A year after being fired by Arizona, Sean Miller returns to Xavier, the program that launched his coaching career -- even as a potential suspension hangs over him, for his role in the FBI's investigation into bribery in college basketball.
Isaac Fiely/Xavier
Myron Medcalf
ESPN Staff Writer
CINCINNATI -- An hour before the start of "The Sean Miller Show" on June 9, the hostess at Dilly. Bistro, Bar and Bottle Shop announced that the restaurant would not have room for anyone without a reservation.
The parking lot had already filled up with local fans anxious to mingle with Miller, who returned as Xavier's head coach in March, more than a decade after his first stint with the school that changed his career. Adorned in Musketeers gear, they sipped martinis and nibbled on appetizers in anticipation of his appearance: a reintroduction of a man who had clearly maintained his stellar reputation among the school's supporters, despite a tenure at Arizona that ended amid NCAA violations and an FBI investigation.
There was just one problem: Miller had not yet arrived.
Anxious Xavier staffers shuffled in and out of the restaurant, wondering if their new boss -- who is still familiarizing himself with some of the changes in the neighborhoods he once knew well -- had made a wrong turn or missed his exit.
Three months ago, Xavier fired Travis Steele and rehired Miller, who first arrived at Xavier as an assistant in 2001 before leading the program from 2004 to 2009, to restore its legacy and winning tradition following a four-year absence from the NCAA tournament. Last season ended with an NIT championship, a proud moment but below the standard for a program that made four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, including an Elite Eight run, during Miller's first stint.
Despite the possibility that Miller could face a multigame suspension this season -- a consequence of a massive FBI investigation into college basketball corruption and the subsequent NCAA investigation that places Miller, among other prominent names in the sport, at the center -- the remarriage is not difficult to understand. The athletic department at Xavier, a school without football, generates about $13 million of its annual $24 million revenue from men's and women's basketball, according to Department of Education data. It is the backbone of the university, and Miller is a popular personality within this fan base, as well as a bonafide winner.
He has made four trips to the Elite Eight as a head coach at Xavier and then at Arizona. He has also recruited some of the top players in the U.S.
"We've done everything except get to the third weekend," Xavier athletic director Greg Christopher said. "I think it's us and BYU that have the most NCAA tournament wins without ever getting to a Final Four. So [the coaching change] was all calibrated to 'What was that missing link?' 'Who can help get Xavier over the final threshold of getting to the Final Four and competing for a national championship?' That was probably the driver in a lot of this."
Yet, Miller arrives with significant baggage. Arizona has been charged with five Level I violations from incidents that took place during his tenure there. Miller himself is facing a Level I charge that he "did not demonstrate that he promoted an atmosphere for compliance and monitored his staff within the basketball program."
Emmanuel "Book" Richardson, Miller's former assistant at Xavier and Arizona, went to prison after pleading guilty to charges he accepted $20,000 to steer players to people the FBI called "corrupt financial advisers." Arizona allowed the contract of Mark Phelps, another former assistant, to expire, rather than fire him, in 2019 after he allegedly asked a player to lie about an impermissible $500 loan, an NCAA violation. Both have separately been accused of academic misconduct for allegedly attempting to alter the transcripts of players.
Miller has so far escaped any proven and direct tie to the criminal proceedings that have hovered over him and his former staffers for the past five years, despite a federal wiretap that captured runner Christian Dawkins telling financial adviser Munish Sood that Miller was allegedly behind a series of five-figure payments to Deandre Ayton, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA draft whose controversial recruitment helped fuel headlines leading to Miller's descent in Arizona -- an accusation Miller has consistently denied.
"I have never knowingly violated NCAA rules while serving as head coach of this great program," Miller said in a statement after a 2018 ESPN report alleged he'd been caught on a wiretap discussing payments to Ayton.
Miller is also in the middle of an ongoing infractions case, and will soon learn his fate from the fallout at Arizona. But he would rather talk about moving forward than sift through the past.
"I am looking forward to executing the many, many good things that we did and have done for my entire 17-year head coaching career," he said.
Today, his wife, Amy, calls him the "new Sean," a more patient man who has been able to reflect on what happened at Arizona. He has secured a fresh start that others tied to the FBI's investigation have not received, and feels grateful -- lucky, too -- to be back.
It's a restart that comes nearly five years after the turbulent events began on Sept. 26, 2017, when he received a phone call he will never forget. That day, the FBI arrested Richardson, a man he'd worked with every day for more than a decade.
"It was a day of reckoning," Miller said. "I can't put it into words. That's how I felt. The world was ending."...........................
Sean Miller needs no introduction at Xavier, but is college basketball ready to forgive?
Controversial ex-Arizona coach Sean Miller has returned to Cincinnati. Can he revive his career and rekindle Xavier's basketball magic?
