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Sweet 16 appearances are Sean Miller's thing

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook03/22/26josephcook89

Texas head coach Sean Miller is used to packing two weekend’s worth of clothes when his teams make the NCAA Tournament. Miller, whose 11-seed Longhorns defeated 3-seed Gonzaga 74-68 on Saturday night to advance to the Sweet 16, will be coaching in his ninth NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinal in his 21st season as a head coach.

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The Longhorns’ trek to the Sweet 16 is their first since 2023 and 12th in program history. It’s the ninth for the Longhorns since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Miller joins Tom Penders, Rick Barnes, and Rodney Terry as coaches who guided Texas to the Sweet 16 in the 64-team era. Texas is the only double-digit seed to make the Sweet 16 and did so coming from the First Four.

For Miller, Texas is now the third school he has led to the Sweet 16. His Xavier Musketeers made two Sweet 16s in his five seasons in Cincinnati in the late 2000s. Both occurred in his final two seasons leading XU in 2008 and 2009.

At Arizona, Miller made the Sweet 16 in in five of his 12 seasons in Tucson.

During his second stint at Xavier, he led the Musketeers to the Sweet 16 in 2022-23. That’s where Terry’s Longhorns defeated XU to reach the Elite Eight.

Miller is no stranger to the Elite Eight, either. He’s been to four in his career, while the Texas program has been to five since 1985.

Both Texas and Miller are happy to be in territory they currently find themselves. And while both have won games in the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, there’s an opportunity for everyone to reach unfamiliar heights.

Despite multiple Elite Eight appearances in his career, Miller has never been to the Final Four. Texas has only been to one National Semifinals since the tournament expanded in 1985, when Barnes’ Horns led by TJ Ford made it to the Final Four in 2003.

There are two games between Texas and Miller heading to Indianapolis.

This juncture, the second weekend, is familiar territory for Miller. Today, he gets to watch the matchup between 2-seed Purdue and 7-seed Miami (Fla.). The winner of that battle between two teams Texas has seen in the NCAA Tournament in recent years will face the Longhorns in San Jose next week.

The next two games will determine if Miller elevates his resume and reaches an unfamiliar spot in just his first year as head coach of the Longhorns.

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