Miller changes his mind and accepts Arizona job?(updated 1:25pm)

08-09 Basketball General193

Miller changes his mind.
(4/6/2009 1:05 PM Update)
One of the ideal fits to potentially become NC State’s head basketball coach if Coach Lowe were to head back to the NBA or not get the job done next season may be off the market. It appears Sean Miller has changed his mind and may in fact accept the Arizona position over a weekend when Lee “I have a contract and I know basketball” Fowler was not attending the Final Four in Detroit.

Sean Miller accepted the job as head coach of the Arizona Wildcats on Monday, one day after turning the position down, a source close to the negotiations told Yahoo! Sports.

Miller told Arizona he would remain at Xavier late last night, then asked for a chance to sleep on the decision. After going back and forth during the morning, a source said, he informed XU athletic director Mike Bobinski of his decision at noon ET.

MILLER EXPECTED TO SPURN ARIZONA (April 6, 2009 @ 12:40am)
I am the type of person who likes to have every possible option open to him when/if a decision needs to be made. If Coach Lowe struggles next season and it just so happens that the Wolfpack is in the market for a new basketball coach, I can’t help but proclaim that this is fantastic news knowing how highly Sean regards our job.

Sean Miller is expected to be the latest to spurn Arizona.

According to sources close to the situation, the Xavier head coach met with Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood in New Mexico earlier today and has decided that – barring a last-minute change of heart – he will remain with the Musketeers.

Miller, 40, has spent the last five seasons as the head coach of the Musketeers and has made four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances – including an Elite Eight last season and a Sweet 16 this past year.

Miller joins USC’s Tim Floyd to meet with Livengood in the past few days and turn down what was once considered an elite program.

Livengood was also unsuccessful luring big names such as Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon and Gonzaga’s Mark Few.

Miller makes approximately $800,000 at Xavier and, according to sources, was offered more than $2 million a year in Tucson.

Now the Wildcats will need to find someone willing to take the job. According to sources, Utah’s Jim Boylen might be next in line.

SOURCES: ARIZONA TARGETS MILLER (April 4, 2009 @ 11:56am)

This story is worth following for a lot of reasons. There is a lot of Miller-related commentary in this discussion from a couple of days ago.

Arizona has zeroed in on Sean Miller.

This link has more:

What does make sense is Arizona’s newest target: Sean Miller.

While it may not appear to fit, he’s the ideal choice. In fact, long-term it could

Here’s why:

1) He’s 40 years old and could see the long-term picture for rebuilding in Tucson. A guy like Tim Floyd doesn’t want to get his head beaten in for two years at this stage of his career. Miller would be more apt to deal with that given that he could vie for Final Fours and maybe a national title somewhere down the line. Miller isn’t a stop-gap like some of the previous candidates (Floyd, Tubby Smith).

2) Miller can recruit. He’s a grinder who can evaluate talent (see: Derrick Brown, B.J. Raymond, etc.) and connects well with kids.

3) He can coach. Four straight NCAA tournament appearances – including a Sweet 16 this season with an unenviable point guard situation.

4) He would go toe-to-toe and wouldn’t be intimidated by any of the big boys out west – and in particular, UCLA’s Ben Howland.

Miller played at Pittsburgh and hasn’t coached anywhere out west, but he’d need to hire the right staff to get it done in Tucson. Obviously, bringing on now-Kentucky assistant Josh Pastner as his associate head coach would be huge (Pastner works for one of Miller’s closest friends, John Calipari).

Miller still hasn’t decided whether he’s going to meet with Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood, but sources indicate he’s strongly considering it.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

08-09 Basketball General

193 Responses to Miller changes his mind and accepts Arizona job?(updated 1:25pm)

  1. Daily Update 04/06/2009 at 1:57 PM #

    S. Miller ran from the Herb Sendek coaching tree. Wonder if they will ask him why left an assistant job in a major conference to take an assistant coaching job at Butler? It was Butler right?

