Arizona Basketball: Has Sean Miller lost fans’ faith in the program?
By David Rosen
Arizona Basketball is facing a rough patch right now and Wildcat fans have begun to lose faith in this program.
Sixteen games into the 2019-20 Arizona Basketball season and many Wildcat fans have begun to lose faith in this program and question Sean Miller’s coaching abilities. His team has lost 4 out of the last five, with the latest to the Oregon State Beavers by 17 points. Do fans have a legit reason to be worried about the future of this program with Miller as head coach?
Last season, this program faced a tremendous amount of adversity. Coaches, players, recruiting and the fans were impacted. The Wildcats finished at 17-15 overall and 8-10 in the Pac-12, which was at the bottom of the conference in 8th place. They didn’t make the postseason and had Miller’s worst Pac-12 season while at Arizona.
Due to having limited overall talent and depth, many felt the Wildcats would struggle all season long and they did. Considering the circumstances, it’s fair to say fans did give Miller a pass considering everything that was going on. Heading into this season though, expectations were much different.
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Bringing in three elite freshmen, transfers and returners from last season, many felt this Wildcats team had a chance to not only contend for the Pac-12 tournament but also make a deep run during March Madness. Not anymore. After falling to 1-2 in the conference, fans are started to lose hope of making a postseason run because of Miller.
Fans need to take a step back and look at the big picture of what’s been happening in college basketball this season. A couple of big powerhouse schools, Kansas, Michigan State, and North Carolina have been losing of late, including the Tar Heels losing to Clemson in Chapel Hill for the first time in 59 games. All of those schools fan bases feel like, Bill Self, Tom Izzo, and Roy Williams are to blame and to be fired.
When teams aren’t doing well, it’s easy to point the finger at the head coach and blame him for everything. But when the team is winning they praise the head coach. One can’t have it both ways. Everyone has to remember that basketball is a team sport and involves everyone, coaches and players to do their part in achieving victory.
In Miller’s case, fans seem to have enough. Failing to win the big games or execute during crunch time have been some of his downfalls. He has had the talent over his 11 years at Arizona but does not have a Final Four to show for it. Yes, it’s difficult to get that far in March, but still, he has had is chances.
Everything being said, the question is what does Miller need to do to regain the faith back from fans? Win games, execute better, change things up on offense and defense, mix up the starting lineup. Those are just some we would recommend.
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Time will tell and we’ll see if Miller has what it takes to get Arizona Basketball fans back on his side. You can’t take away the great players he has recruited and developed, the Pac-12 regular-season and tournaments he has won, but until he can begin to consistently prove he is the best fit for Arizona, fans will continue to question their faith to him. As always at Zona Zealots, Bear Down, Arizona!