With the recent news out of Texas, Xavier basketball is looking for their next head coach after losing Sean Miller to the Longhorns. Miller had previously been Xavier’s head coach in the late 2000’s and was three years into his second stint in the job. The Musketeers were bounced from the NCAA Tournament Friday night after winning in the First Four, ironically knocking out Texas.
Miller had previously been on staff with the Musketeers under Thad Matta and later had success both as the program’s head coach and for more than a decade out at Arizona. Miller was responsible for a prosperous era in the A-10 during his first stint and made headway this time around in the Big East, getting Xavier to the NCAA Tournament twice in his three years.
However, there’s now an opening once again for the Musketeers and it’s still an attractive job. They may be a small school but are in a great conference in the Big East and an attractive market in Cincinnati. Xavier has made a living on hiring coaches previously associated with the program, as Miller himself was an assistant given the top job. Could they do something similar again or is it time to look outside the vast Xavier coaching tree?
We’ll be considering a number of candidates, casting something of a wide net on available coaches who could match what Xavier is looking for with their program. This program could do great things in the Big East with the right leader and commitment to NIL, so let’s cast a wide net with our initial candidate choices.
Jeff Boals
Perhaps not a candidate that immediately comes to mind, Boals played at Ohio and has been the Bobcats’ head coach for the last six years. He’s a former assistant at Akron and Ohio State with plenty of experience working and recruiting in the state of Ohio. He led the Bobcats to an NCAA Tournament upset win four seasons ago over Virginia and has stayed afloat in a competitive MAC. He has no connections to Xavier and isn’t the most exciting name out there, but Boals is a great coach on the rise.
Adam Cohen
Previous Xavier head coaches like Miller, Chris Mack, and Travis Steele were all former assistants who were promoted when their predecessors left town, so perhaps we should be looking at Cohen in the same light. Xavier’s current associate head coach has never been a collegiate head coach, but he has been an assistant at several schools, notably working for Harvard, Stanford, and Vanderbilt before his time with the Musketeers. The program likely wants someone with more experience but he’s definitely a viable option and another young coach on the rise.
John Groce
When Thad Matta was Xavier’s head coach from 2001 to 2004 Groce was on his coaching staff before following him to Ohio State. Twenty-one years later, could Groce be a great hire back in Cincinnati? In between there he’s been head coach at Ohio, Illinois, and Akron, with significant Tourney success at Ohio before flatlining in the Big Ten. Since arriving at Akron in 2017, his work has been fantastic and he is coming off a third trip to the Big Dance in the last four years. Groce could even be a lifer with the Musketeers and less likely to jump to another job.
Alan Huss
The bottom line with Huss is that he’s another head coach on the rise, though his experience is a bit less than some of these other names. A former Indiana high school coach, he was a collegiate assistant for nearly a decade, including a long stint in the Big East over at Creighton. He’s been head coach at High Point for two years now and is fresh off the program’s first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. Winning 79% of your games looks great in the Big South, but how would Huss handle the transition calling the shots for a Big East school?
Chris Mack
A strangely sensible name, Mack was previously head coach of Xavier from 2009 to 2018 and could be one of the favorites to bounce back home again. A former player and assistant under three different head coaches, he actually succeeding Miller the first time back in 2009 and took the Musketeers into the Big East with Tournament success. Mack had four tough years trying to fix Louisville before bouncing back this season with decent work at Charleston. He’s another established name that might stay at Xavier for the long haul.
Porter Moser
If there’s a power conference head coach out there ready to jump to Xavier then Moser might be that guy. A Creighton alum and longtime assistant and head coach, he’s led four different D1 programs, most notably taking Loyola Chicago to the Final Four back in 2018. Since 2021, Moser has been entrenched at Oklahoma and hasn’t had the progress that everyone expected, meaning he could jump at a chance for a recent with the Musketeers. Moser could do wonders in the Big East with the right support, though he hasn’t had established success as a head coach outside of a few seasons with those Ramblers.
Luke Murray
If a lack of head coaching experience doesn’t put you off then Murray could be a phenomenal hire for the Musketeers. He’s a rising name in the coaching world with experience under Dan Hurley, Chris Mack, and a few other coaches. He’s won a pair of national titles as an assistant at UConn the last few seasons, but was also at Xavier for three seasons before following Mack to Louisville. Again, Murray has no head coaching experience but seems like one of the top coaches in waiting in the country and could do wonders in the right situation.
Richard Pitino
While he’s been and remains a name of interest at several other jobs, Pitino could fit nicely at Xavier in the same conference as his father. He graduated from Providence and worked in the Big East at Louisville under his dad before beginning his own head coaching career. He’s had varying success at FIU, Minnesota, and New Mexico but has done wonders recently with the Lobos, getting them into the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Whether or not there’d be mutual interest, his work in Albuquerque has him as a hot candidate for some of these types of jobs, even without prior Xavier experience.