Sean Miller beat Texas in the NCAA Tournament barely a week ago, bouncing the Longhorns out early and ensuring they would be making a coaching change.
By Tuesday, Miller was standing next to the massive BEVO Longhorn mascot and thrusting his right hand in the air with the “Hook’Em Horns” sign as the new Texas men’s basketball coach.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited in my life,” Miller said at his introductory news conference on campus.
Miller also said it was hard to leave Xavier, a program where he coached twice, most notably when he returned there in 2022 after he was fired at Arizona.
“I love that place. It’s a place that trusted me, and believed in me,” he said.
Still, the lure to join a power conference program with deep resources in the top league in the country was too hard to pass up.
Miller, 56, led 13 teams to the NCAA Tournament in 20 seasons in his two stints at Xavier and Arizona. He now takes over a Texas program looking for consistent tournament success and eager to establish itself in the rugged Southeastern Conference, which has seven teams still playing in the Sweet 16 of March Madness.
Miller replaces Rodney Terry, who was fired on Sunday, a few days after Xavier beat Texas in the First Four in the NCAA Tournament. Terry had three years left on a contract that paid him more than $3 million per year.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said Miller’s contract terms would not be released until they go to the school’s board of regents of approval.
Terry led Texas to the Elite Eight in 2023, but pressure mounted as he struggled to maintain that success. Texas made quick exits from the tournament the past two seasons, and was just 6-12 in league play in its first season in the SEC.
In Miller, Texas gets a coach with a history of success at mid-major and power conference programs, who also was implicated and later cleared in an NCAA investigation into Arizona.
Miller’s teams at Xavier and Arizona made to the Sweet 16 eight times and the Elite Eight four times, but never made it to the Final Four. Texas hasn’t been to the Final Four since 2003.
“I know this place is hungry to get back there and compete for a national championship,” Miller said.
Miller went 120-47 in his first stint at Xavier from 2004-2009, leading the Musketeers to the NCAA Tournament his final four seasons before being hired at Arizona. He won 302 games and five Pac-12 regular-season titles in 12 years with the Wildcats, but the program found itself in the NCAA’s crosshairs after being ensnared in a 2017 FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball.
Miller was fired after that season, but escaped sanctions in 2022 in a report by the Independent Accountability Resolution Process that was set up to handle complex cases. Two of his former assistants were penalized.
Del Conte said the school did a “thorough background check” and found nothing to prevent Miller from being hired.
“There is nothing that said this guy’s background is not prepared for this institution,” Del Conte said.
“I found a hungry dog, a dog who wants to win at the highest level,” Del Conte said.
Miller declined to get into specifics about who on his Texas roster might stay, and which players at Xavier might transfer to join him in Austin.
Texas’ Tre Johnson, who led the SEC in scoring and was the league’s freshman of the year, is expected to turn pro. Miller encouraged that and noted Johnson was not in a meeting he had with returning players.
“What I would say to him is he needs to go. That’s the best decision for him and his family,” Miller said.
