Miller left Xavier in 2009 to take the head coaching job at Arizona, where he coached for twelve seasons before being fired last season for his involvement in a recruiting scandal in Tucson.
While Miller's Wildcats missed the tournament in his final three seasons (one due to Covid and another due to a school-imposed ban), it is mostly Miller's players that led Arizona to a number one seed in this season's tournament and Miller won 302 games in his Arizona tenure against only 109 losses.
Miller's record in his years at Xavier was even better as Miller's teams won 120 games against 47 defeats, made the NCAA's in four of his five seasons, and made the Elite Eight and the Sweet Sixteen with the Elite Eight season the first in Xavier history.
There are some differences in Miller's situation at Xavier than when he left as Xavier was arguably one of the top two or three "Mid-Majors" in the country and the almost unquestioned kingpin of the Atlantic Ten.
Since them. Xavier has hit the big time in joining the Big East, the elite conference that doesn't play division one football with the competition increase that comes with moving up the ladder.
Miller also will be able to sell recruits on the Big East and Miller returns to the league that he played in, although his alma mater (Pittsburgh) no longer resides in the conference.
However, when Miller will actually start to coach for the Musketeers is open to conjecture as the NCAA is still researching the issues at Arizona and Miller could miss some games due to the NCAA "Show cause" rule where a coach that commits violations can be penalized for them even if he is no longer at the school where the violations were committed.
Depending on the result of the investigation, Miller is likely to miss as little as two or three games but past transgressions by other coaches have seen punishments up to a half-year.
Miller's first Musketeer team will lose only two seniors and is reported to have perhaps the best recruiting class in school history (three players in the recruiting top 100) headed to Xavier, so if Miller is able to keep all of those players in the fold, Miller has an excellent chance of returning to the NCAA's right away.
At 53 and Xavier now entrenched in the Big East, it's not out of the question that Sean Miller could stay in Cincinnati for the remainder of his coaching career and not feel the need to move to a bigger program again.
Xavier basketball isn't the same position as Sean Miller left it but it's not a broken-down program at all.
It's similar to a one-owner car that just needs cleaning up with a good tune-up to be as good as ever.
Sean Miller now has the chance to see if he can drive Xavier into contention with the elite of college basketball.
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