SAN DIEGO β In a strange kind of way, Saturday was 2009 all over.
Sean Miller was Xavierβs coach, while the man who was rumored as a possible candidate to take over the UA program in 2009, Jamie Dixon, was preparing for an NCAA Tournament game.
Dixon, who was a part of TCUβs last two NCAA Tournament victories as a player and coach, was among a list of potential names to succeed Hall of Fame head coach Lute Olson, after he rebuilt Pitt into a consistent winner. The job eventually went to Miller, the coach at Xavier β the school he returned to on Saturday.
βThat was a long time ago. Iβve been a rumor for a lot of jobs,β Dixon said with a smirk. βI donβt know. Half of them I donβt even know about, so thatβs intriguing.β
Dixon recalled Saturday that succeeding Olson would have been an intimidating responsibility.
βI remember anybody following him; that guy and what he did to that program, itβs going to be an immense challenge,β Dixon said.
Olson retired at the start of the season, giving then-UA athletic director Jim Livengood months to monitor a lengthy list of coaches. As the chair of the NCAA Division I menβs basketball committee, Livengood had access to private team practices.
βI saw them do more than just coach,β Livengood said Saturday by phone. βYou can go to a game and watch a guy coach, thatβs one thing. But when you watch them in a closed practice, you really find out who does the coaching, what they do, player relationships and all those things.β
Livengood said he developed a βgreat deal of respectβ for Dixon.
βI was around a lot of national teams and saw him practice, saw the meetings, all those things,β Livengood said. βOne of the best things about that committee is being able to see coaches in closed practices and watch them.β
Was Dixon a candidate for the Arizona vacancy, before Miller was named head coach?
βHe probably couldβve been,β said Livengood. βWe didnβt have a committee and Robert Shelton was our university president. The person I used in the search process, because Iβve known him for so long, was C.M. Newton, who has since passed away. C.M. was the AD at Kentucky and was a basketball coach at Vanderbilt β just a longtime figure in college basketball.β
A native of Burbank, California, Dixon had the West Coast ties Arizona was looking for. Dixonβs defensive-minded approach didnβt fit Arizona at the time, Livengood said.
βOur fan was used to what Lute had brought and Lute changed over the number of years,β Livengood said. βThat was one of the greatest things. β¦ We wanted to end up with somebody that wasnβt going to be the next Lute Olson. We werenβt trying to replicate that, but we wanted to replicate many of the values that Lute had.
βHow players were treated, recruiting, who we were going to play and maybe not replicate that style of play, but maybe to that degree. And it was just such a great job. Arizona was always a great job and Lute did such a phenomenal job in 25 years.β
Livengood said βthere were about 15-16β coaches who interviewed for the job in 2009, including former USC head coach Tim Floyd, who flew to Tucson to interview.
Dixon was not one of them.
βMost of the time, and itβs even more so now with social media, those rumors were things someone got from social media or somebody put out something,β Livengood said. βI talked to a lot of people, and again, I had an advantage because I had enough time with Luteβs retirement and the interim group that was in there, and I had seen so many coaches.β
Added Livengood: βThere were a lot of misnomers during that time. It was a very interesting time because when youβre going after someone to replace Lute, itβs just not like an everyday job on the street.β
Even Mark Few, UA coach Tommy Lloydβs former boss at Gonzaga, was linked to the job.
βThere were so many rumors in terms of conversations I had with Mark Few, which never happened,β Livengood said.
The hiring process in 2009 βgot a little nerve-wracking in late February and early March,β Livengood said, because most of the names he focused on were still playing in the NCAA Tournament. That year, Miller and Xavier went to the Sweet 16.
βMost of the people you wanted to have that final conversation with were still playing in the tournament. We tried to be very careful with regards to interrupting someone with their own program and their kids playing, because we did value what a contract meant, especially if someone did that to us. It got a little nerve-wracking in late February and early March.β
Nearly 13 years later, Livengood is happy with his choice to hire Miller.
βI thought Sean did an outstanding job at Arizona,β he said. βA couple more buckets and there couldβve been some Final Fours in there. Who knows what wouldβve happened with some of those teams. But thatβs yesterdayβs news. If I had to do it again, I wouldβve done the exact same thing,β Livengood said. βHe was the right person, right time, right fit. Even now, I think Tommy Lloyd is a tremendous hire.β
Livengood remains a fan of Dixon as coach, even though heβll be rooting for Arizona on Saturday.
βJamie is a fantastic basketball coach. I donβt know if he gets the credit that he should, because these are tough jobs. Some people say, βWell he had all this success at Pitt, why hasnβt he blown the doors off at TCU?β Iβm not saying that, but you hear all these wonderment things. These jobs are tough. Itβs all about time, place and fit. If those three things can work, they can be the magic bullet in the hiring process,β Livengood said.
βTime, place and fit, that may sound nebulous or cliche, but Iβve always felt that way regardless of the sport. Jamie is a good one β a great one. I donβt want him to be a great one (Sunday) night. I want him to be a good one, but not a great one (Sunday) night.β
For Dixon, coaching against Arizona on Sunday wonβt be a reminder of his rumored interest in the head coaching vacancy, but rather his mentor in Olson.
βWatching what he did and what he built, and all those guys, and then seeing him, what he became,β Dixon said. βAnd then I got to know him through coaching NAU, and he became a mentor to me. He was very, very special. β¦ But the resources are unbelievable. Itβs always a job that β or school or program that I have just watched from afar because Coach Olson was to me β did the most unbelievable work thatβs been done in college basketball.
βI think what he did at U of A and what he built, the following, was just amazing. He is a mentor, and I cherished every moment with him. We used to go on Nike trips and clinics, and I did a lot of different things with him, and he just meant a lot to me and my family and my wife.β