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UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]


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Posted

Perfect coach for Texas basketball.
 

Miller can come in and immediately push for 6th best coach in the SEC. Really shows that Texas is unwilling to pay for a championship level coach but is willing to overspend to not be the bottom dweller. I’d go ahead and pencil him in for no better than a 3rd place finish in the league for his career at Texas with an Elite Eight or possibly a Final Four if he lands a generational talent player. 
 

Having Texas’ brand and a top 15 NIL will certainly help but it won’t turn a guy who has lost to Shaka Smart more often than not into a great coach. 

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Posted
Perfect coach for Texas basketball.
 
Miller can come in and immediately push for 6th best coach in the SEC. Really shows that Texas is unwilling to pay for a championship level coach but is willing to overspend to not be the bottom dweller. I’d go ahead and pencil him in for no better than a 3rd place finish in the league for his career at Texas with an Elite Eight or possibly a Final Four if he lands a generational talent player. 
 
Having Texas’ brand and a top 15 NIL will certainly help but it won’t turn a guy who has lost to Shaka Smart more often than not into a great coach. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, David Dennison said:

Sean Miller is a much better coach than Shaka Smart and anyone arguing otherwise is just being contrarian.

Get ready for the "Sean Miller is only 2-6 versus Shaka at Xavier" takes

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Posted

Shaka hasn’t coached here in 4 years. Besides moving on from beard, this is another person this website needs to move on from. 

And if you can’t move on from beard or Shaka, I question how you navigate (or if you have the option to) your personal/romantic relationships because holy hell it’s giving clear insight. 

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Posted
11 minutes ago, Pancho said:

Shaka hasn’t coached here in 4 years. Besides moving on from beard, this is another person this website needs to move on from. 

Could I interest you in a Mack Brown thread of grievances?

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Posted
21 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Get ready for the "Sean Miller is only 2-6 versus Shaka at Xavier" takes

The Miller pumpers demand facts if you don't like the hire. You give facts and they tell you it's merely a 'take'!

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Posted
41 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Sean Miller is a much better coach than Shaka Smart and anyone arguing otherwise is just being contrarian.

Yes we upgraded. I was underwhelmed at first but I think this hire made the most sense. Just because you have money doesn’t mean you go buckwild 

Posted
17 minutes ago, Ketch22 said:

The Miller pumpers demand facts if you don't like the hire. You give facts and they tell you it's merely a 'take'!

Who exactly is a "Miller pumper"?

Did you think we had a realistic shot to hire Dan Hurley, Jay Wright, Billy Donovan?  No?  Then who?  Oats?  Self?  Really?

Miller isn't particularly exciting, but he knows what he's doing in terms of basketball Xs and Os, and with UT's NIL support I think he stands a real good chance of doing damage.

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Posted

Comparing a new hire to a previously bad hire? How dare I?  Look, I don’t know shit about the workings of the athletic department and I know less about how to properly coach basketball. I’m just a fan and this hire looks like the comfiest comfort hire that ever comfortered. 
 

And since I’m on everyone’s good side, what does Ole Miss NIL look like? Serious question. Because it looks like a great coach, who is a terrible person, is taking that team pretty far. Understand that I’m not saying we should never have fired Beard or that we should have hired him back. I’m just saying that having a strong NIL can help build a team but it’s going to take great coaching to win a championship. 
 

And that’s why Sean Miller is the perfect coach for Texas basketball. He’ll be good enough to not be an embarrassment but ultimately the only trophies he’ll add will be NIT championships. 

Posted
3 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Who exactly is a "Miller pumper"?

Did you think we had a realistic shot to hire Dan Hurley, Jay Wright, Billy Donovan?  No?  Then who?  Oats?  Self?  Really?

Miller isn't particularly exciting, but he knows what he's doing in terms of basketball Xs and Os, and with UT's NIL support I think he stands a real good chance of doing damage.

Everyone who is negging me for pointing out his record against Smart seems to be fluffing Miller. We had 6 years of Smart's incompetence and we have almost 40 pages documenting his continued incompetence in Milwaukee. Why is the fact about Miller's poor record against Smart such a sore spot?

As for options other than Miller, I would have been happy with any of the younger Big 12 guys. If we are taking a chance on guys with sketchy pasts I would have preferred Wade and his more recent, more consistent success. Royal Ivey would have been more exciting.

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Posted

I'm still in the denial phase (hoping the entire deal falls through). Once its official, I'll move on to the next stages. He's undoubtedly better than RT, but anyone that Texas was going to hire met that hurdle. Always kind of liked hating on that raging dickhead. Now he's our coach, lulz.

 

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Posted
20 minutes ago, Ketch22 said:

Why is the fact about Miller's poor record against Smart such a sore spot?

Well, (a) I don't know that record although I'm sure it's documented on this thread and (b) two different schools with different support structures (and I don't know which one might have the advantage there).

But ultimately, I would say it's a small sample size and I'd prefer to look at Miller's record overall when comparing him to Shaka.  Shaka wasn't on the list.  Beard wasn't on the list.  Barnes wasn't on the list.  Hurley wasn't gonna move, Oats was very pricey, Otz is married to an Iowa girl, etc. etc. etc.

Posted
3 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

What is sketchy in 2025 about Sean Miller's past?

Isn't NIL still greatly restricted for international students? When he was good Miller was relying on foreign talent. Will Wade overreacted for a similar offense that is no longer an offense. Was he even 40 when it happened?

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Posted
11 minutes ago, Ketch22 said:

Isn't NIL still greatly restricted for international students? When he was good Miller was relying on foreign talent. Will Wade overreacted for a similar offense that is no longer an offense. Was he even 40 when it happened?

Wade got a show cause, Miller did not. That's the difference in the two

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Posted
13 minutes ago, Ketch22 said:

Isn't NIL still greatly restricted for international students? When he was good Miller was relying on foreign talent. Will Wade overreacted for a similar offense that is no longer an offense. Was he even 40 when it happened?

The way Gerry Hamilton phrased it is that international players are finding ways to get compensated through NIL. He called it being able to "navigate through those traffic cones." I have no idea exactly what that means, but I can make some educated guesses.

Posted (edited)
3 minutes ago, BERT said:

Wade got a show cause, Miller did not. That's the difference in the two

That and Wade was a giant ass hole to his boss when it all came out ala Beard.  Shockingly CDC seems to value loyalty....or at least common decency.

Edited by TexasRenegade
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Posted
1 minute ago, BERT said:

Wade got a show cause, Miller did not. That's the difference in the two

Sure, but I believe Miller is our first major men's sport coach to be previously fired for cheating. If we are forgiving past transgressions, Wade has much more upside with only a little more risk.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

The way Gerry Hamilton phrased it is that international players are finding ways to get compensated through NIL. He called it being able to "navigate through those traffic cones." I have no idea exactly what that means, but I can make some educated guesses.

Wonder if it's some x amount of value thing they have to be under?

Posted
5 minutes ago, Ketch22 said:

Sure, but I believe Miller is our first major men's sport coach to be previously fired for cheating. If we are forgiving past transgressions, Wade has much more upside with only a little more risk.

True but Wade also lied about it too and didn't want to admit he did any wrong doing

Posted
1 minute ago, BERT said:

True but Wade also lied about it too and didn't want to admit he did any wrong doing

I had Wade as a toss in with cheating in his past, both he and Miller shouldn't have been targets for that reason. Wade didn't beat his girlfriend or cover up murder or rape. Hell, he was at LSU. It wouldn't surprise me if he went off because he was made the fall guy when the whole institution is corrupt to the core.

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Posted
54 minutes ago, Ketch22 said:

Everyone who is negging me for pointing out his record against Smart seems to be fluffing Miller. We had 6 years of Smart's incompetence and we have almost 40 pages documenting his continued incompetence in Milwaukee. Why is the fact about Miller's poor record against Smart such a sore spot?

As for options other than Miller, I would have been happy with any of the younger Big 12 guys. If we are taking a chance on guys with sketchy pasts I would have preferred Wade and his more recent, more consistent success. Royal Ivey would have been more exciting.

