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Sean Miller and Xavier eliminated the Texas basketball team from the NCAA Tournament this past season, and now, Miller is the head coach of the Longhorns. Texas decided to fire former head coach Rodney Terry after the First Four defeat against the Musketeers, and the school was able to get Miller to leave the Big East to come to the SEC.
Leaving Xavier was not an easy decision for Sean Miller. His first head coaching job back in 2004 was with the Musketeers. It took a special program to pull him away, and that's exactly what the Texas basketball team is.
“Well it’s two parts,” Miller said when he was asked about why he left Xavier, according to an article from On3. “I mean there aren’t many places that combine the forces that we have on our side. The city of Austin. I think that it gets known around the country as like this really cool, great, college town. I had never heard a bad word. Great place to live. Great food scene, live music, great college town. You get to Austin and you’re like oh my goodness, this is one of the top-ten largest cities in our country. It’s way more than a college town, it’s a thriving city. It’s the fastest growing city in America. And then you look at our campus. Starting with the University itself, I think the statistic that is in play right now is 90,000 applicants a year. They accept less than 9,000. There aren’t many universities that can say that.”
Miller is also very fond of the facilities at Texas. The Longhorns have an almost brand new practice facility, and that was the cherry on top.
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“That and the other part of Texas is the Moody Center and our practice facility,” he added. “It’s only two and a half or three years old. There are very few places that have that type of new facilitiy, and that’s a great combination that I just named there in a row. It’s a decision that although for me, Xavier, it’s not like I wanted to leave there. It’s a great place in its own right, its just if you really want to be the best or try to win at the highest level, I think the future of college sports is right here.”
One thing that Miller will have to get used to is SEC pride. Every team in that conference has a unique bond and sense of alliance against the other power conferences, and Millers is already starting to feel it.
“It Just Means More is a great slogan,” he said. “We’ve all seen it from the outside if you’re not apart of the SEC. But it does. You feel that when you turn the TV on, when you watch a college football/college basketball game, you sense that college sports is just incredibly important in this footprint.”
Sean Miller loves Xavier, but he just couldn't say no to the Texas basketball team.
