Sean Miller's 17-win
first season as a head coach in 2004-05 was solid. His
second season went even better as Xavier won 21 games and
advanced to the NCAA Tournam
ent.
But with the top 7 players back from last year's team, 2006-07
could make those seasons look simply mediocre.
Shawn
Siegel (CHN): How does this year's schedule compare
to recent seasons in terms of difficulty?
Sean
Miller (SM):
Our schedule is very difficult and it will challenge our team
immensely in the months of November and December with games,
including games in the Paradise Jam against teams like VCU,
Villanova, College of Charleston, Iowa, Alabama, Toledo and
Middle Tennessee. Our other non-conference games include
Illinois, Kansas State, Bucknell, Arizona State, Detroit,
Cincinnati, Miami (Ohio) and at Creighton and I could keep
going. This will help us as we enter conference play. Our
conference will be competitive as well and certainly our team
wants to be consistent in conference play and be playing our
best basketball of the season as we enter March.
CHN: How will you deal with the losses of your graduating
seniors?
SM: We lost a dominant post player and rebounder in
Brian Thornton, a guy
who made the A-10 First Team and could have been player of the
year before he got hurt late last season. We will play a lot of
combinations but one guy who will be counted on to fill some of
that void is Brandon Cole. Cole’s play was invaluable to our
A-10 tournament run a year ago. He was a big part of our
2004 Elite Eight run as well. It took about four months into our
season before his knee injury was completely behind him. To his
credit, he kept working when he wasn’t playing a lot and when
the opportunity presented itself late in our season, he took
advantage of it. As a fifth year senior, Brandon is one of our
team’s leaders and is our best overall rebounder. We are
counting on him to
provide both of these important qualities in his final season at
Xavier.
CHN: What
will the strengths and weaknesses of
this year’s team to be?
SM:
We certainly have the ability to have an excellent basketball
team. Our finish a year ago has given our returning
players tremendous momentum throughout the summer. I believe we
have had an excellent off-season, all thirteen players stayed on
campus and worked hard together. I like our junior and
senior classes, they have experience and have been productive
during their respective careers. We have a number of players
that know what it takes to win at this level. This is important
considering the challenges that this year's schedule brings us.
CHN: Talk about one or two of your guys that stands out
as being an unheralded leader and contributor?
SM:One of the
most exciting ingredients we have on this year's team is
experience. So much of college basketball is about your
seniors. Our senior class has three players that have seen it
all - Justin Doellman, Justin Cage, and Brandon Cole. These
three will be our leaders and they are special people and very
good players. They are the only players in the history of
college basketball that have won four games in four days, two
times, in a conference tournament. Having said that, our team
will benefit greatly from their perspective on what it takes to
win.
CHN: What should
we expect out of the incoming players. Who will make the biggest impact?
SC:(Oklahoma
transfer) Drew Lavender has all of the tools to be an
exceptional point guard in our program. He has already won a
championship in the Big 12 Conference at Oklahoma as their
starting point guard. He has the total respect of our team
because he has the ability to make them better - which is the
ultimate compliment to a point guard. Drew has a toughness that
is contagious as well. He is that player that wants to play in
big games.
CHN: Are you pretty well settled with your starting
lineup? If not, what should be the biggest battle for a starting
spot?
SM:
We certainly have the ability to have an excellent basketball
team. Our finish a year ago has given our returning
players tremendous
momentum throughout the summer. I believe we have had an
excellent off-season, all thirteen players stayed on campus and
worked hard together. I like our junior and senior classes,
they have experience and have been productive during their
respective careers. We have a number of players that know what
it takes to win at this level. This is important considering the
challenges that this year's schedule brings us...Stanley Burrell
is one guy who is coming off of two very good seasons for us.
He was on the A-10 All-Rookie team two seasons ago, after
leading us in scoring. Last year, he earned a berth on the
All-Conference Second Team after once again leading our team in
scoring. This year we look to him to provide leadership for the
first time. We also are counting on him to be a consistent
defender and an offensive player that gets to the foul line more
often. Stanley has a chance to be one of the premier guards in
our conference.
