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Jeff Borzello
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ESPN Employees Author- Basketball recruiting from inside.
- He joined ESPN in 2014.
- Graduate of the College of Delaware.
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Former Arizona coach Sean Miller returns to school basketball after one season away from the facet streak.
Xavier introduced Saturday that he’ll reinstate Miller as the boys’s basketball coach.
Sources instructed ESPN that Miller was a main goal for Xavier and South Carolina’s teaching place, however the temptation to return to the Musketeers was an excessive amount of.
Throughout his 5 seasons with Xavier from 2004 to 2009, the Knights went 120-47 and introduced 4 NCAA championships – together with the Elite Eight in 2008 and a Candy 16 look in 2009.
He then moved to Arizona State, the place he led the Wildcats to 5 Pac-12 common season titles and three Elite Eight video games from 2011 to 2015. Arizona went to the NCAA Championship in seven of Miller’s first 9 seasons, making it the second weekend of the season. Championship 5 occasions.
In September 2017, Arizona State was implicated in a federal investigation into corruption in faculty basketball. That added an aura of uncertainty to Miller’s nomination, as Arizona’s penalty from the NCAA’s enforcement course of — by way of the unbiased accountability determination course of — may embody some stage of Miller’s personal penalty.
In March 2020, Arizona’s preliminary notification relating to the allegations from the NCAA indicated that the listening to committee “could place restrictions on the pinnacle coach” for Miller. A ruling within the Arizona case is anticipated from the IARP inside the subsequent yr.
Arizona assistant coach Emmanuel “Buck” Richardson was certainly one of 4 assistant coaches arrested as a part of the investigation. Richardson finally pleaded responsible to 1 felony rely of conspiracy to commit bribery after being accused of accepting $20,000 to direct Arizona gamers to bold sports activities agent Christian Dawkins.
Throughout Dawkins’ trial, prosecutors performed a name that was intercepted by the FBI during which Richardson instructed Dawkins that Miller was paying former participant Dender Eaton $10,000 a month. Miller has persistently denied paying gamers to attend Arizona.
The NCAA indicted Arizona with 5 Degree 1 violations final March, and whereas not one of the costs included allegations that Miller made funds to gamers, he was charged with failing to show he “promoted a local weather of compliance and oversight of his staff.”
The cloud hanging over this system has affected Miller’s final three seasons in Arizona. The Wildcats missed the NCAA Championship in 2019 and imposed a 2023 post-season ban.
Arizona launched Miller in April. He had one yr left on his contract, and the 2 sides had been unable to agree on an extension as a result of ongoing NCAA points.
At Xavier, Miller will exchange his former assistant Travis Steele, who was let go earlier this week after the NIT’s win over Cleveland State. Steele has been working with jockeys in varied capacities since 2009. He was an assistant beneath Miller for one season earlier than spending his subsequent eight seasons as an assistant beneath Chris Mack. When Mac left for Louisville, Steele was promoted to #1.
In 4 seasons, Steele didn’t seem within the NCAA Championship. Previous to taking workplace, this system had reached the NCAA Championship in 16 out of 18 earlier campaigns.
A local of Pittsburgh who performed faculty basketball for the Panthers, Miller is the son of legendary highschool coach John Miller and brother of newly appointed Rhode Island coach Archie Miller. He started his teaching profession as a graduate assistant in Wisconsin earlier than spending two years beneath Herb Sendyk in Miami (Ohio). He returned to Pittsburgh for one season after which hung out at NC State and Xavier earlier than being promoted to #1 with the Knights when Thad Mata left for Ohio State.
