Miller once again does it again!

Russ Smith

The Original Whizzinator
Supporting Member
Joined
May 14, 2002
Posts
87,539
Reaction score
38,791
Here’s what really bothers me about the NCAA. If Miller got caught running a dirty enough program to actually get punished, it’s crap for the school to solely get punished, while the coach gets away scot-free to move on without consequence.

Calipari has gotten away with it consistently, just moving on after killing programs. Now, maybe that’s just the price programs are willing to pay to win, but if the NCAA ever really wants to get serious about stopping this, the coaches have to be punished as well in some form.

Either that or just start paying the kids already.

He wouldn't. If Miller did what ESPN said he did, he'd not only get a show cause, he'd get an outright ban for a number of years. If he's just guilty of leading a program that had 2 coaches steering players to agents and probably 2 ineligible players and maybe 4 in the last seasons, he might get a show cause.

To be clear, I don't believe Pitt and Miller is real, UCLA is allegedly putting off a coaching search this year out of fear they might hire someone who is later revealed in the FBI story. There's no way a school is going to hire a coach that heads up a program front and center in the FBi story, and was also accused of what the ESPN story said. Even if he's completely innocent, Pitt wouldn't hire him until tapes came out and cleared him.

My guess is either the rumor is made up, or Miller and his agent are floating the rumor to try and make it seem he's completely innocent and he's so confident, he's even looking at other jobs.
My guess is the rumor is largely made up
 

GatorAZ

feed hopkins
Joined
Oct 17, 2011
Posts
25,419
Reaction score
18,308
Location
The Giant Toaster
He'd be starting from scratch:


New
Jeff Goodman
@GoodmanESPN


Eight Pittsburgh men’s basketball players will receive their release to transfer elsewhere today, sources told ESPN. Story coming.

I thought our situation was bad...

FWIW 97’ said he’s heard Miller met with PITT officials on a recent recruiting trip to Cali. He’s flirted with other programs before but during the season would raise some eyebrows.
 

GatorAZ

feed hopkins
Joined
Oct 17, 2011
Posts
25,419
Reaction score
18,308
Location
The Giant Toaster
xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

You must be registered for see images attach
 

overseascardfan

ASFN Addict
Joined
Apr 9, 2005
Posts
8,807
Reaction score
2,096
Location
Phoenix
I just noticed USC still has 3 2018 recruits committed and they are highly ranked guys. I guess the strong appeal of LA outweighs a basketball scandal. I figured all the schools with assistants who went down would be shunned by recruits, I was wrong.
 

Russ Smith

The Original Whizzinator
Supporting Member
Joined
May 14, 2002
Posts
87,539
Reaction score
38,791
I just noticed USC still has 3 2018 recruits committed and they are highly ranked guys. I guess the strong appeal of LA outweighs a basketball scandal. I figured all the schools with assistants who went down would be shunned by recruits, I was wrong.


J'Raan Brooks actually decommitted and then recommitted a few days ago. There are slight differences, USC self suspended the player they knew was involved, Melton, and they were going to hold out Metu but the NCAA cleared him after his name was on the spreadsheet in the Yahoo story. USC also hired a legal firm that essentially said Melton was the only kid involved, and then a week later Yahoo came out and implicated Metu and Boatwright, but they probably told these kids based on what we know, Melton was the only current player involved. The other one was Taeshon Cherry of course and he decommitted.

And of course the obvious difference is ESPN didn't allege Enfield was on tape about paying a player like they did with Miller. That of course cost Arizona their last 2 commits.

The PG Weaver there are lots of rumors he's going to decommit from USC and commit somewhere else. He put off his commitment a week or so because of all the FBI stuff, then committed. There's been talk ever since the Yahoo story came out that Weaver was going to decommit but he hasn't yet.
 

DWKB

ASFN Icon
Joined
May 15, 2002
Posts
18,224
Reaction score
7,491
Location
Annapolis, MD
Sources: Sean Miller, Heather Lyke have discussed Pitt coaching job

Arizona coach Sean Miller and Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke have discussed the Panthers’ vacant head coaching position, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.

The former Pitt and Blackhawk standout, according to sources, is interested in the job.

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...-update-dan-hurley-uconn/stories/201803210149
 

overseascardfan

ASFN Addict
Joined
Apr 9, 2005
Posts
8,807
Reaction score
2,096
Location
Phoenix
xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media
It’s a shame he didn’t get it. Miller is a great recruiter but he is going to be handicapped until the investigation is completed. If he would have bolted, some of the dark cloud over UA would have went with him. Would a coach like Gregg Williams of WICH have any interest in UA if Miller goes?
 
OP
OP
Lefty

Lefty

ASFN Icon
Joined
Jul 4, 2002
Posts
12,565
Reaction score
953
Miller is not going to Pitt. He has 2 in-home visits tonight. Also, look to see Miller trying to pull Andy Cohen from Stanford after the NIT.
 

Cheesebeef

ASFN IDOL
Supporting Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2003
Posts
91,319
Reaction score
68,306
It’s a shame he didn’t get it. Miller is a great recruiter but he is going to be handicapped until the investigation is completed.

he's also handicapped by the fact that he can't coach offense to save his life.

Hot Take special: He's the bizarro college version of Mike D'antoni. Always has great talent, but whereas D'Antoni always leans solely on Great O, Miller tries to solely lean on great D, but is single-focussed and can't adjust to ever break-through to a championship level.
 

GatorAZ

feed hopkins
Joined
Oct 17, 2011
Posts
25,419
Reaction score
18,308
Location
The Giant Toaster
he's also handicapped by the fact that he can't coach offense to save his life.

Hot Take special: He's the bizarro college version of Mike D'antoni. Always has great talent, but whereas D'Antoni always leans solely on Great O, Miller tries to solely lean on great D, but is single-focussed and can't adjust to ever break-through to a championship level.

Miller has had top-20 offenses for pretty much his entire tenure other than his first year. That’s not terrible considering some underwhelming PG play. Defense has been the problem lately. The pack line bull poo has to go.
 

Russ Smith

The Original Whizzinator
Supporting Member
Joined
May 14, 2002
Posts
87,539
Reaction score
38,791
Miller is not going to Pitt. He has 2 in-home visits tonight. Also, look to see Miller trying to pull Andy Cohen from Stanford after the NIT.

Andy is the tv host, Adam is the basketball coach. I know Haase was thrilled to hire him away from Vandy when they got him supposed to be a good recruiter. Would be interesting for him, looking at his resume he's been at Harvard, Vandy and Stanford, so all schools with great academics where you recruit from a much smaller pool of talent.
 

GatorAZ

feed hopkins
Joined
Oct 17, 2011
Posts
25,419
Reaction score
18,308
Location
The Giant Toaster
Arizona isn’t getting Cohen IMO.

Edit: I keep forgetting Pastner is currently at GT. Sounds like Miller isn’t going with any Lute guys.
 

Russ Smith

The Original Whizzinator
Supporting Member
Joined
May 14, 2002
Posts
87,539
Reaction score
38,791
Arizona isn’t getting Cohen IMO.

Edit: I keep forgetting Pastner is currently at GT. Sounds like Miller isn’t going with any Lute guys.


FWIW Jon Rothstein is reporting that Pitt has a big meeting scheduled tomorrow to "re-evaluate their coaching search." It's believed that they are going to reconsider if they're willing to hire Miller. To me the more obvious one is they didn't get their primary targets and are in panic mode.

Apparently a couple of Arizona sites are claiming UA wants Miller to leave, but doesn't want to pay the buyout, many people at Pitt want him but they have to convince the right people. Also being claimed Miller wants to leave Arizona and would probably take the Pitt job if the money part can be worked out. He knows he won't get the whole buyout but is assumed to have a figure that he WOULD take to get out.

I know he visited Brandon Williams in home last night so it would certainly be a surprise if he did a 180 and took off for Pitt.
 

Russ Smith

The Original Whizzinator
Supporting Member
Joined
May 14, 2002
Posts
87,539
Reaction score
38,791
Hot head and crazy wife......... but we can’t be too picky. Musselman?

Can't decide if his end game decision was stupid or bad luck? Down 1 not in the bonus yet he doesn't foul, but also doesn't even defend they just backed off. Lets Loyola run the whole clock down and then the guy goes for it with 6 on the shot clock, penetrates one pass pretty open 3 swish. I'm semi ok with not fouling there since they weren't in the bonus yet, but why not play defense, it's pretty hard to stand there for 24 seconds and then flip a switch and defend well?

But I guess the counter is if they miss that 3, he's got the ball with 6 seconds left only down 1 and might pull it out and then he's a genius.
 

GatorAZ

feed hopkins
Joined
Oct 17, 2011
Posts
25,419
Reaction score
18,308
Location
The Giant Toaster
Can't decide if his end game decision was stupid or bad luck? Down 1 not in the bonus yet he doesn't foul, but also doesn't even defend they just backed off. Lets Loyola run the whole clock down and then the guy goes for it with 6 on the shot clock, penetrates one pass pretty open 3 swish. I'm semi ok with not fouling there since they weren't in the bonus yet, but why not play defense, it's pretty hard to stand there for 24 seconds and then flip a switch and defend well?