  2. packbackr04 04/06/2009 at 1:57 PM #

    so has anyone answered the question of whether NCSU has ANY representation at the final 4?

  3. LKNpackfan 04/06/2009 at 1:58 PM #

    DU, thanks. You can tell how much I pay attention to that coaching tree

  4. ThomYorkepack 04/06/2009 at 2:01 PM #

    Noah, are there coaches out there that would get that out of us, and are we currently in the market?

  5. NeverGiveUp 04/06/2009 at 2:03 PM #

    I am admittedly, clueless about women’s basketball, but I would assume the women’s final four is much like men’s as far as being considered a basketball coaches job fair. If that is the case why isn’t Fowler in St. Louis talking to prospective Women’s coaches? At least make it look you are trying to your job, I mean you do have contract.

  6. bradleyb123 04/06/2009 at 2:07 PM #

    “Apparently our BOT and Wolfpack Club Officers are happy with the job Fowler is doing”

    What makes you say that? As far as I’m concerned, Fowler is not out of the woods just yet, even if he does have a contract through 2013.

  7. GAWolf 04/06/2009 at 2:09 PM #

    At least Miller will win two games a year with two simple philosophies: zone D and the full court press. That’s just one more little reason for him to take the job. Two guaranteed wins…

    Against the primary rival no less…

  8. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 04/06/2009 at 2:18 PM #

    Didn’t Miller have the same weak spine when he left Herbert? Seems like he left and then tried to come back but Herb said not thanks. Sendek told Miller he had already hired Larry Hunter because he knows how to win and will be able to teach me something about building a real offense and not model it entirely off of a crappy Ivy League school. Hunter got State’s offense working and managed to build Herb ‘five straight NCAA tournaments’ Sendek into a somewhat viable coach.

  9. BSIE80 04/06/2009 at 2:19 PM #

    Good, now i don’t have to hear lets go get Sean Miller, he will come and save us in Raleigh….

    Who’s is the next savior, we can eliminate from everyone’s list??

  10. jwolf 04/06/2009 at 2:25 PM #

    tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc….Larry Hunter is the one who taught Herb the “Princeton-Style Offense”! He was the mastermind behind the whole offense. Maybe you are joking in your post, I dont know, but you should know that!

  11. Thompson44 04/06/2009 at 2:25 PM #

    bradleyb123,

    The reason I say that is because they have not made a move, nor do I think they will. I pray that I am wrong but I am pretty sure I am not.

  12. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 04/06/2009 at 2:39 PM #

    ^^Let me be a little more clear. Hunter know how to run the Princeton style offense, Sendek/Miller just tried to run Princeton’s offense. Neither are going to work for long at a major level but Hunter was at least able to bore enough people in the ACC to win some games.

  13. packalum44 04/06/2009 at 2:44 PM #

    2 million a year is the market rate for “Good” coaches with a record of success and the POTENTIAL to be “Great” coaches such as Sean…if a school with one of the nicest arenas in the country that seats 20,000 won’t pay that, we might as well tear it down and sell it for scrap.

    We were naive to think Calipari would take 2 million/year 3 years ago (for those who are still scratching their heads as to why he didn’t come…$$$hint$$$…) and are fools to think we can get shit with anything less.

  14. Gene 04/06/2009 at 2:51 PM #

    Miller left, when it looked like Herb’s ship was sinking after never getting into the NCAA’s in years 4 and 5.

    Hunter, I think, did teach Herb a lot about coaching and saved his job and helped him get a nice raise in ASU.

  15. choppack1 04/06/2009 at 2:55 PM #

    I believe Miller went to Xavier to work w/ Matta.

    When Sendek and Miller were here, we ran the flex after Sendek’s first season through his 5th season.

    When Miller left, Larry Hunter was brought it. We installed the PO.

    In Sendek’s first season, after Thorton was injured, we run something close to the PO to make our tourney run.

