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


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Posted
8 minutes ago, linux said:

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.

 

A ring is the ultimate goal, but those are unutterably difficult to achieve in men's basketball. Texas has one Final Four in the modern era. If we were to never again get to another Final Four, that would be disappointing for me. A string of Elite Eights would feel unsatisfying on some level. But if we can get to the Sweet 16 regularly, with not a lot of consistent first weekend flameouts, and then make it to a few Final Fours, if the head coach never won a national championship I would still think of him as an incredible success at Texas. 

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Posted
4 minutes ago, linux said:

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.

1235

I actually agree with a lot of what SLX posted but I’m more pessimistic about the ROI on Miller than hopeful. I thought CDC said he wanted all of Texas sports to be top 10 or something and I don’t feel like this hire accomplishes that. I know that part of what I don’t like about Miller is that the two times he beat Texas in the tournament was due to ref fuckery. But if this is the best that Texas can do when it comes to basketball then so be it. Put it on the side of Moody, “Texas Basketball: We’re just happy to be here”

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Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

I could be wrong, but it sure seems like Sean Miller was the only offer.

From reading what Gerry has posted we kicked the tires on Dan Hurley, Quin Snyder, Billy Donovan, and Rick Pitino. All of whom were obvious no's then went straight to Miller who was CDC's first choice last go around. So all in all seems like we didn't really vet other candidates meaningfully enough because one was already decided due to CDC history at Arizona with him.

Edited by BurntOrange&White
Posted
1 minute ago, BurntOrange&White said:

From reading what Gerry has posted we kicked the tires on Dan Hurley, Quin Snyder, Billy Donovan, and Rick Pitino. All of whom were obvious no's then went straight to Miller who was CDC's first choice last go around. So all in all seems like we didn't really vet other candidates meaningfully enough because one was already decided due to CDC history at Arizona with him.

CDC was not at Arizona with Sean Miller.

Posted
3 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

From reading what Gerry has posted we kicked the tires on Dan Hurley, Quin Snyder, Billy Donovan, and Rick Pitino. All of whom were obvious no's then went straight to Miller who was CDC's first choice last go around. So all in all seems like we didn't really vet other candidates meaningfully enough because one was already decided due to CDC history at Arizona with him.

Who did you want?

Posted
Just now, David Dennison said:

CDC was not at Arizona with Sean Miller.

Whatever the relationship was with his former boss is what I meant. 

 

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Just now, Im_smarter_then_you said:

Who did you want?

Lloyd, TJO, McCollum....guys who are still on the front half of their careers.

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Posted
2 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

From reading what Gerry has posted we kicked the tires on Dan Hurley, Quin Snyder, Billy Donovan, and Rick Pitino. All of whom were obvious no's then went straight to Miller who was CDC's first choice last go around. So all in all seems like we didn't really vet other candidates meaningfully enough because one was already decided due to CDC history at Arizona with him.

I don't know that Miller was Del Conte's first choice. Miller was openly excited about the opportunity if Texas went with someone other than Rodney Terry. Calipari had also shown some interest. There are some thoughts that Calipari was Del Conte's first choice. It doesn't matter since we went with Terry. But you're saying it declaratively here in ways I don't agree are accurate.

Posted (edited)
1 minute ago, SL Xpress said:

I don't know that Miller was Del Conte's first choice. Miller was openly excited about the opportunity if Texas went with someone other than Rodney Terry. Calipari had also shown some interest. There are some thoughts that Calipari was Del Conte's first choice. It doesn't matter since we went with Terry. But you're saying it declaratively here in ways I don't agree are accurate.

From what CTJ and other insiders have said Miller was the guy until Terry beat him in the S16 last go round. They all seemed declarative in their statements about it so yeah.

Edited by BurntOrange&White
Posted
2 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Whatever the relationship was with his former boss is what I meant. 

 

image.png.04a1fb17ef8a4630cee5bb357743801c.png

Lloyd, TJO, McCollum....guys who are still on the front half of their careers.

I liked Lloyd more, too. But one thing I'll say about Lloyd is he's not a salesman. He starts speaking and it's as exciting as watching paint dry. You'd think that how good of a basketball coach he is, is all that matters. But at Texas it's helpful to have a little huckster in you to bring out fans. Probably shouldn't be that way, but it is what it is. Always has been. 

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Posted
10 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Whatever the relationship was with his former boss is what I meant. 

 

image.png.04a1fb17ef8a4630cee5bb357743801c.png

Lloyd, TJO, McCollum....guys who are still on the front half of their careers.

56 isn’t that old.  If miller works out he’s probably got the heart of a 40 year old

Posted

Lloyd wasn’t going to leave a program that is 2nd tier in basketball history for Texas after getting to 3 S16s in 4 years. He’s already at a tier below blue blood program.

TJ? Sure it would have been nice but his wife is from ISU and he’s already built a monster there and has shown he can sustain it. Why leave?

McCollum was never leaving the state of Iowa. Never. 

Oats is already at a football school with little pressure and has built them into a power, so he’s finally getting whatever he wants. No need to leave. 

We are too uppity for Pearl, and he’s on the sunset of his career anyway.

 

So who else was realistic? 

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Posted
Just now, Pancho said:

Lloyd wasn’t going to leave a program that is 2nd tier in basketball history for Texas after getting to 3 S16s in 4 years. He’s already at a tier below blue blood program.

TJ? Sure it would have been nice but his wife is from ISU and he’s already built a monster there and has shown he can sustain it. Why leave?

McCollum was never leaving the state of Iowa. Never. 

Oats is already at a football school with little pressure and has built them into a power, so he’s finally getting whatever he wants. No need to leave. 

We are too uppity for Pearl, and he’s on the sunset of his career anyway.

 

So who else was realistic? 

How would we know if we didn't try? I'd rather take the chance on a guy that is in their first 8 years of coaching and has had similar success than a guy 20 years coaching that is what he is.

Posted
1 minute ago, BurntOrange&White said:

From what CTJ and other insiders have said Miller was the guy until Terry beat him in the S16 last go round. They all seemed declarative in their statements about it so yeah.

 

The decision had been made before the Sweet 16 game was played. Once the team made it to the 2nd weekend after beating A&M the job was his. It didn't matter what the outcome of the Xavier game was. 

I guess the timeline we're talking about is important. But before a final decision had been made Calipari was part of the conversation. He was just going to be expensive in ways Miller never was going to be. 

I want to be clear. I would have dropped any interest in Texas basketball whatsoever and rooted for us to lose every game if we had hired Calipari. But Del Conte likes Calipari on a personal level. And regardless of my feelings about him as a person or a head coach, he has an incredible resume on paper. 

I'm just saying I don't agree with the declarative nature of the statement, while also admitting that Miller was a frontrunner in certain aspects. Mostly from the sense it would have been an easy deal to consummate. Price was right. He wanted to be at Texas. He has a decent history of success. 

Posted
Just now, tx 3 putt said:

rant - opening the transfer portal while the tournament is only half way done is just dumb 

Winter portal opens during middle of football post season as well, both are very stupid. Should only be a spring portal that opens Mid to late April and runs through end of May.

 

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Posted
1 hour ago, shadowbanned said:

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. 

He has won 5 Pac-10 and 3 A-10 championships. 

The SEC has some good coaches, but I don't get the angst that somehow Sean Miller is middle of the pack.  

There coaches like Barnes, Cal and Pearl who will all likely retire within the next few years. Sean Miller is 10-15 years younger than Barnes and Pearl and already has comparable skins on the wall. And there are guys like Todd Golden that look good, but we have seen the wheels fall off young coaches before.

Here is how I would rank the coaches based on resume and runway (assuming retirement at 70-72):