But I guess the counter is if they miss that 3, he's got the ball with 6 seconds left only down 1 and might pull it out and then he's a genius.

Yeah that was odd considering his aggressive nature. He’ll still be a hot commodity.
 

Russ Smith

The Original Whizzinator
Supporting Member
Joined
May 14, 2002
Posts
87,539
Reaction score
38,791
Yeah that was odd considering his aggressive nature. He’ll still be a hot commodity.


He's got some stuff in his closet that makes him a bit of a question mark but he's a terrific coach.People in Sacramento didn't react well to his DUI, not really because he got a DUI, but because of his reaction to it. They wanted him to be all apologetic but he kind of went on this "campaign" of explaining, I don't really drink very often, I only weigh 150 pounds, so I just hadn't had that much to drink but it was enough to impair me since I'm not a drinker. It was kind of like he was trying to justify the DUI instead of apologize for it, didn't go over well. He also has a rep as being tough to work for, Nevada has had coach turnover while he's been there.

But he's a terrific coach, he's sort of their version of Dana Altman who keeps taking rosters full of juco's and transfers and winning. 5 of the top 7 scorers at Nevada this year were transfers.

As a UCLA fan the big "concern" with Sean Miller was always recruiting, it became obvious he was going to get lots of players(now we know how) but I was never overly concerned he was a great coach. Not a bad coach, very good defensive coach, but I thought he had enough issues offensively and personality wise that I was fairly certain he'd always have issues keeping the talent he got. Musselman at Nevada is similar, but a much better offensive coach, he has the NBA mindset he finds the mismatch and then runs plays for it over and over, a guy like Trier would have loved all the isos. But it's not clear to me his personality would work on high level recruits. Transfers are often easier to coach they leave because they're unhappy so they tend to be a bit more coachable at the next stop, that's not the case with the higher rated kids he could get at Arizona.
 

TJ

Frank Kaminsky is my Hero.
Joined
Apr 2, 2005
Posts
34,929
Reaction score
21,024
Location
South Bay
Miller has had top-20 offenses for pretty much his entire tenure other than his first year. That’s not terrible considering some underwhelming PG play. Defense has been the problem lately. The pack line bull **** has to go.

Miller's best teams were with McConnell at the helm. Those teams were an inch away from a Final Four. This is not a coincidence. PJC was too soft and, at best, a backup on a contending team.

If I'm Miller, I'm doing whatever it takes to land B-Will or the top PG grad transfer.

I don't share the same gripe that others here do. My concern is Miller's recruiting. Yeah, he lands a ton of 5-Star talent, but his players don't mesh well. This season was a prime example. A team with Ayton, Trier and Rawle is a chemistry killer. I'm wondering if Trier remained suspended how far we would've gone in the tournament. Even if it means not getting Top-5 talent, Miller needs to find guys that fit what he wants to do and are coachable. I never got the vibe that either Alkins or Trier wanted to be coached up.

This humbling of sorts might be a blessing in disguise for Sean Miller. He's going to land fringe Top-100 talent and maybe one Top-30 guy. That might be enough to build some chemistry and cohesion while having that one dominant scorer, not three dudes trying to take one basketball away from others. This is how Roy Williams recruits and it's made him successful.

While I've sold some stock on Miller, I still feel like he's a F4 caliber coach. He owns the conference, has won the PAC more often than not, and he broke 14 year seal of not winning the Pac-12 tournament. He'll get his national accolades; whether it takes 1, 3, or 10 years like some other coaches. Miller is still better than a lot of coaches who've made the Final Four. Are you taking Frank Martinez, Shaka Smart, Kevin Ollie, or Jim Larranaga over him?
 

TJ

Frank Kaminsky is my Hero.
Joined
Apr 2, 2005
Posts
34,929
Reaction score
21,024
Location
South Bay
Guess he called about the job and they said "Thanks, but no thanks".

Highly doubt it. This has been shot down. We went through this two years ago and the Pittsburgh media was so butthurt that it kept trying to push the narrative even though it was a dead story. It's as simple as saying that Arizona is a far superior program to Pitt. If Miller were to leave for that catastrophe, it's because he wants a fresh start, but that might not be the fresh start he wants.

Plus, you think Arizona is a rebuild, Pitt has three scholarship players and only two in-home visits left in this cycle. I highly doubt Miller wants to go from the top in his conference to the bottom with little hope of being successful.
 
Top