The Coaching of Sean Miller

[Masterofreality]

[quote="jack66"]Hold off on the canonization. Sean Miller is a very good young coach and we're very fortunate to have him. However he is not tactically perfect(OSU last yr.). [quote]

What? Because a guy threw in a desperation 27 foot heave that had a percentage of going in at bout 25% after one of our better free throw shooters had a ball go in and out? Some people act like it was so easy to just grab and foul Conley. Want a 3 shot foul like at the end of the Miami game or a free throw for Lewis after he makes a shot?

It's a coach's judgement call. Bruce Pearl didn't foul on Virginia's last posession last year. They missed. I've seen numerous examples this year of coaches not fouling at the end of the game with a 3 point lead. It's not a tactical error, just a judgement call that went the other way, but the precentages were on Sean's side in that case.

How about the tactics that GOT Xavier to the brink of the OSU upset? Pretty damn solid in my opinion. If he had bad tactics, XU probably gets blown out by 25.

[CarlosTheJackal]

MOR, good call on the TO after the Drew coast to coast. I was totally caught off guard by that TO as a tactical move before reading your post. but Sean must have been thinking about it as he saw the play developing. Aside from the defensive mis-positioning, much better to be calling a TO with momentum, rather than the other way around.

Canonization? MOR was making a game analysis and a season analysis. Sean has been both a great strategist and a great tactician.

I sure wish some posters and fans generally could let go of one questionable tactic in the OSU game. We are not even IN that game, or on the court with the lead, unless Sean outcoaches and outmotivates Thad. Focusing on one decision, or non-decision, is way out of proportion in assessing the coaching in that game.

[Mr. Neutral]

MOR/Carlos, I don't think guys are still withholding judgment on Sean because of one play in the OSU game. To be fair, it might be based more on X's losing a 9-pt. lead in the 2nd half of the Gonzaga game and an 11-pt. lead in the 2nd half of the OSU game. Did the team tighten up, or were there coaching moves that could have been made that could have avoided these meltdowns?

I can't say, and none of us really can. I can say that most/all of us seem to be of the opinion that Miller has grown tremendously as a coach, seems to be a genuinely good guy, and is a very good representative of college basketball in general and Xavier in particular.

[payday]

MOR, I too noticed the quick thinking of Coach Miller's timeout after Drew's coast-to-coast press break and layup, and commented to my wife about it. Great play by the coach.

Concerning team chemistry, how about Adrion Graves' assist to D Brown for the slam. Adrion could have made a contested layup, but saw the sure opportunity for Brown's slam. Great decision by one of our bench guys fighting for more minutes.

Coach Miller has also demonstrated he's learning how to coach this team in close games, too. Against Miami, when the Redhawks were making their 2nd half run, he refused to call time-outs to stem the rush. It's as if he was forcing his team to overcome the comeback by themselves. He now realizes that no matter how experienced a bunch he has, they are still only 19-21 year olds, and they need his coaching the entire 40 minutes. Now he uses his time-outs when his team needs them, whenever that might occur during the game.

[XU 87]

Defensively, Miller has done a superb job this year. Xavier has consistently shut down or significantly limited the other team's top player. Credit also goes to the players, and particularly Stanley, but Miller has had pretty good game plans in place.

[Goodenchiladas]

Miller has obviously done a great job, but Ken Pomeroy was a bit critical today in an article.

Pomeroy postulates that teams that are good at shooting and are inconsistent defensively ought to emphasize getting back on defense rather than emphasizing offensive rebounding. The theory is that bad shooting teams get more of a positive out of offensive rebounding than good shooting teams do. Pomeroy cites Arizona's improvement in defense is probably due to observing this principle, and encourages Florida and Xavier to learn the same lesson to improve their prospects for long runs in March.

As far as the strange Kevin O'Neill bashing/defense battles on this board, maybe the guy isn't a genius, but this is an example of him making an adjustment that Lute Olsen didn't make.

http://www.basketballprospectus.com/art ... icleid=114

[muskieman]

Hold off on the canonization. Sean Miller is a very good young coach and we're very fortunate to have him. However he is not tactically perfect(OSU last yr.).

What? Because a guy threw in a desperation 27 foot heave that had a percentage of going in at bout 25% after one of our better free throw shooters had a ball go in and out? Some people act like it was so easy to just grab and foul Conley. Want a 3 shot foul like at the end of the Miami game or a free throw for Lewis after he makes a shot?

It's a coach's judgement call. Bruce Pearl didn't foul on Virginia's last posession last year. They missed. I've seen numerous examples this year of coaches not fouling at the end of the game with a 3 point lead. It's not a tactical error, just a judgement call that went the other way, but the precentages were on Sean's side in that case.

How about the tactics that GOT Xavier to the brink of the OSU upset? Pretty damn solid in my opinion. If he had bad tactics, XU probably gets blown out by 25.

Conley had missed his only other threes in that game and shot the threes at .304 clip for the year which was the lowest of all the starters. If you had the stat that a player made less than 1 of 3 from the three point line let alone from about 27 feet I'd say you take the chance and not foul him. Also considering he shot about 70% from the line for the year and was 6-6 from the line that day.

[Xpectations]

I understand the logic of Pomeroy's assumption, "Kevin O'Neill has stopped sending four players to the offensive boards, instead relying on one or two guys for second-shot opportunities," but I believe he has misapplied it in relation to XU. And oddly enough (considering Ken's a stats guy), the stats seem to indicate otherwise.

First off, XU certainly has never sent 4 guys to the offensive glass. Lavender and Burrell, who are easily our top two guys in minutes played, have 7 and 9 offensive rebounds respectively ... for the entire season!

Second, four players (Love, Anderson, Brown and Duncan) have 70% of our offensive rebounding totals, and those players are most frequently playing either the 4 or 5 position. Together they average slightly over two players' worth of minutes per game (45 mpg).

With the exception of Duncan, those players are often near the basket anyway on the offensive end because they are not consistent perimeter threats.

Again, I'd buy his argument if our offensive rebounding % was high due to a number of guys grabbing those rebounds, especially at various positions. That really isn't the case though.

In fact, one reason our % is so high is that our starting center is #1 in the country in offensive rebounding %.

[GBXU]

Conley had missed his only other threes in that game and shot the threes at .304 clip for the year which was the lowest of all the starters. If you had the stat that a player made less than 1 of 3 from the three point line let alone from about 27 feet I'd say you take the chance and not foul him. Also considering he shot about 70% from the line for the year and was 6-6 from the line that day.

I'm pretty sure it was Ron Lewis who hit the three to force overtime.

[vee4xu]

Lewis did hit the game tying shot at the end of the game. But, Conley sure hurt X badly in OT.