Arizona’s Sean Miller will replace Billy Donovan as head coach of the 2015 USA Men’s U19 World Championship team, USA Basketball announced Thursday.
Donovan withdrew from the position after leaving Florida recently and accepting the head coach job with tjhe Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA. Miller assisted the 2014 USA Men’s U18 National Team to the gold medal in a dominatin 5-0 run through the FIBA Americas U18 Championship.
Providence College coach Ed Cooley will serve as an assistant coach and Dayton’s Archie Miller has been chosen to join the U19 coaching staff. The defending U19 gold medalists, the USA will attempt to replicate that feat at the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship that will be held June 27-July 5 in Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
Sean Miller and Cooley were on the U.S. sideline as assistant coaches at the 2014 FIBA Americas U18 Championship, where the USA qualified for the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship, while Archie Miller is undertaking his first USA Basketball coaching experience.
“The appointments of Sean Miller, Ed Cooley and Archie Miller to lead the USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Championship Team gives that group of players three of the most successful teachers in college basketball,” said Jim Boeheim, Syracuse University’s Hall of Fame head coach and chair of the USA Basketball Junior National Team Committee. “All three coaches have taken their respective programs to an elite level, and now they will combine their talents to have the U19 group prepared for a gold-medal run.”
In 2014-15, Arizona finished 34-4, winning the second-most games in program history, and captured Pac-12 regular-season and tournament titles en route to a second-straight NCAA Elite Eight appearance – a feat accomplished only once before in program history.
Sean Miller also participated in USA Basketball as a player, and as a member of the 1991 USA World University Games Team, he brought home gold after averaging 5.3 points and 2.5 assists per game for the USA.
“I am honored to be named head coach of the USA Men’s U19 World Championship Team,” Sean Miller said in the press release issued by USA Basketball. “It is exciting to be coaching such a talented group of young players, as well as working alongside a great coaching staff. I look forward to the responsibility and challenges that lie ahead in our journey to win the gold medal at the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship.
“Ed Cooley and I were assistants together under Billy Donovan on the U18 National Team that won gold last year in Colorado Springs. We were familiarized with the international game, and we both enjoyed being part of a style of play that Billy brought to last year’s team. We look forward to continuing that style this summer.
“Additionally, rejoining my brother Archie as part of this staff is special,” Sean Miller added. “We worked together for two seasons at the University of Arizona before he left to become the head coach at Dayton. Obviously, we have great familiarity with each other and share a similar philosophy with the game. The familiarity that Archie, Ed and I share should be an asset toward our success with the USA Men’s U19 World Championship Team.”
Cooley previously was announced on Jan. 13, 2015, as a 2015 USA U19 assistant coach. In 2014-15, he led Providence to a 22-12 record and a second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance, where Cooley and his team fell to fellow USA U19 assistant coach Archie Miller and the University of Dayton. Cooley led the Friars in 2013-14 to a 23-12 record, a Big East Tournament title and the NCAA Tournament.
– Material from USA Basketball included
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