  • Nate Oats (50) - 2 P5 titles & 10 tourney wins in 10 yrs coaching
  • Chris Beard (52) - 1 P5 title & 13 tourney wins in 13 yrs coaching
  • John Calipari (66) - 6 P5 titles & 59 tourney wins in 33 yrs coaching
  • Sean Miller (56) - 5 P5 titles & 21 tourney wins in 20 yrs coaching
  • Bruce Pearl (65) - 6 P5 titles & 17 tourney wins in 30 yrs coaching
  • Todd Golden (39) - 0 P5 titles & 2 tourney wins in 6 yrs coaching
  • Rick Barnes (70) - 5 P5 titles & 29 tourney wins in 38 yrs coaching
  • Mike White (48) - 0 P5 titles & 6 tourney wins in 14 yrs coaching
  • Buzz Williams (52) - 1 P5 title & 12 tourney wins in 18 yrs coaching
  • Mark Pope (52) - 0 P5 titles & 2 tourney wins in 10 yrs coaching
  • Porter Moser (56) - 0 P5 titles & 6 tourney wins in 21 yrs coaching
  • Mark Byington (48) - 0 P5 titles & 1 tourney win in 13 yrs coaching
  • Matt McMahon (46) - 0 P5 titles & 2 tourney wins in 10 yrs coaching
  • Dennis Gates (45) - 0 P5 titles & 1 tourney win in 6 yrs coaching
  • Lamont Paris - (50) - 0 P5 titles & 0 tourney wins in 8 yrs coaching
  • Chris Jans (55) - 0 P5 titles & 1 tourney win in 15 yrs coaching
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Posted
2 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

How would we know if we didn't try? I'd rather take the chance on a guy that is in their first 8 years of coaching and has had similar success than a guy 20 years coaching that is what he is.

How do you know we didn't make overtures?

One of the things I love about Del Conte is we don't get into these get every coach we contact a pay raise sort of coaching searches. He identifies his target and then gets them. The gap between dismissal of the previous job holder and new hire is often record setting. But there's a lot of behind the scenes leg work being done to get to that point. Just because we don't see signs of Texas showing interest doesn't mean the interest wasn't shown. 

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Posted (edited)
3 minutes ago, HookEm said:

He has won 5 Pac-10 and 3 A-10 championships. 

The SEC has some good coaches, but I don't get the angst that somehow Sean Miller is middle of the pack.  

There coaches like Barnes, Cal and Pearl who will all likely retire within the next few years. Sean Miller is 10-15 years younger than Barnes and Pearl and already has comparable skins on the wall. And there are guys like Todd Golden that look good, but we have seen the wheels fall off young coaches before.

Here is how I would rank the coaches based on resume and runway (assuming retirement at 70-72):

  • Nate Oats (50) - 2 P5 titles & 10 tourney wins in 10 yrs coaching
  • Chris Beard (52) - 1 P5 title & 13 tourney wins in 13 yrs coaching
  • John Calipari (66) - 6 P5 titles & 59 tourney wins in 33 yrs coaching
  • Sean Miller (56) - 5 P5 titles & 21 tourney wins in 20 yrs coaching
  • Bruce Pearl (65) - 6 P5 titles & 17 tourney wins in 30 yrs coaching
  • Todd Golden (39) - 0 P5 titles & 2 tourney wins in 6 yrs coaching
  • Rick Barnes (70) - 5 P5 titles & 29 tourney wins in 38 yrs coaching
  • Mike White (48) - 0 P5 titles & 6 tourney wins in 14 yrs coaching
  • Buzz Williams (52) - 1 P5 title & 12 tourney wins in 18 yrs coaching
  • Mark Pope (52) - 0 P5 titles & 2 tourney wins in 10 yrs coaching
  • Porter Moser (56) - 0 P5 titles & 6 tourney wins in 21 yrs coaching
  • Mark Byington (48) - 0 P5 titles & 1 tourney win in 13 yrs coaching
  • Matt McMahon (46) - 0 P5 titles & 2 tourney wins in 10 yrs coaching
  • Dennis Gates (45) - 0 P5 titles & 1 tourney win in 6 yrs coaching
  • Lamont Paris - (50) - 0 P5 titles & 0 tourney wins in 8 yrs coaching
  • Chris Jans (55) - 0 P5 titles & 1 tourney win in 15 yrs coaching

These are always fun because it completely diminishes how long they've been a HC, their recent seasons, and etc because a strong early or mid career of a guy who has coached 20 years outweights previous 5 or so.

1 minute ago, SL Xpress said:

How do you know we didn't make overtures?

One of the things I love about Del Conte is we don't get into these get every coach we contact a pay raise sort of coaching searches. He identifies his target and then gets them. The gap between dismissal of the previous job holder and new hire is often record setting. But there's a lot of behind the scenes leg work being done to get to that point. Just because we don't see signs of Texas showing interest doesn't mean the interest wasn't shown. 