    The problem w/ the PO isn’t the concept itself – it focuses on spreading the court – which is a good thing – and it should allow lots of individual creativity. The problem is that all too often it is accompanied by apparent non-value added delays. Unfortunately, this delays appear to be part of the package.

    I have mixed feelings on full court pressure and the zone defense as core defensive principals. I like that full court pressure creates an aggressive mentality and forces kids to play hard. However, full court pressure – at it’s heart, is a gimmick and works only if you have teams that don’t handle the ball well. In other words, a confident team should be able to handle it just fine.

    You’ve gotta be able to defend in the half court – and if you can’t, you’ll go nowhere. Miller’s teams have been very solid on the defensive end. Offensively, they’ve struggled like Sendek’s first 5 did at times. (If you don’t think so, I’d recommend you watch their last NCAA tourney game.)

  16. bradleyb123 04/06/2009 at 2:58 PM #

    “The reason I say that is because they have not made a move, nor do I think they will. I pray that I am wrong but I am pretty sure I am not.”

    Correction: They have not made a move THAT WE ARE AWARE OF.

    Just because it has not been announced does not mean nothing is happening. I know someone that knows someone on the BOT. Of course they will neither confirm nor deny anything, but they have said enough to my friend that indicates SOMETHING is going down. I think within the next two weeks, we will hear some good news regarding Fowler.

    IMO, they don’t want to hurt Fowler’s charity golf tournament in any way (to be held on April 13th). The last thing we need is the black eye that we would get for having no consideration for charity. Hopefully AFTER THAT tournament, we will get some good news. Hopefully……..

    Fowler’s Golf Tournament

  17. BAC79 04/06/2009 at 3:05 PM #

    I believe the BOT has a scheduled meeting next week.

  18. GAWolf 04/06/2009 at 3:06 PM #

    I’m not saying I’m necessarily a proponent of full court pressure OR always running a zone, but assuming after Harden and Pendergraf leave Tempe this year Herb resorts completely back to old form, then Sean can run a full court press and Herb’s players, if they can figure out how to break it, will pull back into the half court offense with which they won’t be able to score unless the threes are falling. So, you press him with no repercussions (either you get a steal or a chance to get back and set up the half-court D) and then you force them to hit the open shot… something NC State at least rarely did under Sendek. And without two lottery picks, I’m going to assume ASU will fall into similar form.

    That’s all I was saying… Sean will get two easy wins against his rival every year assuming he doesn’t catch the Sundevils on a night when they’re banking in threes from the timeline.

  19. anti-smurf 04/06/2009 at 3:26 PM #

    With the timing of the golf tournament, along with the announcement of “we hope to have some sort of announcement regarding WHoops in a copule weeks” – means that by then, it will be a a new AD making that announcement, or taking over the search.

  20. Bubba 04/06/2009 at 4:15 PM #

    Sean has contacted Larry Harris about joining his staff at U of A

  21. howlie 04/06/2009 at 4:21 PM #

    There are already 170 comments ahead of me I don’t have the time now to read, but I would pay “pay per view” money to watch Arizona-Arizona State in the years ahead. The Miller/Sendek mid-court conversations are going to be a bloodletting smack-down, and it will be like the Lefty-Dean shoutdowns of old.

    Good for that conference…

  22. GAWolf 04/06/2009 at 4:27 PM #

    Bubba… are you joking?

  23. Bubba 04/06/2009 at 4:30 PM #

    No joke GA

    Will be interesting to see what happens

  24. ushum 04/06/2009 at 4:33 PM #

    wouldn’t be shocked to see Harris leave, could go either way…he already moved to AZ once before…

    on a related note, do we still have a home and home with AZ in basketball coming up?

  25. jbpackfan 04/06/2009 at 4:40 PM #

    Sucks if we lose Harris.

1 … 5 6 7 8

Leave a Reply