{"id":826650,"date":"2026-03-22T06:31:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T06:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/826650\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T06:31:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T06:31:26","slug":"dont-forget-about-sean-miller-and-texas-the-seasoned-double-digit-seed-storming-the-sweet-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/826650\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t forget about Sean Miller and Texas, the seasoned double-digit seed storming the Sweet 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 For most of the past four months, Texas coach Sean Miller kept assuring his new boss, \u201cWe\u2019re going to be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

It takes time to jell, Miller told Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte. The Longhorns would figure it out, Miller said \u2014 in fact, they might actually put all the pieces together this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never had panic,\u201d Del Conte told The Athletic on Saturday night. \u201cHe kept saying, \u2018I see it. But teams have to learn how to believe in each other.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When in doubt, listen to the coach who\u2019s been to 13 NCAA Tournaments, eight Sweet 16s and four Elite Eights. He probably knows what he\u2019s talking about.<\/p>\n

In fact, listen to him closely enough in a huddle, and you might just drain a shot to send him to his ninth Sweet 16 \u2014 and your program\u2019s first since 2023.<\/p>\n

With 32 seconds to play Saturday afternoon at the Moda Center, Texas clinging to a 69-68 lead and Gonzaga All-American forward Graham Ike dominating the paint, Miller called a timeout and diagrammed a play. At the last second, he subbed in junior forward Camden Heide, a Purdue transfer who had played less than three minutes in the second half and hadn\u2019t scored all game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m putting you in to make a shot,\u201d Miller shouted over a raucous crowd.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what Heide did, draining a corner 3 with 14 seconds to go to give UT a 72-68 lead and make it a two-possession game. On the other end, Gonzaga missed a 3, Texas corralled the rebound and Matas Vokietaitis hit a layup with 2 seconds left to put an exclamation point on the No. 11 seed Longhorns\u2019 74-68 upset over No. 3 seed Gonzaga.<\/p>\n

With the win, Texas becomes the sixth First Four team to make the Sweet 16 since the field expanded to 68 in 2011, and the first since UCLA went all the way to the Final Four in 2021. The Longhorns will meet the winner of Purdue-Miami in San Jose in a West Regional semifinal. After that, Miller just might get a blockbuster reunion with his former employer Arizona, with a spot in the Final Four on the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll take credit for it,\u201d Miller joked afterward about the winning shot. \u201cYou can make the case (Cam\u2019s) our best 3-point shooter. To not have him in there, I just didn\u2019t think it made any sense. Because what happens is exactly what happened: The play gets broken, a guy makes a drive, pivots, next thing you know you find someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

“HOW SWEET IT IS TO BE A LONGHORN” \ud83e\udd18@TexasMBB<\/a> DANCES ON TO THE SWEET 16 \ud83d\udd7a#MarchMadness<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Arb6sfDgRe<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas reaching the second weekend might seem like a stunning development considering the Longhorns eked into the tournament as one of the last four at-large selections. They had to beat fellow 11-seed NC State in Dayton, then fly across the country and try to stop future lottery pick AJ Dybantsa, the nation\u2019s leading scorer. The Longhorns didn\u2019t stop Dybantsa, but they did contain the rest of his team, beating sixth-seeded BYU 79-71 in the first round. That set up the matchup with Gonzaga, playing essentially a home game just 350 miles from Spokane. All Texas did in winning was knock off a team that spent much of the season ranked in the top 10.<\/p>\n

But to Del Conte, who has known Miller for more than 15 years, this isn\u2019t surprising \u2014 it\u2019s exactly what he hired him to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to work at UA. I\u2019ve known Sean since they were hiring him as a transition from Lute Olson,\u201d Del Conte said. \u201cHe\u2019s a phenomenal coach. How he ended in Tucson, that\u2019s not who he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Del Conte is referencing the ugly \u2014 and then seemingly game-changing \u2014 2017 FBI case in which multiple college basketball coaches were arrested, including one of Miller\u2019s Arizona assistants, Book Richardson. Miller was never charged, and the case did not follow through on its mission to expose and clean up the seedy side of college basketball recruiting. (Miller isn\u2019t the only one back at a high-major after being caught up in the scandal, either, with former LSU coach Will Wade taking NC State to the First Four.) Arizona played through the scandal that season, reaching the NCAA Tournament, but it missed the next three years, and Miller was essentially run out of Tucson after the 2020-21 season.<\/p>\n

Miller took some time away from coaching the following year. He spent the 2021-22 season visiting different programs, including Saint Mary\u2019s, where his son Cam worked as a graduate assistant under Randy Bennett. (Cam is now a video coordinator at UT.) \u201cI was at some Saint Mary\u2019s games, and people had no idea,\u201d Miller said, laughing. He and his wife, Amy, took a trip to Maui not during the Maui Invitational. He spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with his family and for the first time in decades didn\u2019t have to rush off to practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gathered myself,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say basketball is my life, but I\u2019ve always been around it. I wondered if I\u2019d get another (coaching) opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did. Xavier called, offering him another go-round with the program he\u2019d coached from 2004 to \u201809, including four straight NCAA Tournaments, two Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight. Miller returned to Cincinnati and twice more took the Musketeers to the Tournament. Then Del Conte called with an offer to coach at one of the richest schools in America, a global brand with endless resources and sparkling facilities.<\/p>\n

Del Conte said as soon as UT parted ways with Rodney Terry after two-and-a-half uneven seasons, \u201cSean was the type of guy I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller said yes, bringing guard Dailyn Swain and forward Lassina Traore with him. He used the transfer portal to quickly assemble the rest of the roster \u2026 then watched his team drop games to the likes of Arizona State, Auburn and Oklahoma. The Longhorns skidded into the SEC tournament having lost four of five before getting bounced by 15th-seeded Ole Miss.<\/p>\n

But for the last five days, Miller has pulled all the right levers. The Longhorns have won all sorts of ways, too. They won their First Four game on an almost-buzzer-beater, stifled BYU\u2019s offense without Dybantsa and Saturday, shot 52 percent against one of college basketball\u2019s best defensive teams.<\/p>\n

Some of that, Swain said, is due to a players-only meeting in which the Longhorns reminded each other the NCAA Tournament provided them with a clean slate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat grew us closer,\u201d said Swain, who finished with 11 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists Saturday. He added that part of the Longhorns\u2019 success the last week has been about guys stepping up, something they\u2019re doing because Miller \u201cgave us that confidence, gave us that spirit, that energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a giddy Texas locker room afterward, Swain said Miller\u2019s coaching history was \u201ca huge factor\u201d in his decision to go to Xavier and ultimately follow Miller to Austin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis repertoire, winning games, turning guys into NBA players, he\u2019s developed so many guys over the course of his career,\u201d Swain said, shaking his head with a smile stretched\u00a0across his face. \u201cI\u2019m loving every second.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now, mostly because of an experienced coach who got another chance, they\u2019ve got at least 2,400 more seconds of it.<\/p>\n