New Xavier coach dismisses idea of renewing UD rivalry
The return of Sean Miller to Xavier doesn’t seem likely to bring about the return of the Xavier-Dayton rivalry — if Miller’s own comments this week are any indication.
Appearing on the Bald Men on Campus podcast with ESPN’s Seth Greenberg, Jay Bilas, and LaPhonso Ellis, Miller and his brother Archie Miller, the former Dayton coach now at Rhode Island, started discussing rivalries. After talking about the Xavier-Cincinnati rivalry, Archie steered the conversation to Dayton-Xavier.
“Dayton-Xavier was a very, very hard-fought game,” Archie said. “Dayton probably to this day has never had the opportunity to go back into Cintas until Sean maybe schedules them here and gives Dayton another crack at it.”
“They won’t be showing up anytime soon,” Sean said.
Sean coached at Xavier from 2004-09. He was 8-3 against Dayton and 5-0 at the Cintas Center, where Dayton has not played since Jan. 30, 2013. Dayton lost that game 66-61. It was its 28th straight loss at Xavier. The Flyers have not won at Xavier since Jan. 10, 1981.
The series ended after the 201213 season when Xavier left the Atlantic 10 Conference for the
Big East. The teams have played once in the last nine seasons. Xavier beat Dayton 90-61 on Nov. 29, 2015, in the championship game of the Advocare Invitational.
Dayton and Xavier would have played in the NIT quarterfinals in March at UD Arena if Dayton had not lost in overtime at Vander- bilt. Xavier went on to win the NIT under interim coach Jonas Hayes. Sean Miller was hired during Xavier’s NIT run, replacing Travis Steele, who was fired after four seasons. Steele is the head coach at Miami University. Hayes is the head coach at Georgia State.
Archie Miller was 2 -4 against Xavier, then coached by Chris Mack, during his six seasons at Dayton. The Flyers lost 86-83 in overtime at Xavier in 2012, his first season, and he was the coach in 2013 when Dayton last played at the Cintas Center and in 2015, the last time the programs met.
“You would go into the Cintas Center,” Archie said, “and they have all the former presidents, cutouts of all their faces all over the stands, because it had been like 45 straight years that Dayton hadn’t won a game in Cincinnati when they played there. I had my two opportunities there. I think one of them was in overtime. The other was a gut-wrenching loss. The Xavier game at UD Arena was an unbelievable environment to be a part of as a coach.”