MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Archie Miller stood in the bowels of the FedEx Forum on Wednesday trying to put into words the impact his older brother Sean has had on his own coaching career.
On Thursday, they will become the first brothers to coach in the same Sweet 16 when Archie sends his Dayton Flyers against Stanford in Memphis, while Sean leads Arizona against San Diego State in Anaheim, Calif.
“The amount of time with Sean and working with him for two years [at Arizona], I have a good belief about how to play and what we’re doing,” Archie told The Post. “What he enabled me to do was tie it all together to be able to run a program 365 days a year. Things change from year to year with personnel and styles. But from a philosophy and how we do things, we have a good way about us.”
John Miller, 70, will be in the stands at the FedEx Forum to watch his son Archie, 35, and the 11th-seeded Flyers try to continue their improbable march through the NCAA Tournament. Sean’s top-seed Cats (32-4) were expected to get to Anaheim, but Dayton (25-10) upset sixth-seeded Ohio State, 60-59, and then third-seeded Syracuse, 55-53, to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1984.
The success of the Miller boys has made their father a celebrity of sorts as the national media tells the story of a high school basketball coach who won 657 games and four state titles in western Pennsylvania and now has two sons coaching on college basketball’s biggest stage.
“He’s very excited,” Archie Miller said. “I think he’s probably a bit taken back by the attention he’s probably getting and our family’s getting. In his mind, this is an unbelievable experience not only for our program and doing what we’ve done at a very early stage, but he’s also got the big picture in mind with Sean in terms of watching him go through his years at Xavier and now at Arizona. The hope of a national championship or a Final Four appearance is there.”
A driven father has produced two driven sons. Archie took the Dayton job three years ago after working for two seasons under his brother at Arizona, where he was associate head coach. Before that he made stops at Western Kentucky, North Carolina State, Arizona State and Ohio State. Like his father and brother, Archie Miller is a demanding coach, who pushes his players to perform their best.
“He’s really detailed and he’s a really passionate guy,” senior guard Vee Sanford said. “It kind of reflects on us on how we play, very passionate, very hard working, a blue-collar team.”
The Flyers were a mediocre 15-8 at the end of January after dealing with injuries to guard Khari Price, starting center Matt Kavanaugh and reserve forward Alex Gavrilovic. But Dayton got healthy and has won 10 of its last 12.
“We’ve had great character and we’ve had great camaraderie all year,” said Miller, who had his contract extended through the 2018-2019 season. “It started to take hold in February. We didn’t win the Atlantic 10, which we wanted to do, but I think towards the end of the season there were very few Atlantic 10 teams playing as well as us.”
The former guard at N.C. State adheres to the tough love approach he learned from his father.
“I don’t have any favorites,” he said. “I think that’s what I took from my dad from the very beginning. Everybody is the same. Hold them accountable and make them better. If you do that, good things will happen.”
Archie Miller hopes good things will happen against Stanford. The 10th-seeded Cardinal beat New Mexico and then second-seeded Kansas to spoil their share of brackets.
“This is kind of what it’s all about,” Miller said. “We expect a very, very difficult game, but I also think we have a chance to do something special here this weekend.”