Now tell us what Shaka's record while at Texas was against Roy Williams at North Carolina.  One coach's record against one other coach does not seem to be indicative of his talent as a coach.

Posted
5 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

I don't completely understand the poo pooing of this hire. Maybe expectations were too high regarding who Texas was going to be able to bring in? Sometimes there's a candidate that's such a perfect fit that there's no question they're the one. Chris Beard was that kind of hire. Folks like Roy Williams at North Carolina, Bill Self at Kansas, Calipari at Kentucky, Pitino at Louisville. 

But usually there are flaws with hires. How many people considered great basketball coaches were can't misses when they were hired? Hurley certainly wasn't. Oates wasn't (is he considered a "great" coach at this point without a ring? Dunno). Scheyer at Duke was a big risk. Indiana can't get their coaching hire right since Knight left decades ago. 

Look at UT's history. Abe Lemons wasn't a can't miss. Bob Wetlich was an assistant under Knight. Tom Penders was hired for a fun style coming from Rhode Island. Rick Barnes had some minor success at Providence and Clemson, but had already earned a reputation as not being able to win in the tournament - a rep he still enjoys today. Smart had a spectacular single season at VCU. Beard was as close to a sure thing as we've ever hired, but he's a UT grad in special circumstances. That's akin to UNC being able to hire Roy Williams from Kansas. Rodney Terry became the head coach because of circumstances more than career metrics. 

I'd argue Sean Miller has a better coaching resume than any head coach ever hired at Texas other than maybe Chris Beard, due to Beard having the national championship appearance. But in terms of numbers of Sweet 16s before coming to Texas, we've never had anyone of this caliber.

I'm genuinely excited about this hire. I already know I'm going to be frustrated by his defense, because defense is more important to me than it is Miller, but oh well. He's going to run an explosive and exciting offense. He knows how to get people open for their shots. He has a vision for what he wants his basketball team to look like and he'll recruit to that vision. I've seen too many coaches get enamored with the talent they can bring to Austin rather than recruiting the talent that fits the scheme they're going to employ. That won't be Miller's issue. 

Miller has shown he's a very good coach. We'll see what he can do at 56. But I feel like he's hungry and wants a chance to compete at the highest level, and he didn't feel like he was going to get that chance at Xavier. And if he doesn't work out we'll move on and go get someone else. By then I imagine the college athletics landscape will have made some seismic shifts, so who knows what college basketball looks like at that point. 

But in the meantime I feel like it's an outstanding hire. It's not perfect, but very few hires are.  If he has some early success with the exciting style of offense he runs and the level of financial support Texas basketball receives, I don't see any reason we can't return to the Texas basketball heydays of TJ Ford/Durant/Augustin/et al.. 

BTW, saying Texas basketball is a top 15 NIL school is hilarious to me. We have some very deep pockets who are emotionally connected to the success of the basketball program. It's not Phil Knight level of support for Oregon football, but it's very deep. And it's basketball specific. 

Solid post. 

Posted
Just now, 83Horn said:

Now tell us what Shaka's record while at Texas was against Roy Williams at North Carolina.  One coach's record against one other coach does not seem to be indicative of his talent as a coach.

Damn. I brought up his record against Smart as part of his lack of success for all but 1 of his last 6 seasons. Not only has he largely been mediocre for 6 years, he also consistently struggled against a guy we all know was king of inconsistency.

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Posted
Quote

I don't see any reason we can't return to the Texas basketball heydays of TJ Ford/Durant/Augustin/et al.. 

See I see this as the worst case scenario. Good enough to not get fired bad enough to never ever win a natty. I already lived that with Barnes and it took forever to move on. 

Admittedly I could lower expectations for FF on a super stacked field so 2003 was the only time I was happy. That was one sick NBA draft, even with LeBron skipping college.

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Posted
13 minutes ago, Ketch22 said:

Who wasn't? We don't know who CDC made offers to. 

You’re not making any sense. You said you prefer any of the younger big 12 coaches to Miller and I’ve asked on this website time and time again who were the realistic options and you keep running in circles.

Speak English, boy

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