You made my point, thanks.  Miller was identified and targeted both times, except for RT throwing a wrench in the gear well the 1st time. 

Edited by BurntOrange&White
Posted
21 minutes ago, Pancho said:

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

McCasland, Lloyd and Otz...sorry, I didn't realize you needed a primer. None of them have an unbreakable vow with their current employer so they are realistic options until CDC tells what his criteria and limits were. I understand that Otz has a family situation that makes him unlikely, but I haven't read in the press or heard him specifically say he passed on our offer.

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Posted
2 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

You made my point, thanks.  Miller was identified and targeted both times, except for RT throwing a wrench in the gear well the 1st time. 

Just to be clear, Miller contacted us first. Calipari also contacted us. But yes, Miller was absolutely a top candidate. 

Posted
1 minute ago, BERT said:

we really do enjoy arguing about the unknown over and over again.

I mean, that's what a lot of guy conversation is about. 

Do you want a message board that's only about factual information? Never mind the impossibility, the level of entertainment would be nil. 

Posted
4 minutes ago, Ketch22 said:

McCasland, Lloyd and Otz...sorry, I didn't realize you needed a primer. None of them have an unbreakable vow with their current employer so they are realistic options until CDC tells what his criteria and limits were. I understand that Otz has a family situation that makes him unlikely, but I haven't read in the press or heard him specifically say he passed on our offer.

Mccasland is a baylor alum and likely holding out for that job.  What has Lloyd won and what makes him 9 million dollars better than Miller?  Are you willing to pitch in?   

Posted
2 minutes ago, Josef Pwag said:

Bill Donovan is making $6mill/year. In this era, I was optimistic we could make an offer they can't refuse to someone like that. 

The Donovan issue is, unless he just ditched out on his team for the final few weeks, wouldn’t be hired until the portal closed 

Posted
On 3/22/2025 at 9:50 PM, Hagbard Celine said:

just add buyout and current salary and this would set us up the bomb

image.jpeg.d8e647062470d86bb9946ea94de01e2c.jpeg

#moremileage

We're paying Sweet 16 money for a coach and giving him a Sweet 16 sized NIL budget.
That equals Sweet 16 expectations/action for the next few years.
And according to Hagbards chart, Miller occasionally "overachieves" expectations in the Tournament.
So, that means 33% of the time we're going to see Elite 8 action or better.

And there it is!

 

Posted
Just now, SL Xpress said:

I mean, that's what a lot of guy conversation is about. 

Do you want a message board that's only about factual information? Never mind the impossibility, the level of entertainment would be nil. 

i agree but it would be nice if certain people weren't saying the same thing over and over again. Carry on

Posted
5 minutes ago, Ketch22 said:

McCasland, Lloyd and Otz...sorry, I didn't realize you needed a primer. None of them have an unbreakable vow with their current employer so they are realistic options until CDC tells what his criteria and limits were. I understand that Otz has a family situation that makes him unlikely, but I haven't read in the press or heard him specifically say he passed on our offer.

And you won’t because how the process works isn’t always leaked or reported. 

 

1 minute ago, Josef Pwag said:

Bill Donovan is making $6mill/year. In this era, I was optimistic we could make an offer they can't refuse to someone like that. 

I understand this; however, there was nothing indicating Donovan wanted to come back to college. It was posters on here making shit up to fit their wet dreams.

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Posted
1 hour 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.

No one gives a fuck about Shaka Smart's regular season record against anybody. He's a shitty coach because he's a chronic tournament choker. He's won a big East title at MU and has had them on the 2 seed line twice now. He beat Bill Self-coached Kansas twice in the same season at Texas which only like 3 guys have ever done. Good for him. 

I'm sorry you miss Shaka Smart Texas Basketball but Miller is much more competent and much less of an ass-clown. I'll take a guy that gets a 5 or 6 seed to the Elite Eight over a guy that can't regularly get a top 3 seed to the SS let alone out of the first round any day of the week. 

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Posted
4 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

I mean, that's what a lot of guy conversation is about. 

Do you want a message board that's only about factual information? Never mind the impossibility, the level of entertainment would be nil. 

