miller was probably the best we could get, but that doesn’t make him an exciting hire. he would have been an exciting hire 10 years ago, back when he looked like one of the best coaches in america, but ever since he got busted cheating and the playing field was leveled re: paying players he’s been good-not-great.
pretty much all of his success came 10+ years ago when he was cheating, and he’s made it out of the first round once since 2017. his last six teams at arizona finished ranked 19, 18, 28, 94, 19, and 29 in kenpom. his xavier teams finished ranked 15, 56, and 43. that’s one top 15 finish in almost a decade. he’s beaten his preseason kenpom rating 3 times in 9 tries since 2015. yeah, when you use his entire career resume to paint a picture of who he is he looks pretty good. but if you focus on the last decade then there’s really nothing there that says that we should expect him to equal or surpass the levels of barnes and beard at Texas. i’ve always felt that he’s going to be better than shaka and RT, but that he’ll ultimately disappointingly short of reaching any new heights, or even matching old ones.