For the first time in his career, Sean Miller looks to succeed at a football school

For the first time in his career, new Longhorns men’s basketball coach Sean Miller is going to have to hustle at a football school.

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Miller rose to prominence at Xavier from 2004-09, leading the Musketeers to four NCAA Tournaments in five years, two Sweet 16s, and an Elite Eight. He took the Arizona job after his time at XU and from 2009-2021, led the Wildcats to multiple Pac-12 regular season and tournament titles, seven NCAA Tournaments, five Sweet 16s, and three Elite Eights before missing the tournament three straight years in the midst of NCAA allegations. Back at Xavier, he’s made two NCAA tournaments and a Sweet 16 in three years.

What do Xavier and Arizona have in common? Xavier doesn’t have football and is in the basketball-crazy Big East. Arizona turned into a powerhouse in the 1990s, won the 1997 national championship, and has been a mainstay in conversations about the top level of the sport since Lute Olson hit his stride in the late 1980s.

Both are basketball schools. Texas is anything but a basketball school.

That’s not to say that the Longhorn men’s basketball program cannot enjoy success under Miller. Just look at the Southeastern Conference. Historically, Kentucky has been the only SEC team that’s invested more comparative time, money, and fandom into men’s basketball. But now? Football schools like Auburn, Tennessee, and Alabama are fielding elite teams, filling arenas, and are going toe-to-toe with the Wildcats for top recruits, conference championships, and national titles.

In order to achieve similar results, it will take dealing with some obstacles Miller has net yet had to deal with.

The most recent run the Longhorns made to the Elite Eight, a run that came at Miller’s expense in 2023, was created by the result of hustle. The end of Chris Beard‘s tenure in Austin will always mar the memories of his time as head coach, but Beard understood how important hustling and squeezing every bit of support was when most Longhorns fans care about right guard over point guard.

He went to fraternities, sororities, and student groups to drum up interest. He offered college students free food in exchange for game attendance. He did goofy things like climb to the top of the Erwin Center to record a video that he knew would be just viral enough to get people talking about Texas men’s basketball.

That got people talking about the program, but he also worked hard to garner support for it. That was not just putting butts in Moody Center seats, but also working with the Longhorn collective ecosystem in the early days of Name, Image, and Likeness. The hustle built the team Rodney Terry then coached to the Elite Eight. Beard’s ability to hustle was seen at Texas Tech, another football school, and continues to be on display in his current role at football school Ole Miss..

The lack of hustle has doomed other Texas men’s coaches. Though it was a different era, Shaka Smart never seemed to venture outside of his tight circle in order to get more people to the Erwin Center despite boasting one-and-done talents like Mo Bamba, Jaxson Hayes, and Jarrett Allen along with a four-year stalwart in Matt Coleman. Terry certainly tried to make use of his jovial personality, but he adopted similar, guarded methods of disseminating information about the program and simply did not get Texas fans feeling like he was worthy of the permanent job (with the benefit of hindsight).

Miller is entering a situation where he’ll of course be paid handsomely and will be able to point and his nearly 20 years of success at the mid- and high-major level. That’s certain to generate excitement among Longhorn fans, and it should after the program seemingly became stagnant.

The work will be maintaining it while in football’s shadow.

Winning, of course, will help that. There are a considerable amount of questions about the 2025-26 Longhorns, but even recent Texas teams that experienced considerable turnover in the transfer portal era found ways to make it into March Madness following coaching turnover. Miller should aim to make the tournament in 2026, as UT fans who view the sport casually expect to see the Longhorns dancing every year after the run Rick Barnes went on during the 2000s.

Winning won’t be a cure-all. Steve Sarkisian‘s program is the talk of the town, if not the state; if not the country. Texas fans will never cede focus from the sport that does most of the heavy lifting in bringing in $300 million in revenue. Miller, for the first time in his career, will have to learn to deal with lack of interest in the fall when at his other stops Musketeer and Wildcat fans would likely be more interested in rim protection and wing depth as opposed to meaningful fall football games.

Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte assuredly understands this, and likely had to make a few guarantees to Miller about how much support men’s basketball would get in the coming years. That’s not just facilities, which are taken care of with the Moody Center and the new practice facility. That’s not just amenities, which Texas doesn’t lack for. Once the House v. NCAA settlement is approved, schools will have to determine just how much “publicity rights” money they will share with athletes across the many intercollegiate sports. Football, especially at Texas, is going to get its due share.

After beating the Longhorns last Wednesday, Miller probably hustled to get as high of a percentage as possible for his 15-man roster. Plus, he’ll be looking for whatever NIL he can get for his players on top of the direct school payments.

Del Conte has declared that he expects all of the sports in his athletic department to compete at a top-five level and contend for national championships. That wasn’t happening under Terry. The last time it was happening, it was because the head coach scratched and clawed for things he viewed necessary for winning in the modern men’s basketball environment.

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Miller will have to embark on that venture likely for the first time in his career, and his short- and long-term successes likely depend on just how much effort the 56-year-old Pennsylvanian is willing to put in to make sure his program has what it needs in order to get players, gain attention, and win.