next year doesn’t make sense. But we are 2-3 years away. We need 7-8 players to emerge over the next couple years to put us in a position where we can win “now” and be positioned for 1-2 years ahead

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Originally Posted by Xville

Whatever. Yeah I was wrong that I thought the frontcourt would develop. Shit happens, but to continually make excuses for why miller isn’t an exceptional coach is ridiculous. Your excuses have been,

1. Miller should be clairvoyant and knew free was going to get injured again so he should have gotten insurance for it two years ago from someone assured of zero playing time and been able to develop them so they are good to go for this year.

2. Miller was only good for x because we had the most resources in the a10 so it’s easy to win at x.

3. He had a lot of resource at Arizona so it’s easy to win at Arizona.

4. Once free/jerome were injured/out he should have been able to just call on anyone that late in the game to replace them. (He tried but the pool was small and he was very late to the game.)

5. He is an excuse maker because he had ten new guys , several being freshmen and international, and said they would need time to gel. Gawd forbid

Anything else I’m missing? Not saying miller is infallible but you have made several comments that are hindsight and out of touch. Maybe you should call miller up and tell him your plan for how to get the train back on the tracks

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1. Yes. Not having Free was a very forseeable event.

2. Yes. XU talent in the A10 was better and deeper than most of the league. There were 2-3 decent teams a year and a bunch of cannon fodder.

3. Yes. Arizona is a top program and arguably the best program in the West. Easy to recruit great players, easy to win with great players. No Final 4s for miller at Zona? That doesn’t give you any pause?

4. I never expected us to be able get anyone at that stage of the season. But we were obviously unprepared

5. Yes. Pretty much exactly that. And I called that out before the year even started. No hindsight involved there, professor

I would call Miller to tell him what to do, but I need some NIL money first

I think we should just pay the coach 5M and have nothing for the NIL. The coach will quickly realize that he’s better off using some of that 5M towards NIL to build a roster so he can make it to year 2. That approach would help us find the equilibrium very quickly

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Originally Posted by MHettel

1. Yes. Not having Free was a very forseeable event.

2. Yes. XU talent in the A10 was better and deeper than most of the league. There were 2-3 decent teams a year and a bunch of cannon fodder.

3. Yes. Arizona is a top program and arguably the best program in the West. Easy to recruit great players, easy to win with great players. No Final 4s for miller at Zona? That doesn’t give you any pause?

4. I never expected us to be able get anyone at that stage of the season. But we were obviously unprepared

5. Yes. Pretty much exactly that. And I called that out before the year even started. No hindsight involved there, professor

I would call Miller to tell him what to do, but I need some NIL money first

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Well we understand now that you think you know more than miller and you believe he’s not an exceptional coach. You disagree with basically everyone that knows anything about basketball. Interesting hot take.

1. “Oh hey four star recruit/transfer. We want to bring you in to play at Xavier. Not sure if you will play, we have this all big East conference player who may or may not get injured again but hey he may so you may get a chance to play. Wanna sign with us or go to a different big time school where you are assured of starting?”


2. How’d he get that talent? Probably not because he was a good coach. I just have missed the part where prosser made all those second weekends in the tourney.


3. Easy to win with great players…… you should try coaching since it’s so easy. He lost in the elite eight a few times by one possession. Shit happens.


4. Unprepared for two events that you wanted miller to be clairvoyant. How do you think recruiting actually works especially in the present day. Oh hey decent player… just go rot on the bench and you can maybe play next year.

5. Freshmen typically get better throughout the year. Green and dailyn both did/have. It makes logical sense that the frontcourt would have done the same thing. It didn’t happen

No it’s not. His roster had Free and Jerome

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Originally Posted by MHettel

1. Yes. Not having Free was a very forseeable event.

2. Yes. XU talent in the A10 was better and deeper than most of the league. There were 2-3 decent teams a year and a bunch of cannon fodder.

3. Yes. Arizona is a top program and arguably the best program in the West. Easy to recruit great players, easy to win with great players. No Final 4s for miller at Zona? That doesn’t give you any pause?

4. I never expected us to be able get anyone at that stage of the season. But we were obviously unprepared

5. Yes. Pretty much exactly that. And I called that out before the year even started. No hindsight involved there, professor

I would call Miller to tell him what to do, but I need some NIL money first

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Jesus. Get a grip. All you're doing is looking backwards and now with the benefit of that look back, you identify everything you would have done differently. It is hard to take you seriously.