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Miller Madness: 2 Brothers Take Their Shots at the Final Four
The Dayton flyers, coached by 35-year-old Archie Miller, are the first team from the Atlantic 10 Conference to make the quarterfinals of college basketball's annual March Madness tournament since 2008. The same feat was achieved in 2008 by the Xavier Musketeers, who were coached by Sean Miller, Archie's older brother.
This year, 45-year-old Sean leads a different team of his own into the March Madness quarterfinals — the top seeded Arizona Wildcats. Together, the Millers make up 25% of the coaches left vying for a championship. In each of Saturday's two nationally broadcast quarterfinal games, a Miller brother will be coaching — Sean against Wisconsin and Archie against Florida.
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But the two brothers enter the quarterfinals in vastly different positions. Sean's Wildcats are a tournament favorite and have a real measure of pressure on them to win on Saturday, and advance to the Final Four. Archie's Flyers are an 11-seed underdog that's vastly exceeded any expectations just to reach this point in the tournament. Should they win on Saturday and advance to the Final Four, it'd be the stuff of Cinderella legend.
Archie took over the Dayton program in 2011, leaving his position as an assistant under Sean at Arizona to do so. In an example of how pumped Flyers fans are about their team's magical post-season run behind Archie this year, here was the scene in Dayton after Thursday's Sweet 16 win over Stanford:
The Miller brothers grew up in Pennsylvania, and were afflicted with the ol' basketball jones from an early age. Sean even went on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as a young boy to show off his skills:
Each brother played in college, too. Here's Sean playing point guard for the University of Pittsburgh in 1990:
And here's Archie as a sharp-shooting guard for North Carolina State in 2002:
Older brother Sean, however, has in many ways trudged a tougher road than Archie. For Sean, Saturday will be just the most recent time he's reached the doorstep of the Final Four. But he's been turned away each time so far, and has yet to reach college basketball's biggest stage.
In 1988, the Pittsburgh team for which he played point guard was knocked out of March Madness in the second round. In 1989, they were knocked out in the first round. In 1991, they were knocked out again in the second round. Sean graduated in 1992.
In 2004, a Sean-coached Xavier team went on a shocking run to the national quarterfinals, where they finally bowed out to a powerhouse Duke squad. The Musketeers became tournament mainstays, and reached the national quarterfinals again in 2008, losing out on a trip to the Final Four at the hands of UCLA that time.
In 2011, Miller made his first trip to the national quarterfinals as coach of Arizona. The Wildcats missed two three-point tries in the closing seconds, however, and Connecticut earned the Final Four berth.
Now here they are, the Miller brothers, each with a chance to make the Final Four on the very same day. But fear not: We won't see any basketball fratricide any time soon. Because of the way the brackets are set up, with Arizona seeded in the West Region and Dayton seeded in the South Region, Sean and Archie wouldn't have to actually coach against one another until the national championship game on April 7.
For now at least, sibling rivalry can take a backseat to brotherly love.
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