I have people arguing with me over Miller's 2-6 record vs. Shaka! The results are fucking on ESPN.com! But hey, Miller has the heart of a 40 year old!

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Pancho said:

And you won’t because how the process works isn’t always leaked or reported. 

 

I understand this; however, there was nothing indicating Donovan wanted to come back to college. It was posters on here making shit up to fit their wet dreams.

Gregg popovich is right down the road and seems to be tired of the pro game?

 

Someone brought up Jay wright.   I think he turned the Lakers down. You think he’d come here over LA?

Posted
19 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

rant - opening the transfer portal while the tournament is only half way done is just dumb 

They need to extend the deadline because the current date makes it to where they kind of have to open it early. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, Im_smarter_then_you said:

Gregg popovich is right down the road and seems to be tired of the pro game?

 

Someone brought up Jay wright.   I think he turned the Lakers down. You think he’d come here over LA?

Pops is closer to death than coaching again. 

 

 

Coaching at Texas > Coaching Lebron, just facts.

Posted
3 hours ago, Js1 said:

The absolute simping for a guy who beat his girlfriend and got himself fired for being an asshole is pathetic. There should be more to life than your sports fandom 

Strong Penn State vibes from certain posters here.

Miller's teams at Zona were good and fun to watch, and i think his defenses were generally better than he gets credit for. I haven't kept up with him during his second stint at Xavier and have no idea how he'll do in the new NIL era, but he's a good coach. 

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Posted
4 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Strong Penn State vibes from certain posters here.

Miller's teams at Zona were good and fun to watch, and i think his defenses were generally better than he gets credit for. I haven't kept up with him during his second stint at Xavier and have no idea how he'll do in the new NIL era, but he's a good coach. 

Did you miss the Justin Tugger thread? Same vibes

Posted
4 minutes ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

Ketch doesn't like the hire.  Greenspoint doesn't like the hire.  Has Helobius weighed in?  If he doesn't like the hire, I can't wait for that national championship run.

 

IT likes it

So does OTF and most sane posters here. And my motto has always been “if Greenspoint hates it, then I love it and it’s probably right.”

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Posted (edited)
29 minutes ago, Js1 said:

The Donovan issue is, unless he just ditched out on his team for the final few weeks, wouldn’t be hired until the portal closed 

An argument could be made that he gets a mulligan year if he can't get any transfers in, specially with 2 nattys on his wall. That said Billy did have the same reputation as a coach that could not get over the hump, before he actually did it, but I don't remember the specifics why.

Edited by linux
Posted
37 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

These are always fun because it completely diminishes how long they've been a HC, their recent seasons, and etc because a strong early or mid career of a guy who has coached 20 years outweights previous 5 or so.

I guess you missed that I listed each coach's number of coaching years, age, etc.  And had Todd Golden 6th and ahead of Rick Barnes despite him only winning 2 tourney games in his career.  

Admittedly, for simplicity I didn't list current seasons, but they are included in the total tourney wins and conference titles. 

How would you rank the SEC coaches as potential hires from top to bottom?

Posted
1 minute ago, HookEm said:

I guess you missed that I listed each coach's number of coaching years, age, etc.  And had Todd Golden 6th and ahead of Rick Barnes despite him only winning 2 tourney games in his career.  

Admittedly, for simplicity I didn't list current seasons, but they are included in the total tourney wins and conference titles. 

How would you rank the SEC coaches as potential hires from top to bottom?

As of 2025:

Oats
Golden
Pearl
Pope
Cal
Barnes
Miller
Buzz
Jans
White
Gates
Vyington
Moser
Paris/McMahon


I refuse to rank a woman beating piece of shit so you can place him wherever you'd like on this.

Posted
16 minutes ago, linux said:

An argument could be made that he gets a mulligan year if he can't get any transfers in, specially with 2 nattys on his wall. That said Billy did have the same reputation as a coach that could not get over the hump, before he actually did it, but I don't remember the specifics why.

Donovan took them to the title game in 2000 but then went 5 straight seasons without a SS. Then they won b2b titles.

The Donovan wishcasting was that if he DID want to return to college Texas would be a good opening and it would have been easy for him to step away from the Bulls. Obviously if he's just fine in the NBA then it was never going to happen. 

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