Arizona Basketball is heading into the 2019-20 as a contender for the Pac-12 title and also looking to make a deep run in March.
National Championship. Every coach, whether it’s college or in the NBA, is judged not just by how many wins they have but how many championships that have won. In this case, Arizona Basketball head coach Sean Miller has yet to win a national championship in his coaching career. He has made it to the Elite 8 once with Xavier and three times with Arizona.
Many would say that with the talent Miller has had since he started at Arizona that he should have won a national championship by now. That is a true statement, but there are a lot teams out there in years past who have some of the best players in the country and were unable to win a national championship. Does that make them an under performing head coach? Miller has won 5 regular season Pac-12 titles and 3 Pac-12 Tournament titles, which he does deserve more credit for.
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It’s important to understand to win a national championship is not as easy as many think. A lot of things have to go your way to climb the ladder and cut down the nets. Even when a team has a good seeding in the NCAA Tournament, that doesn’t mean anything is guaranteed. It is called March Madness for reason. Expect the unexpected.
Look at when Arizona when on their 1997 National Championship run. They were a No.4 seed and upset three No.1 teams, which had never been done before. The Wildcats also had to endure three games which went into overtime, including the title game against Kentucky.
Under Miller, the Wildcats were so close to advance to the Final Four multiple times including a one point loss to Wisconsin in overtime during the 2014 NCAA Tournament. They were also defeated by just two points against Connecticut in the 2011 NCAA Tournament.
Another argument that you hear a lot of is well if Lute Olson was able to win with the talent he had, why can’t Miller? That is a fair statement to make, but you have to take into context how the skill level of the college game has increased. To win six games in a row is a lot harder then it was during the Olson era.
This season, Miller has all the right pieces in place to make a serious run for the national championship. He has athleticism, experience, size, depth and a coaching staff in place that makes his Wildcats a dangerous team come March. It’s just a matter of Miller finding the right rotations this season, getting the bounces, calls and fouls to go his way and oh yeah a little bit of luck won’t hurt either.
We have yet to see Miller advance past the Elite 8 and this could be the year. How will he handle the pressure? How will his team come through for him this season? Time will tell this season how this all plays out.
Many players over the years have wanted to see Miller get his chance to cut down the nets. During the 2017-18 season, many had thought this would be the season, but they were knocked out in the first round by the No.13 seed Buffalo.
At Zona Zealots, we believe in head coach Sean Miller and his ability to win a national championship. There are still plenty of doubters out there. Time to prove them wrong coach! Bear Down, Arizona!