He didn’t. And I don’t live in Fantasyland. Also, Miller had more chances to go to the Final Four, as higher seeds and choked those games away. His teams were boring and even worse, after his first couple years when I did think he might bring the program back to prominence, consistent underachievers. and again, he left the program in shambles.
It’s challenging the binary thinking that his tenure at Arizona was a failure. Far lesser coaches than Miller have gone to the F4. Shaka Smart, Kevin Ollie, Laranega (sp), Moser, and others. Miller won 73% of his games, the conference half of the time he was at Arizona, 3 Elite 8a, 3 COY and other tangible accolades. Would you trade all of that for one F4 appearance?
You didn’t answer my question, but my guess would be if that bucket had gone in, or others, you’d be more forgiving and likely not call his tenure here an “epic failure,” which even for you is over the top
By the way - Barring a hiccup, this hiring process should be done relatively quickly. I think I know who it is, but a couple of courtesy interviews have to happen first
At least some people think Beilein might be interested in the job. Terrific coach, great guy would bring instant respect. But he's 68 so short term hire. Does have a son and maybe they can do a coach in waiting deal or maybe an assistant in waiting kind of deal. But for the short term would be a terrific hire, everyone respects Beilein as a coach and a person
I’m done getting excited about coaches before they manage a game. I’m numb at the moment. I felt confident that Miller went back to his roots to coach players who bought into his system as opposed to OADs. We’ll see
I don’t think Miller was an “epic” failure but I think he was a failure. He never maximized the program or his players, and his teams were boring and regularly underachieving. He also wasn’t endearing in any way shape or form to the regular Arizona fan imo. Because his tenure was uninspiring he’ll be a footnote in the history of the program unless it just fails to right itself back to Lute levels.
So just speculating off your comment, its an assistant coach either here or somewhere else, that has never been a HC before?
epic might have been a bridge too far. But very little tourney success plus leaving the program in shambles and scandal ridden is definitely failure.
Miller was Arizona’s coach for 12 years, and for at least half of his tenure, ran the conference. He’ll be a lot more than a footnote. Is John Chaney just a footnote at Temple, even though, like Miller, he didn’t get to a F4? I know what the Miller-detractors say, but I guarantee if he had gotten to even one F4, the Miller narrative is a lot different. What Miller did for Arizona was save it from going to ruins when Lute had his health issues and was forced to retire, which led to ridiculous instability within the program. The refrain from national people today is that the Arizona job is still considered one of the best in the nation. That doesn’t happen if the program goes sideways in 2009-2010 like it was on track of doing
To compare Miller to Chaney is flat out ridiculous bc Chaney was lauded for more than just being a good basketball coach. your second paragraph is pretty accurate. But I’ll be shocked if anyone ever looks back wistfully saying “remember the Miller days?” If the program fully rebounds no one will ever talk about Miller unless it’s about his tournament losses or sanctions. When they want to reminisce it’ll be about Lute’s Cats. You might not consider that a footnote, but I do. And a disappointing one at that.
