Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Sean Miller’s Best Season Yet!

Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Lewis Kress of SB Nations AZ Desert Swarm wrote a counterpoint article about how disappointing the Arizona Season was, and how we should not be singing praises of our team or coach, we disagreed!

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I am impassioned to write this article, but only after I got over the anger I felt after reading Lewis Kress‘s article titled “Counterpoint: This Arizona Basketball Season Was A Failure.”

I felt every counterpoint needs a point so we needed an article to make the point that Arizona did have a great season and it wasn’t a failure.

Kress said he wrote it after he spent “a few days of sitting Shiva for this season.”  Which was apropos and I think we all did some of that, I gotta admit I am still “Sitting Shiva” a bit.  Hopefully after Kentucky beats Wisconsin today I will feel better.

Note: Shiva is the time Jewish people spend over a seven-day period sitting and mourning together, remembering and praying for a loved one after their death. Since today is the eighth day after the death of our season, we should be done with Shiva, but we have another 22 days to be fully over it!

@quackarazzi

According to Kress “..getting knocked out in the Elite Eight means this season was a failure.” Reading those words I felt like I was punched in the gut!  It really didn’t matter what words were written before or after that statement, they got a bunch of Wildcat fans on Facebook angry and upset.

I need to point out that in the article, Krell does say he loves the coach and the team. Maybe he wanted to get a lot of attention from the article, and if so, it worked. I’m even giving him more press, thought twice about that but felt it was important to make a point for his counterpoint.

On Facebook, fan Scott Schlittenhart told him to “Lay off that crack pipe.” Janice Prichard wrote, “another 30 win year and we’re a failure?? this guy should just go cheer for ASWho.” Tracy Andres Lundin added “USC’s season was a failure.” And I’ll give you one more from Scott Christy, “How can it be called a Failure! Pac-12 title, Pac-12 Championship.” Finally Lisa Cain Cutts chimed in with “With that title, not going to read the article!”

Of course there were also Wildcats fans who agreed with Lewis: fan Kristine Armstrong Woodworth wrote “This article explains to me exactly why I haven’t been able to shake off this loss like I did last year’s. It hurts more, because my expectations were high and it DOES feel like failure.”  

The only other fan agreeing with Kress that I saw was Jesse Boyd, “Did anyone actually read the article? His logic is sound.”

Tom Dixon said it best, “Getting beat by an “out of their minds hot” Wisconsin team, was hardly a failure. It’s just a shame these two great teams couldn’t have met in the Final Four.” That’s pretty much the consensus, and listening to Kentucky Coach John Calipari speak after his Elite Eight win he agrees, “..feel bad for Arizona because they had to play Wisconsin and they’re a Final 4 Team.” That is a big prop for Arizona!

So why am I stating that this is “Sean Millers best season yet”? Let’s get into that!

It all started in 2009 Sean Miller accepted the University of Arizona’s offer to be the head coach of the Wildcats, leaving Xavier University. According to Andy Katz, Miller wasn’t Arizona’s first choice, “Arizona tried in vain to convince Gonzaga’s Mark Few, Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon and then-Memphis coach John Calipari (before he went to Kentucky) to take the job.”

Miller left Xavier as a top 25 as he took them to a 27-8 overall record and was 12-4 in the Atlantic 10 in his last season there.  Miller knew that when he took the Arizona gig he was going to have to rebuild the program, and I think its safe to say that he has done just that. Arizona fans had no idea what they were in for which was one winning season after another, and we sure are enjoying it!

Everyone except for a few sour Wildcats beat writers and fans who are spoiled with cheering for a top 10 team who has gone far in the tournament but has not yet gotten back to the final four or taken home the NCAA Championship trophy again.

There are 351 teams who play men’s basketball in 32 Division I basketball conferences, only one team wins that trophy.

Arizona is one of eight schools out of 351 schools who made it to the Elite Eight. That means Sean Millers Arizona Wildcats are in the top 2.3% of NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball teams in the Nation. Wow! Let that sink in for a minute.

Was I disappointed when we lost to Wisconsin last Saturday? Hell yes! I was there with some Badger fans behind me rubbing it in, so it wasn’t just losing, it was losing while being badgered by Badger fans.

As fans, we tie ourselves so much to the success of the teams we support.  We would go almost anywhere, pay lots of money and sacrifice everything to be there in person to support our team.  We wrap up all of our emotions in the win or loss of a game our team plays; we feel successful and proud ourselves when our team wins, and vice versa when they lose. So I get it, but it seems a little silly when I think about it.

No one felt worse than Coach Miller, T.J. and the rest of the players as well as their significant others, parents and friends who sat behind them.

I am just going to let the numbers and facts do the talking for the Arizona Wildcats Basketball team and their highly esteemed and beloved coach who will is making his legacy here in Tucson, let this also sink in:

Stats compiled by Shereen Rayan from Wikipedia

To sum it up for you, Coach Sean Miller has been voted Pac-12 Coach of the Year twice and is currently 163-52 overall, 79-29 in the Pac-12, 95-12 at McKale Center where he is on a 38 home game winning streak going into next year. Miller has been to the Sweet Sixteen with his team once, and the Elite Eight three times, losing very close games which it could’ve gone either way.

On top of that, out of his five seasons, his team has been the regular season champs three times as well as never being lower than fourth place in the other three years. In addition, he has been in the Pac-12 tournament finals four out of five years. This year Coach Miller’s Wildcats finally won the Pac-12 Tournament which has alluded him during his career at Arizona, and his team won decisively.

@Quakarazzi

Let’s not forget the talent his program is attracting as well!  The incoming class has four and five star talent, and some seasoned veterans who cannot wait to play!  Miller’s recruiting class is climbing up the charts and almost equals the other top programs!  We may lose 4 players to the NBA draft for crying out loud.

In conclusion, Coach Sean Miller had the best season he has ever had, the numbers speak for themselves.  Even though we are all bummed, and no one was more disappointed than this fine coach and his senior point guard, the fans just need to feel blessed with how far this coach and his team has come.

Everything great is worth waiting for, and once he gets his team to the final four, we are going to be floating on cloud 9, cloud 8 is fine for now.

BEARDOWN ARIZONA!

Next: Find out more information on this years and next years team!

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