New coach Miller ‘thrilled’ to lead Texas to title

Mar 25, 2025, 02:39 PM ET

Sean Miller beat Texas in the NCAA Tournament hardly a week ago, bouncing the Longhorns out early and ensuring they would be making a coaching change.By Tuesday

, Miller was standing beside the massive BEVO Longhorn mascot and thrusting his right-hand man in the air with the “Hook ‘Em Horns” sign as the new Texas guys’s basketball coach.

“I do not think I have actually ever been more delighted in my life,” Miller stated at his initial press conference on campus.Miller likewise said it was hard to leave Xavier, a program where he coached twice, most significantly when he returned there in 2022 after he was fired at Arizona.”I enjoy that place. It’s a place that trusted me, and believed in me, “he said.Still, the lure to sign up with a power conference program with deep resources in the top league in the country was too hard to pass up.Miller, 56, led 13 teams to the NCAA Tournament in 20 seasons in his two stints at Xavier and Arizona. He now takes over a Texas program trying to find constant competition success and excited to establish itself in the rugged Southeastern Conference, which has seven groups still playing in the Sweet 16 of March Madness.Miller changes Rodney Terry, who was fired on Sunday, a few days after Xavier beat Texas in the First 4 in the NCAA Tournament.

Terry had three years left on an agreement that paid him more than$3 million per year.Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte stated Miller’s contract terms would not be launched till they go to the school’s board of regents of approval.Terry led Texas to the Elite Eight in 2023, but pressure mounted as he struggled to keep that success. Texas made quick exits from the competition the previous 2 seasons, and was simply 6-12 in league play in its very first season in the SEC.In Miller, Texas gets a coach with a history of success at mid-major and power conference programs, who likewise was linked and later on cleared in an NCAA examination into Arizona.Miller’s teams at Xavier and Arizona made to the Sweet 16 8 times and the Elite Eight 4 times, but never ever made it to the Final 4. Texas hasn’t been to the Final 4 because 2003.”I understand this place is starving to return there

and contend for a championship game,”Miller said.Miller went 120-47 in his first stint at Xavier from 2004-2009, leading the Musketeers to the NCAA Competition his final 4 seasons before being worked with at Arizona. He won 302 games and five Pac-12 regular-season titles in 12 years with the Wildcats, but the program found

itself in the NCAA’s crosshairs after being captured in a 2017 FBI examination into corruption in college basketball.Miller was fired after that season, however left sanctions in 2022 in a report by the Independent Responsibility Resolution Process that was set up to handle complex cases. Two of his former assistants were penalized.Del Conte said the school did a”extensive background check”and discovered nothing to avoid Miller from being hired.

“There is absolutely nothing that stated this guy’s background is not gotten ready for this organization,”Del Conte stated.”I discovered a hungry dog, a pet who wants to win at the highest level, “Del Conte said.Miller declined to enter into specifics about who

on his Texas roster might stay, and which players at Xavier may move to join him in Austin.Texas’ Tre Johnson

, who led the SEC in scoring and was the league’s freshman of the year, is expected to turn professional.

Miller encouraged that and kept in mind Johnson was not in a meeting he had with returning players.

“What I would state to him is he needs to go. That’s the very best choice for him and his family,”Miller stated.