Everything Sean Miller said ahead of Texas' First Four matchup

Texas head coach Sean Miller was available to the media in Dayton, Ohio ahead of the Longhorns’ First Four matchup in the NCAA Tournament with NC State. Here’s everything Miller had to say.

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Q. Coach, your thoughts on being back in the NCAA Tournament and this time with Texas?

SEAN MILLER: Yeah, first and foremost, I think I speak for everybody a part of our team and university, we’re thrilled to be a part of this year’s NCAA Tournament. When you’re going through the grind of a long season, you’re constantly reminded of the parity in our game. Just so many great teams, especially in the SEC. To be at the end and have the opportunity to represent the SEC and obviously the University of Texas in this tournament is something that we all feel really good about.

Sometimes you enter it here in Dayton, other times you enter it at a different site, but each year represents a brand new canvas. And we’re excited and looking forward to playing NC State. We’ve obviously matched up against them one time already, so we’re very familiar with their talent and the type of team they are.

Q. Shawn, I spoke with Chendall a second ago in the locker room. He said he addressed the team. Curious if you knew that message was coming. Your thoughts on that? And also, just the importance of this team seizing the moment here?

SEAN MILLER: Yeah, for sure. I think the ending of our season is somewhat of a unique experience for us because we hit a stretch where we played our very, very best basketball in about a four-week window where I think we won five SEC games in a row, and we were playing at a very high level.

We ended the season with a couple tough losses. But if you’re really following the SEC closely, losing in an overtime home game to Oklahoma, to Porter Moser’s credit and Oklahoma, they were playing about as well as any team we had faced all year long when we played them. And I think that was represented in the SEC tournament.

You get into the SEC tournament, you play Ole Miss, at one point who maybe has lost 11 of 12, but they have a great coach in Chris Beard, and they came into the tournament playing really well. If they beat Arkansas, they lost in overtime, I’m not so sure they wouldn’t have won the SEC tournament, five games in five days.

You have to see that for what it is. Sometimes it’s not a reflection of who you are, it’s who you’re playing. The one thing that we bring to us at this time of year is all of those experiences are helpful when you’re in a neutral site setting against a team like NC State. You call on those experiences.

We’re excited. I think this is a brand-new season. We’ve left what has happened, good and bad, in the past. The fact that we’re a part of the field, now it’s up to us to try to stay in this tournament.

Q. Just wanted to ask you, obviously as a former assistant at NC State and having ties to that program for a number of years, just your memories of coaching at NCAA State but also what that program means to you, too?

SEAN MILLER: Yeah, I have a lot of amazing memories there. Two of my three sons were born in Raleigh. It was a very great time in life for my wife and I. We lived in Garner, North Carolina. Herb Sendek was the head coach. We were building a program in the shadow of Coach K in his prime and Dean Smith towards the end.

But when I think back to my experience at NC State, it was an incredible time in the ACC. Tim Duncan was a senior when I was there. Gary Williams was building his program to eventually win a national championship with Steve Blake and Juan Dixon and those guys. Rick Barnes ironically was at Clemson. Bobby Cremins was at Georgia Tech and it was a round-robin.

For a young assistant coach, it was the ultimate training ground to really understand what college basketball was about because you’re seeing Hall of Fame coaches, National Championship coaches build their program, coach the game, run their team, develop like those types of coaches can develop into something incredible.

When I was there for five years, it was like going to grad school as a college basketball coach. I learned so much, whether it be recruiting, coaching, and just if you were paying close attention, you were surrounded by greatness.

When I look back at that time of my life, it was certainly one of the great five-year stretches, especially in college basketball, that I’ve had.

Q. Sean, could you talk about the team’s perimeter defense, kind of the challenge they’re going to have against NC State tomorrow?

SEAN MILLER: Yeah, we’re here in this tournament because of our offense. I don’t think that’s a secret that I’m giving away. We’ve been very efficient. We’ve scored a lot of points. If you would have told me in August that my team would score 80 or month points seven times and lose, I would have taken that bet. No way. Not only that, but that means we scored 80 or more points quite a few times, which we have. We’ve averaged over 80 points. That’s how we’ve gotten here. We’ve worked hard to improve defensively. I think our defensive rebounding is the best thing we do on that side.

But we have our hands full against NC State, their three-point shooting. I think their center is underrated, he can score, and they have a number of different guys. And Copeland, who we’ve already played against, he had 28 in our game in Maui when we played them.

Just watching the season that he had, he had, in a sense, a historic year. His assist rate of over seven a game, his scoring, his size. We really look at him as the engine that makes them go. He’s a terrific player, and Will Wade is obviously an excellent coach. Yeah, that’s part of being in this tournament.

Q. I believe this is the second time that you’ve now stepped into a program as a first-year coach in the NIL era and been able to take them to the NCAA Tournament. I was curious if there’s any new challenges you’ve found in this era compared to the first one as a first year being able to get to this stage?

SEAN MILLER: Yeah, it’s a very good question and complicated to some degree. I would just tell you that what once was is no longer, whether that means a postseason meeting with a player that would return, how you go about recruiting, even to some degree player development, how you build your roster.

I think all of us are trying to, number one, identify what’s best for our individual programs, what works for us to be the best that we can be at the University of Texas. It might be different for somebody else at a different program or different area of the country.

