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Sean Miller’s 200th win at Arizona, achieved Friday at Cal, is slightly ahead of the pace Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson established early in his coaching career with the Wildcats.
Miller’s record is 200-63 at Arizona. When Olson reached 200 wins at the school in 1991-92, his record was 200-70. Fred A. Enke is the only other Arizona coach to reach 200 wins as the school’s coach. His record when achieving that mark was 200-108 in 1939-40.
In terms of Miller being seven games ahead of Olson’s pace, a factor to consider: Olson took over a program that had only four wins before his hire 1983. Miller, however, also took over a program on a downward trend after two years of interim coaches following Olson’s leave-of-absence and retirement saga in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons.
Of course, Olson took Arizona to its first Final Four in 1987-88 in the span it took him to reach 200 wins. Miller is still in search of his first trip there although he has reached three Elite Eights with the Wildcats.
Miller’s record lined up against Olson and other active coaches shows he is on his way to being an elite coach in only his 13th year leading a program (five at Xavier and in his eighth season at Arizona).
Thanks to research by the Arizona media relations department, we know Miller reached 200 wins at Arizona (263 games) before Tom Izzo did at Michigan State (286), Mike Krzyzewski at Duke (291) and Jay Wright at Villanova (295).
ACTIVE COACHES WHO REACHED 200 WINS AT THEIR SCHOOL
Arizona’s Sean Miller is seventh among active coaches in the amount of games it took for him to reach 200 wins at his school, Arizona. The following table has information courtesy of the Arizona media-relations department.
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ARIZONA’S COACHES WHO REACHED 200 WINS AT THE SCHOOL
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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