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5 questions with Xavier’s Sean Miller

Sean Miller has again turned Xavier into a national factor. After a long stint as the head coach of Arizona, Miller returned to Xavier prior to last season and led the Musketeers to 27 wins and a berth in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2017. I caught up with Miller on Tuesday in Cincinnati to discuss last season, the health of both Zach Freemantle and Jerome Hunter, and much more.

Jon Rothstein: You’ve been coaching for a long time, have you ever had a season as rewarding as last year?

Sean Miller: It was very rewarding. I don’t know if any of us had a crystal ball in terms of how we thought it was going to go. There was a new staff and a really good group of players that had come close to breaking through, but had not done it. Looking back on it, I thought the collective talent level and will — the theme of wanting to be a part of March Madness — they stuck to that and did it on an every day basis. To see us become a three seed and a Sweet 16 team, it was rewarding for us as a staff, but to see the players after getting so close previously and not be able to break through — it was great. It was as fun of a time as I’ve ever had in coaching.

Rothstein: Part of the optimism surrounding the team that you’re about to coach was built on the fact that two key players up front — Zach Freemantle (foot) and Jerome Hunter (medical issue) — were set to return, but both of those players are currently out indefinitely. Are you preparing for the 2023-24 season with the idea that they won’t be available?

Miller: Yes. It’s a tough blow. Sometimes circumstances can bounce in your favor and certain times, you get a bad bounce. We certainly did this past summer because of the health issues with those guys. The good thing is that they’re both doing well and at some point, they’ll return to the court and play. We just don’t anticipate that happening this season. But we do have an influx of young players — 10 new guys. I don’t know if the Big East is set up for 10 new players, but we’re going to fight the good fight and I think we can be a team that really improves as the year goes on.

Rothstein: Since you’re going to be shorthanded, who in Xavier’s program can emerge?

Miller: One thing that’s going to be unique about our team is that we’re actually going to be deeper than we were a year ago. The achilles heel of last year’s team was we didn’t have great depth, but we did what we needed to do with the circumstances that we had. This year, I do think that we’re deeper, but we lack experience. Even guys like Dayvion McKnight (Western Kentucky) and Quincy Olivari (Rice) who are very experienced college players — they’ve never played here. It’s a lot like Souley Boum a year ago at this time. I think we have to make up for our lack of experience with a group that works really hard, is really coachable, and gets better incrementally with games and certainly with each week that passes by.

Rothstein: What needs to happen for Xavier to play in the 2024 NCAA Tournament?

Miller: The biggest thing for us is that we need to have great guard play. The experience level on our team lies there. I believe in the talent level of our guards. Quincy Olivari’s production level speaks for itself. When you make 90 or so three-point shots in a season like he did at Rice last season — you know he’s really good. He can really shoot and score. Like Souley Boum a year earlier, Quincy in the same conference — Conference-USA — lived at the free throw line. He draws fouls really well. Dayvion McKnight? We love his ability to play both offense and defense. He has a toughness about him. We felt that when we watched him a year ago and we’re really excited about him. The player on our team who has maybe made the biggest jump since last season is Desmond Claude. Des showed glimpses a year ago as a freshman and I think he’s had as good of an offseason as any player as I’ve ever coached. I think he’s primed to add maybe another layer or two to what he was a year ago. We have three freshmen — Dailyn Swain, Reid Ducharme, and Trey Green — and we believe in them. I think on a given night we can get contributions from a lot of players. But the bottom line is this: We have to have consistent guard play especially with those three returning college players — Desmond, Quincy, and Dayvion.

Rothstein: You’ve said in the past that you never would have left Xavier for Arizona in 2009 if it was then in the Big East and not the Atlantic 10. I know that you had high expectations for the Big East when you came back to Xavier, but have those expectations been surpassed after coaching in this league for a year?

Miller: For sure. Last season the coaching in the league was excellent. Winning on the road — I think that was a source of pride for us last year — we played very well away from home. Because of the home crowds in this conference, it’s difficult to win on the road. I guess because I played in the Big East myself — the return to Madison Square Garden for the Big East Tournament — it was everything that I expected and more. There is nothing else that represents that in our sport in early March. Fast forward to this year, I don’t know if the change that we’ve gone through from our first year to this year bodes well considering the additional coaching changes in the Big East, which I think makes our conference even more difficult. And just the returning caliber of player on each team — other than our team — it’s going to be a battle. The other part of the Big East that I enjoyed last season? The round robin. You play everybody at home and you play everybody on the road. In given years in some of the great conferences in college basketball that we get compared to, certain matchups just don’t happen just because of the size of those leagues. That 20-game league schedule in the Big East — if you’re looking for a challenge in college basketball — I think that you’ll find it here in this conference.

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