Xavier coach: ‘Dayton always has a special place in my heart’

Their coach wasn’t so sure.

“I would have a hard time believing that,” Sean Miller replied when asked about Dayton fans turning on the Musketeers. “There’s no way.”

There was a hint of sarcasm in Miller’s response, but he has much more first-hand knowledge of the UD-Xavier rivalry than his players, who were in elementary school when the Musketeers left the Atlantic 10 for the Big East following the 2013 season.

Miller was the head Musketeer from 2004-09 before leaving to coach Arizona, but his connection goes beyond annual clashes against the Flyers.

His brother, Archie, was Dayton’s head coach from 2011-17 and took the Flyers to four NCAA Tournaments in a row, including one of the most memorable March runs in recent memory in 2014.

“He took Dayton to an Elite Eight,” Sean said. “I think that’s a great memory for my family. Because of that, Dayton always has a special place in my heart.”

Miller also called Dayton pep band director Dr. Willie Morris’ annual saxophone rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner the best version he has ever heard.

“If you’ve never heard him play the National Anthem, there’s nothing like it,” Miller said.

Then there is an extended weekend in March 2004 that lives on in Xavier lore.

With UD hosting the A-10 tournament, their rivals ran the table, knocking off top-ranked, undefeated St. Joseph’s in the process, to kick off a run that ended in a regional final in the NCAA Tournament.

“We won four games in four days, cut the nets down and went on to the Elite Eight,” said Miller, who was an assistant to head coach Thad Matta at the time. “We lost to JJ Redick and Duke, Coach (Mike Krzyzewski) in Atlanta. It was an incredible run.

“Of all the teams I’ve been a part of, I don’t know if I’ve ever been on a magical run like the one that team went on those couple of months. As a matter of fact, we talk about it with this year’s team. We have some similar characteristics of that team: Senior leadership, a team that really played their best at the end.”

Although Xavier and Dayton have not played a regular season game at UD Arena since 2013, the Musketeers made the trip north on I-75 in October for an exhibition game.

That means the current players might not have experienced a real rivalry contest, but they did get a feel for the arena that could give them a small boost against Texas.

“I mean, maybe a little bit,” Freemantle said. “Just having a little bit of familiarity with the arena, the rims, the lights and all that. Also obviously it was a pretty good crowd when we did play Dayton back in the preseason, so just having that experience with the crowd and everything, I think it will be good for us.”

Meanwhile, Texas coach Rodney Terry did not wait to be asked about the potential for some of the Flyer faithful to turn out for the Burnt Orange.

“I know there’s a big rivalry between Dayton and Xavier, and we’d like to think that hopefully Dayton, you come over to our side and give us a little bit of home-court cooking a little bit as opposed to being on the road,” Terry said in his opening statement.

He also praised the tournament organizers for welcoming his team Tuesday.

“I’d like to thank the Dayton staff that does a great job here and has done it for over 20 years-plus years here in the NCAA Tournament,” Terry said. “The welcome that you guys gave us the other day and what you’ve been able to do in terms of the environment that you have here in March, it’s second to none.

“I talked to our guys about this venue and how great of fans you have here in Dayton. I was a young coach at UNC Wilmington, and we got a chance to play an NIT game here, and man, what great basketball fans here. Great venue, just a great setting.”

All-time, Xavier is 0-2 at UD Arena in the NCAA Tournament, losing in the first round to Alcorn State in 1983 and North Carolina State in the 2014 First Four.

The Longhorns are 1-1. As a No. 5 seed, they beat St. Peter’s in the first round in 1991 then lost to St. John’s two days later.