Arizona coach Sean Miller to dissatisfied fans: 'Go cheer for ASU'

Like the Buffalo Bills teams that made four straight Super Bowls without winning one or the Atlanta Braves teams that perennially reached the playoffs but captured only one championship, Arizona coach Sean Miller wishes all his fans could see the bigger picture.

Miller has resurrected a program in transition post-Lute Olson by amassing a 283-99 record in Tucson and leading the Wildcats to three Elite Eights in the past five years, yet he still occasionally endures criticism for not ending Arizona's 14-year Final Four drought.

The notion that Arizona's 2014-15 season wasn't a success is one Miller addressed on Twitter late Sunday night. The Wildcats won 34 games, swept the Pac-12 regular season and tournament titles and tallied three NCAA tournament wins, but again their season ended in Elite Eight heartbreak, this time at the hands of top-seeded Wisconsin on Saturday night.

While the bittersweet label of best coach never to reach a Final Four is surely one Miller is eager to shed, that final tweet reads more like an attempt to protect his players than defend himself. Senior T.J. McConnell and sophomore Rondae Hollis-Jefferson both tearfully apologized to the coaching staff for not being able to get them to a Final Four as they exited the game in the final minute Saturday

"That guy right there is like my dad," McConnell explained afterward. "I just felt down that I couldn't get him there."

You can quibble with Miller not fouling Wisconsin down five in the final minute, but by and large he has done an exceptional job in six seasons at Arizona. He has replenished Arizona's roster by recruiting as well as any coach not named John Calipari. He has won the Pac-12 outright three times in six years including both of the past two. And he has an 11-4 NCAA tournament record in the four seasons Arizona has gotten there.

"I'm not going to apologize for not making the Final Four, and neither should these guys," Miller said in his postgame news conference Saturday. "There are a couple of them ... that have won 69 games in two years, have won back-to-back conference championships, have been in the top 10 for every day that they've dribbled a ball at Arizona. We lost to Wisconsin in two hard-fought battles in the Elite Eight. If that's a problem, I think you know what you can do."

Yup, "go cheer for ASU" apparently.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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