AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Sean Miller was the coach at Xavier last season when he knocked Texas out of the NCAA Tournament. A week later, Miller was wearing burnt orange and flashing a “hook ’em horns” hand sign when he was introduced as the Longhorns’ new head coach.
Call it a good hire. After a bumpy first regular season where the Longhorns barely made it into the NCAA Tournament, Miller has the No. 11-seed Longhorns cruising into a surprise Sweet 16 as this season’s March Madness bracket buster.
“We’ve come a long way to get here,” Miller said Monday. “Just happy to keep playing.”
Texas (21-14) is the lowest-seeded team still playing in the tournament as it heads to San Jose, California, for a Thursday matchup with No. 2 Purdue (29-8). The Longhorns are the first team from the First Four to reach the Sweet 16 since UCLA went all the way to the Final Four in 2021.
This is all familiar territory for Miller, who previous teams Arizona and Xavier made it to the Sweet 16 eight times and the Elite Eight four times.
Miller is 9-1 in NCAA Tournaments with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line, with nine consecutive victories. According to Texas, that’s the best winning percentage of any coach with a minimum of 10 games since the NCAA Tournament field expanded to 32 teams in 1975, better than Mike Krzyzewski (26-6) and Bob Knight (14-4).
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said that track record was a big reason he hired Miller. And Del Conte was patient as Texas struggled at various time this season.
“You knew there was a blueprint for success already there,” Del Conte said. “I’m always nervous if somebody gets hot one time and they are a hot name … We had ups and downs. But coaches who have had sustained success, they don’t panic.”
Miller’s teams have never reached the Final Four. Texas hasn’t been to the Final Four since 2003.
Building through the portal
Like any first-year coach can or must do, Miller cobbled together key parts of his first lineup through the transfer portal.
“You enter the space with nobody on your roster. You have to build your team in a four- to six-week period of time,” Miller said. “You can really make mistakes. You try to do the best you can.”
Miller made the right moves.
Guard Dailyn Swain followed him from Xavier and has been the Longhorns’ top scorer and playmaker at 17.4 points per game. He also was named the Southeastern Conference newcomer of the year.
Seven-foot center Mata Vokietaitis transferred from Florida Atlantic and is playing his best basketball of the season, averaging 18.3 points and 11 rebounds in Texas’ three tournament victories. Against Gonzaga, he battled all game with Graham Ike, one of the top post players in the country.
“I don’t really care who I’m playing against. I’m just trying to play hard, confident. For my eyes, I’m the best big man in the country,” Vokietaitis said.
Cam Heide is a transfer from Purdue who was brought in to be a top 3-point shooter. He has started 28 games but has averaged just 5.9 points. He made the game-sealing 3 in the final 15 seconds against Gonzaga, ensuring he’d face his former team on Thursday.
“In this postseason I feel like everybody is stepping up to the plate,” Swain said. “And (Miller) also gave us that confidence, like it’s a new beginning, kind of gave us that spirit that energy. And I think that we’re using it very well.”
Don’t call Texas a Cinderella story
Despite the low seeding, the fairy-tale label doesn’t exactly fit a program from a powerhouse league like the SEC that also has one of the wealthiest athletic departments in the country.
Despite a late-season slide that left them on the brink of getting left out of the tournament, the Longhorns went 9-9 in the SEC. Miller noted that one more victory would erase any question about their tournament resume.
“I don’t think we ever really want to sign up to be the Cinderella story, because we are the University of Texas and, look, we represent the SEC as well,” Miller said. “I think we’re playing our best. Everybody wants to play their best in March, and we just so happen to do it.”
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness