CINCINNATI — After returning from a 12-year hiatus as Xavier’s head coach, Sean Miller is back for his second year at the helm. In Miller’s first year back with Xavier, he led the Musketeers to the Sweet 16.
“I think we hit our stride in late February, early March, which catapulted us to the Sweet 16. We feel really good about what we were able to accomplish; the players, the staff and you know, hopefully it sets a great direction for the future,” Miller said.
The future for Xavier does not have a lot of the past. With key players from last year such as Souley Boum, Jack Nunge, Adam Kunkel, and Colby Jones (now with the Sacramento Kings) moving on to the next chapter of their careers, there are a lot of new faces for Xavier.
“This is a reset for what we’re doing… We do have 10 new players. Six of those 10 are freshmen and that doesn’t bode well for success when it comes to wins and losses, in particular in a conference like the Big East, which I believe this year will be as difficult of a conference as Xavier has ever been in,” Miller said.
Xavier finished second in the Big East last year. This season, ESPN predicts five Big East teams (Marquette, UConn, Creighton, Villanova, and St. John’s) to finish in the top-25 in the country.
Two of the key players that Xavier hope to lean on this season, Zach Freemantle and Jerome Hunter, are both out indefinitely due to injury.
“We have a challenge ahead of us…Losing Zach Freemantle late in the summer, losing Jerome (Hunter) in the middle of the summer. We didn't have a crystal ball that could anticipate them not being with us as we recruited in the spring and even in the early fall, we built things with this season in mind knowing that they were going to return back for their... COVID years. I don't think there's a program that played college basketball last season that lost more than we did. That's not good. I can't really put a positive spin on that other than what we've done is we've set the tone for the future,” Miller said.
One returner the Musketeers will likely lean on is Sophomore Desmond Claude, who made a name for himself in the NCAA Tournament.
The future looks different than Xavier fans are used to. Three players have the Xavier program extra excited: Lazar Djokovic, Sasa Ciani, and Gytis Nemeiksa. All three players are European: Djokovic from Serbia, Ciania from Slovenia, and Nemeiksa from Lithuania. Xavier is not a program typically known for landing big international recruits.
“The staff that I was a part of in Arizona, acquired a lot of experience recruiting international players, building relationships, watching it work… We came here with the understanding that we were going to make international recruiting a priority on an everyday basis. That we were going to make it part of our program,” Miller said.
Even with the new international talent, it will be an uphill battle for Xavier early in the season. Coach Miller believes that come February and March, Xavier can embrace an underdog mindset and be a team that “other teams don’t want to see.”
Despite the challenges, the expectations at Xavier haven’t changed.
”To be a part of March Madness. I mean, that's who we are at Xavier. That's what we do. That doesn't mean because you want it to happen, that you wave a magic wand and hey, here we are, it's not easy and sometimes when you are consistently in the tournament, it's almost taken for granted. You can never take that for granted because it's so difficult to do, but it's also equally rewarding. And I think with the changes that we've made some of the setbacks that we've experienced this summer with Jerome (Hunter) and Zach (Freemantle). If we were to be able to do it, I think it would be as good of a feeling if not better than anything we experienced a year ago,” Miller said.
The tougher the journey, the sweeter the reward.
Xavier tips-off their season Monday, November 6, against Robert Morris at the Cintas Center.
You can watch the full 13-minute interview with coach Miller below:
