FanHouse Xavier Musketeers

Now, this is just getting silly. Both Jeff Goodman at FOX Sports and Gary Parrish at CBS Sports are reporting that Xavier head coach Sean Miller has turned down an offer to be the Arizona head coach.

Miller, apparently took a charter flight to New Mexico on Sunday morning to meet with Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood along with the Arizona president and a booster about the job. The offer was rumored to be as much as $15 million over seven years. He then flew back to Cincinnati that same day.

Everyone keeps tuned to sports sites and ESPNews for the latest plumes of smoke from Memphis and/or Lexington regarding John Calipari and whether he stays at Memphis or goes to Kentucky. The flip side is that the move has paralyzed nearly every other coaching search as programs and coaches in-demand wait to see what happens.

Oh, sure some little things have happened. Viginia Commonwealth has apparently hired Shaka Smart to be their next head coach. As with the last hire of VCU's former coach, Shaka Smart is a Florida assistant.

Everything else, though, appears to be on hold, if only for a moment.

This is a little bit of history, with even more possibly on the way.

For the first time since the NCAA tournament expanded to allow multiple bids from one conference in 1975, Pitt has a chance to play itself into the Final Four. And for the first time ever, the Panthers have won more than two games in the NCAA tournament. But Pitt, which last appeared in the Elite Eight with two wins in 1974, didn't make it easy.

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DeJuan Blair made this possible, of course. After a quiet, four-rebound first half, Pitt's monster in the middle went off and hauled in 13 boards in the second half as the Panthers stormed back from an eight-point deficit to advance to the Elite Eight.

But while it wouldn't and couldn't have happened without Blair, Levance Fields won this game in the final minute. There was the Bill Raftery "ONIONS!!" 3-pointer with a hand in his face that broke the tie with 50 seconds left. And then there was the steal-and-layup on the next possession that sealed it. That's a big-time player making big-time plays in a big-time game.

Pitt has been ranked No. 4 or better in all but one week this year. Despite that, the story all season has been that Pitt has never won more than two games in the NCAA Tournament.

Duke has been hanging around the top 10 all season. The Blue Devils had a slide in the middle of conference play, but tweaking the lineup seems to have worked (except when facing North Carolina) in sparking them to yet another ACC Tournament Championship.

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Teams sitting on that bubble have a new concern. Xavier just went down in the Atlantic-10 semifinal to Temple. Teams like Arizona, Penn State, Creighton and San Diego State have just become the biggest Dayton fans. The Flyers face Duquesne tonight. The winner to face Temple in the A-10 final and the automatic bid.

The Musketeers are still a lock for the NCAA Tournament and Dayton is likely in. Just as the bubble had gotten a little loose with Rhode Island losing early in the A-10 Tourney, and now the A-10 may take it right back.

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Xavier Head Coach Sean Miller was a hot assistant under Thad Matta at Xavier for a couple years. Then Matta left for Ohio State and Miller was given the Xavier head coaching job. Miller proved to be a good coach as Xavier has made the NCAA Tournament 2 of the last 3 years and is becoming a hot head coach. (Odds are he would have been even hotter if the Musketeers had upset Ohio State.) Still, Xavier has become the fertile crescent of coaches -- Matta, Prosser and Gillen -- have all moved on to higher profile jobs after success at Xavier.

Xavier is doing what it can to hold onto Sean Miller. He has just been given a new contract that extends through the 2015-16 season.

Xavier did not disclose the terms, but athletic director Mike Bobinski confirmed that the new deal made Miller the highest-paid coach in the Atlantic 10 Conference, which was one of Bobinski's goals when he began working on the deal last month. That would put Miller's annual salary somewhere in the range of $700,000-$900,000, depending on incentives.

Miller made $329,460 in 2004-05, according to the most recent tax documents available.

Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli, who made $578,498 in guaranteed income in 2004-05, was the A-10's highest-paid coach and now is making more than $600,000.

Miller missed the NCAA Tournament in his first season. Last year, they lost in the opening round game against Gonzaga -- a game they were leading late before a final charge by Adam Morrison and the Bulldogs snatched the victory. This time, they made it into the second round and held a late lead before Ohio State's final charge and Miller's controversial decision not to foul before allowing a 3-point attempt that tied the game.

The contract extension has helped Miller land verbal commitments from two guards, Mark Lyons and Brad Redford. The Musketeers are now the leading team to land one of the top big men, Kenny Frease, with Tubby Smith having left Kentucky.

It's interesting that Miller has apparently faced some criticism from part of the Xavier faithful for not having more success. Thad Matta, after all, did get Xavier to the Elite Eight a couple years prior to leaving. It's something of a double edged sword for an understudy taking over the same program from the mentor. He gets all the blame if he doesn't at least match the success and none of the credit since he has the talent left behind. Not to mention the new coach is supposed to continue the success, so there isn't much forgiveness for the natural learning curve of an assistant going to the top job.

The latest in those "coincidental" matchups for the NCAA Tournament gets to happen as Xavier gets a 79-77 win over BYU.

It's almost secondary now, that Xavier and BYU played a fantastic game. Drew Lavender was clutch for the Musketeers down the stretch to get the win in a game that over the last five minutes went back and forth. A very evenly matched game, right down to the numbers.

The important thing is this means on Saturday, Xavier and Ohio State will play each other. Two Ohio teams. Ohio State Coach Thad Matta will face his old team and assistant, Sean Miller. It's a veritable smorgasbord of easy storylines and columns that will write themselves. And with the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, loads of games and compressed deadlines, there are sportswriters in Lexington giving thanks for some easy stories.

Conference: Atlantic 10
Record: 24-8, 13-3 in conference
RPI: 33
How They Got In: At-Large
Seed/Bracket: 9/West (San Antonio)

Mascot: Musketeers. His name, surprise, surprise is D'Artagnan. The Musketeer is supposed to be "strong ties with French origins and culture." As if that isn't enough to create some hostile feelings, they have a muppet reject as a secondary mascot called Blue Bob.

Big Wins: Xavier topped Illinois, Kansas State, VCU and Villanova.

Notable Loss: Losing the Crosstown Shootout to Cinci -- especially this year was embarrassing.

Player You Should Know: Justin Doellman was a first team All-A-10 and Stanley Burrell was second team. The player to know, however, is junior point guard Drew Lavender, who transferred from Oklahoma. He dishes the ball for the team and is the guy who shoots the 3s. Lavender shoots nearly 46% on 3s, and in the NCAA Tournament, that will matter in how far Xavier can advance.

Outlook: They are fully capable of getting into the Sweet 16. They are a good shooting team that looks for the best shot available. The Musketeers can shoot from outside and drive to the basket. They can be beaten by teams with more inside muscle, and if Lavender or Burrell have a bad shooting game, they will go right out of the Tournament in the first game. They have balanced scoring, but aren't good enough to survive an NCAA game without everyone playing well.