I think it’s just a moving target, and there’s a lot that goes into it, a lot of thought. And even in the last year, I think things are constantly evolving and growing, and we’re all trying to evolve and adapt and grow with it, and quite frankly learn from others.

There are programs, the ones that are thriving, what are the decisions they’re making that we have to start looking at differently maybe than we once did.

I would just kind of wrap up my answer by saying, it’s really just ever evolving and adapting right now.

Q. I had two questions. One was what do you remember about the atmosphere here last year for your game? The other one is I believe Thad Matta retired today. I wondered if you had any reaction to that, thoughts on that?

SEAN MILLER: Yeah, I’ll answer that first. Thad, all of us have several friends in coaching. I don’t have anybody in coaching that I care more about or that I have a closer bond with than Thad Matta. Him and I shared an office at Miami of Ohio in Oxford for a couple of years.

You talk about young assistant coaches that were just kind of on the fly, drinking out of a fire hose, and willing to do whatever it took to win on and off the court. We worked really hard.

Then we worked together for a while, as well. He’s had a remarkable career and did it right from day one. I think we all admire Thad because he did it his way. There’s not two of him. His way of coaching the game, and I think his demeanor away from the game really set him apart.

But great friend, and I know he’s moving on to happy times.

What was your other question?

Q. Atmosphere here.

SEAN MILLER: Yeah, the atmosphere last year was certainly pro the team that I was coaching. We felt that, and sometimes that’s the case with just the region that you go to. For example, I know UConn is in Philly. If I was getting ready to play UConn in Philly, I know what that means. There’s going to be a lot of UConn Husky fans. We’re here in UD Arena, and regardless, it’s about the game. We have to execute, and we have to be excited to play.

I don’t have any doubts that we’ll be able to, to some degree, do both, certainly on the excitement end.

Q. Was there something that you learned from last year and playing in the First Four that you look to use to your advantage tomorrow night?

SEAN MILLER: Well, I think the one thing about the First Four is it hits you really quickly. You’re watching the selection show on a Sunday like everybody, and you’re thrilled to be in it. If you’re in the First Four, there was some doubt, you weren’t a shoe-in for sure. So it’s that thrill, that great feeling of, we did it.

But then the reality of it is you’re on a plane the next morning, and here we are. You don’t have the rhythm of those two days and the true preparation. I think the pageantry of like that extra day and a half before you ever play doesn’t exist as much here.

We talked to our team about that. Remember, the team that I’m coaching was here, as well, so they have a lot of experience with it. I think they know what Dayton, Ohio, looks like, feels like, what UD Arena feels like, and certainly are here to represent the SEC and University of Texas and be at our best.

Q. Is there a strange feeling of being back here? Is it almost like Groundhog Day?

SEAN MILLER: No. I’ll answer that simply because I don’t think you can ever connect one year to the next. So different. Very different for me, for a lot of obvious reasons.

But I think new team, new leadership, new journey, different schedule. And I think that’s what captivates the world and why so many people love college basketball, because each year is its own brand-new story.

I don’t want anybody as part of our team or program to think back to that year ago simply because there’s nothing the same. It’s completely different. It’s a new journey, and we’re here on a brand new day.

Q. You have played here at UD several times in this building. I was just wanting to know, does that afford you any advantages because you’ve played here so many times?

SEAN MILLER: I mean, for me, I’m very comfortable. As soon as I walk in the building, I know there’s a ramp. I’ve gone up and down it who knows how many times.

Look, I said this every time that I’ve ever been here: I don’t know if there’s a building, an arena in America that’s any better than UD Arena on game day. It’s amazing. I just think, like, the sound is — it’s just prevalent. It’s not like some of the new buildings where it’s so spacious and so new that you can’t hear the loudness as much.

Here, you do. The seating, the renovations, and then most importantly the love for college basketball that exists in Dayton. My brother obviously was the head coach here for a number of years, and he loved being here, had a lot of success. Then obviously being in the area and just being in this arena.

A year ago we scrimmaged Dayton and were here in the First Four, and just every time you walk in here, you’re reminded of what a great basketball venue this place is.

Q. What can you say watching Dailyn Swain’s career develop over the years?

SEAN MILLER: Yeah, Dailyn is a great story, especially being here in Ohio. As you guys know, came from Columbus, Ohio, the footprint of the Big Ten. Dailyn would be the first one to tell you that it wasn’t like a lot of those programs were knocking on his door. He came to us at 6’7″, 176 pounds. Dailyn is very young. He turned 18 right at the end of June and early July, so he’d have been a true 18-year-old freshman in college.

But he’s just gotten better. Same coach, same strength coach, structure, I think he’s really bought in. He listens. He learns. We’ve had amazing support from his mom and family. They allow us to coach Dailyn, hold him accountable, and Dailyn has worked hard to develop his shot, develop his body.

I think his ability to pass and handle the ball, something that he had a good starting point on, he’s really taken that to a very high level.

If you followed us this year, there aren’t too many players that play college basketball that had a better overall season than Dailyn did. Let’s start with the fact that he led us in five categories, averaged almost 20 points a game in the SEC. Newcomer of the year in the SEC, second team all-SEC performer, one of the top 10 players in our conference. All of that was hard-earned because I don’t know how many people really knew who Dailyn would have been in November.

He’s a throwback story in that he’s just gotten better every six months he’s been in college, and I think his best days are certainly ahead of him.