Xavier Hiring Sean Miller As New Men’s Basketball Coach

Xavier is hiring Sean Miller as its new men’s basketball coach, a team source said.

The players were informed Saturday of the hiring.

“We were told as a team,” one player said.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Jeff Borzello also reported the hire was “expected.”

Miller, 53, met with Xavier on Friday, sources said.

He will join a Big East Conference that put six of 11 teams into the NCAA Tournament and features some of the game’s top coaches in Villanova’s Jay Wright, who has won two of the last five NCAA championships, Providence’s Ed Cooley and Creighton’s Greg McDermott.

Miller coached at Xavier from 2004-09, taking the program to four NCAA Tournaments, including an Elite Eight in 2008, before taking the Arizona job. Xavier fired Travis Steele this week after he failed to get the team into the NCAA Tournament this season.

He was also being targeted by South Carolina, which parted ways with Frank Martin after 10 seasons this week as well.

Archie Miller, the former Indiana and Dayton coach who is Sean’s younger brother, was hired at Rhode Island on Friday. He will reportedly be paid $8.5 million over five years.

Sean Miller went 302-109 (.735) during his tenure at Arizona, with seven NCAA Tournament appearances, including two Elite Eights.

Miller was never directly linked to improper behavior at Arizona, although the NCAA served Arizona with a Notice of Allegations in October 2020 that included five Level 1 violations, one of which singled out Miller for failing to monitor two assistant coaches accused of academic misconduct and improper recruiting inducements. The school self-imposed a postseason ban last season.

Though there will be a collective penalty to Arizona for the five Level 1s, no specific punishment against Miller is likely. The NCAA could opt to take scholarships from first-year coach Tommy Lloyd and potentially impose another year of a postseason ban, although that appears less likely.

Under Lloyd, a former Gonzaga assistant, Arizona is a No. 1 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament and among the favorites to win the title.