Arizona Basketball: Is Sean Miller One of the Best?
By Mark Barrera
The Arizona Wildcats have seen much success ever since Sean Miller took over. Critics will refer to his lack of Final Fours. But Miller is one of the best.
Zero Final Four appearances. Zero National Championships. A trip to the NIT. Losing in the first round against Wichita State. All of these go hand-in-hand with Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball coach Sean Miller. And the critics, both in-house and outside of Tucson, are quick to jump on these examples when criticizing Miller.
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Coach Sean Miller is the best coach who hasn’t reached the Final Four, and when you look at the talent Miller has brought to Tucson each year, it’s hard to understand why Arizona hasn’t reached the Final Four under Miller.
The 2013-2014 team consisted of Aaron Gordon, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, T.J. McConnell, Brandon Ashley, Kaleb Tarczewski, Gabe York, and Nick Johnson. They were a heavy favorite to reach the Final Four that year but ended up losing to Wisconsin 64-63, in heartbreaking fashion.
The 2014-2015 team lost Aaron Gordon and Nick Johnson, but the addition of Stanley Johnson gave this team another great chance in March.
The 2014-2015 team won the Pac-12 regular season and Conference Tournament. A #2 seed awaited them for the NCAA Tournament and were again almost a sure bet to make to the Final Four. However, Arizona ran into a Wisconsin Badgers team who could not miss in the second half.
As we all saw this past season, with only 1 returning starter (Kaleb), Miller was in for some struggles. When an elite program like Arizona struggles in the regular season and loses in the first round, the critics now have more fuel for their fire.
Needless to say, we’ve been spoiled at Arizona. When you’re spoiled, you begin to freak out as if the world is going to end when things don’t go your way. Miller warned us all that this team was going to be a project, yet we chose to ignore his warning.
So the question remains… is Coach Miller really one of the best in the nation? The answer is simple: YES.
Miller’s career record is 308-108, a .740 win-loss %. During his tenure at Xavier, Miller was 120-47 (.718 W/L %). In those five years, Miller led Xavier to three straight regular season conference champions, a tournament champion, and four straight tournament appearances, with two trips to the Sweet 16.
His tenure at Arizona consists of a win/loss record of 188-61 ( .760 W/L %), three Pac-12/Pac-10 regular season championships, a Pac-12 conference tournament championship, five NCAA tournament appearances (four straight since 2012-2013), with five Sweet 16’s (2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015), and 3 Elite 8’s (2011, 2014-2015).
Statistics alone, Sean Miller, is hands down one of the best coaches in the nation. Athlon Sports listed Sean Miller as #7 in their top 50 active coaches.
Don’t like the win/loss statistics? Just take a look at the Arizona recruiting class over his tenure. For the 2016 recruiting class Miller has pulled in four 5-star recruits, and the #3 recruiting class in the nation, according to 247sports.com.
The 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015 classes also finished ranked #3 in the nation. In Sean Miller’s tenure, there were only two years where Arizona’s final recruiting ranking finished outside of the top-10 (2013 = #11, 2009 = #12). Only one year did Arizona finish outside of the top-25 (2010 = #36).
Don’t get us wrong… with 5 out of 6 years being ranked #3 in the nation, Coach Miller should be expected to have at least one team make the Final Four. Believe me, I too have expected Miller to lead one of these teams to the Final Four, and I think Miller himself would agree to that.
But you can’t control who you run into in the tournament. You also can’t control who stays, and who leaves after each season.
Yes, every school deals with this. Kentucky, Duke, and Kansas go through the same thing every year. Not just that, but Kentucky and Duke have recently won National Championships. So why can’t Arizona?
Honestly, the ball just hasn’t bounced the right way for Miller and the Wildcats. The year Arizona lost to Ohio State was due to a buzzer beater where Grant Jerrett didn’t play the pick-and-roll properly. The year after that, after avenging their loss to Ohio State, Arizona lost to Wisconsin by 1-point, with Nick Johnson not even getting the ball off in time to try and tie (he missed anyways).
The next year, as previously mentioned, Arizona ran into a perfect storm that was Wisconsin. No team in the country could have stopped the Wisconsin team that showed up in the second half, hitting 10 of 12 three-pointers in the second half alone.
In 2016, a year that saw plenty of highs and lows, injuries, players leaving, etc., the Wildcats saw a disappointing placement as a 6th seed. That led to a dreaded first round match-up with WSU in the NCAA Tournament, a very experienced, and skilled basketball team.
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The expectation at Arizona is to win the Pac-12 and make the Final Four. Nothing else. This expectation is part of the reason recruits come to Arizona. Honor the Process is what Miller preaches to his players. Had the ball bounced a different way in previous years, we could be looking at more than one Final Four appearance. We at ZonaZealots truly believe in Miller. So I ask, is Sean Miller one of the best? Again, I say, Yes.