Sean Miller doesn’t see the 2019-20 Arizona Basketball season as a failure

Following a season that unfortunately got cut short, Arizona Basketball coach Sean Miller says to not see the team or season as a failure.

I know it’s been seemingly ages since the Arizona Basketball team took to the court, and the 2019-20 season is all but a distant memory at this point, however, Sean Miller certainly still has his thoughts on the year.

In his interview with play-by-play Analyst Brian Jeffries nearly a week ago, Miller talked about many things including his three, departing freshmen, the incoming freshmen, as well as a season recap.

Arizona Wildcats

In the interview, Miller urges fans to not put the team “in a category or judge this past season as a failure or incomplete,” he said. The was going to be a tournament team, and when that happens, anything can happen at that point.

Look no further than the No. 4 seeded 1997 Wildcats making a magical run and knocking off an unprecedented three number one seeds in order to become champions.

However, if you were to ask fans, I would think the general consensus is that Arizona failed to live up to their expectations, especially as the team stumbled to just a fifth place finish in the Pac-12 Conference, even blowing late leads to ASU and Oregon (twice).

As Miller said, “The disappointment lied in losing so many one-possession and heartbreaking games… If we would have broken through in some of those one-possession games, we would have won the Pac-12 or we would have finished neck-and-neck with the actual winner.”

You may not agree with the logic, but he does have a point. The team really didn’t get the opportunity to prove themselves when it really mattered. The season was cancelled before we could fairly judge this team.

Besides, I tend to agree that winning in college basketball today is much harder than it was 10-15-plus years ago, when most programs would see less turnover. Remember, Arizona’s success was contingent on the play of three freshmen, who’ve never played an NCAA Tournament game.

That’s a tall task! Anyways, please feel free to listen to the full interview here!

At Zona Zealots, we’re still bummed we didn’t get a chance to see how our Wildcats would have fared and can hope Arizona can rebound in 2020-21. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!