CBS Sports: Sean Miller a top-10 candidate to win title for 1st time
May 16, 2020, 8:35 PM | Updated: May 17, 2020, 12:37 pm
Arizona coach Sean Miller watches during the second half of the team's NCAA college basketball game against Washington State, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019, in Tucson, Ariz. Washington State defeated Arizona 69-55. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
(AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Arizona Wildcats head coach Sean Miller has a good shot of breaking through with his first national championship despite the choppy waters that he’s navigated of late, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander.
Even though the head coach and the Wildcats have been embroiled in an FBI investigation over alleged recruiting malpractices, Miller came in ranked ninth on Norlander’s list of the most likely college hoops coaches to win the NCAA Tournament for the first time.
Miller’s ongoing situation plays into his ranking. Obviously things have changed so much for him in the course of three years. If this list was created in May 2017, Miller easily could have be placed No. 1 or No. 2. But Arizona is yet to receive its notice of allegations from the NCAA, and though the school has backed him fully to this point, there is no 100% guarantee he can keep his job by the time the NCAA is done with handing down punishments. I think he will hold on to it, but I need to account for the possibility he won’t.
The reasons for Miller remaining on the list are obvious.
Despite taking a recruiting hit, his latest class for 2020 focused on international prospects and is still in the top-10 nationally, according to 247 Sports.
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He’s got a fine record: a winning percentage of 73.4 as a head coach in stops at Xavier and Arizona, plus a 19-11 record in the NCAA Tournament.
Speaking of which, Miller has made the Big Dance 11 times in 16 seasons as head coach — it would have been 12 had the tournament not been canceled this past year due to the coronavirus.
Arizona is almost always going to have one of the two best recruiting classes in the Pac-12 while he’s there, which goes a long way to keeping his chances of eventually winning it all pretty decent. Coaching at one of the 10-15 best programs in college basketball has its advantages.
Atop Norlander’s list of the most likely coaches to win their first NCAA title is Gonzaga’s Mark Few, who has won 82.8% of his games and in six of the last eight years has put together a 30-win season.
Louisville’s Chris Mack, Miller’s former assistant who replaced him at Xavier in 2009, comes in second.
In order, Baylor’s Scott Drew, Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, Tennessee’s Rick Barnes, Oregon’s Dana Altman, Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton and West Virginia’s Bob Huggins sit ahead of Miller on the list. Purdue’s Matt Painter rounds out the top-10.
