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Arizona Introduces Miller

POSTED: 8:52 pm EDT April 7, 2009

(Sports Network) - Arizona introduced Sean Miller as its new men's basketball coach on Tuesday after giving him a five-year contract worth a reported $11 million.

The Arizona Republic reports the deal includes a $1 million signing bonus.

Miller spent five successful seasons at Xavier, leading the Musketeers to a record of 120-47 with four NCAA Tournament appearances. After an Elite Eight run in 2008, this year's squad finished 27-8 and lost to Pittsburgh in the East Regional semifinals.

"I went through a difficult process in my own mind of leaving Xavier University and I really wanted to do it the right way because we all have those special relationships and places that mean a lot in the way of kind of defining moments in our lives," said Miller. "My eight years at Xavier University really defines me in a lot of ways. My family really enjoyed our time there. If you just take a quick snapshot of our eight years there, we went to two Elite Eights and a Sweet Sixteen. That's a pretty good job for a program in the Atlantic 10 Conference that has to overcome some odds."

Arizona will be Miller's second head coaching position. He will replace Russ Pennell, who was the Wildcats' interim coach for the 2008-09 season after Hall of Famer Lute Olson's retirement.

The Wildcats were 21-14 under Pennell and kept their NCAA Tournament streak alive at 25 consecutive years with a surprising at-large selection this spring.

Miller was Arizona's second choice, as Southern California's Tim Floyd decided to remain with the Trojans last week. Louisville's Rick Pitino was also rumored to be on Arizona's short list.

"Sean Miller was on our earliest radar screen many, many months back," said Arizona athletics director Jim Livengood. "One of the things that we liked about Sean, not just the fact of what he had accomplished at Xavier and the things he had accomplished in his coaching along the way, but all of the things about how he treated young men, what kind of person he was, what kind of friend he was. So those things, as much as we liked about him, early on he basically told us that he was unmovable."

Miller was also an assistant at Xavier before taking over the top job. He also worked as an assistant at North Carolina State, Pittsburgh, Miami-Ohio and Wisconsin.

A native of Pittsburgh, Miller starred with the Panthers from 1987-91.


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