Sean Millerβs new Xavier basketball staff will have a distinct Arizona flavor.
Former UA associate athletic director Ryan Reynolds announced Tuesday he will rejoin the former Wildcats coach in the same director of basketball operations role he held at Arizona, while Miller also reportedly is hiring two former UA aides as assistant coaches.
Stanford associate head coach Adam Cohen, an Arizona graduate who worked under former UA coaches Lute Olson and Kevin OβNeill, will join Xavier as associate head coach, according to Stadium. Meanwhile, CBS reported that San Jose State assistant coach David Miller (no relation), a former UA staffer under Miller, will become a Xavier assistant coach.
It does not appear that Miller will retain Danny Peters, who was an assistant coach on Millerβs final three UA staffs. Peters was also not retained at Arizona after Miller was fired in April 2021, and instead became an assistant coach under Travis Steele at Xavier last season.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Miller will retain assistant coach Dante Jackson, who played under Miller and helped land two recruits who stayed on board after Miller was hired last month.
Reynolds served as Arizonaβs director of basketball operations during Millerβs entire UA tenure, from 2009-21, then moved to a general assistant athletic director role in 2021-22.
Neither Peters nor Reynolds could be reached for comment but Reynolds posted to Twitter that he was βincredibly excitedβ to return to his hometown and alma mater, where he worked as an undergraduate and graduate student. Reynolds also spent a season at Wake Forest before joining Miller at Arizona.
David Miller joined Sean Miller as a manager in 2010, then became a graduate manager before joining UC Santa Barbara as its director of basketball operations from 2017-19, working under former UA associate head coach Joe Pasternack. David Miller returned to UA in 2019 to serve as director of on-campus recruiting for two seasons before leaving for San Jose State, a job he said Miller and Pasternack recommended him for.
A 2008 graduate of Arizona, Cohen was a manager and assistant video coordinator under Olson and served during the 2007-08 season when OβNeill was the Wildcatsβ interim head coach. Cohen then served a year as a graduate assistant at New Orleans before heading to USC to rejoin OβNeill, who was hired as USCβs head coach in 2009.
Cohen also was an assistant coach at Rice (2012-13), Harvard (2013-14) and Vanderbilt (2014-16) and before spending the last six seasons at Stanford.
Cohen helped the Cardinal sign five-star recruits Ziaire Williams and Harrison Ingram while he also gives Xavier an option for an interim head coach in the event that Miller is suspended because of UAβs still-pending NCAA infractions case.
Miller still faces a Level I (most serious) charge for lack of head coach responsibility, and any resulting penalties would follow him to Xavier. If the charge is upheld, Miller will likely receive a Level I-standard individual penalty, according to Stu Brown, an Atlanta-based attorney who works with schools on NCAA infractions cases. Under the NCAAβs penalty matrix, a Level I-standard results in a suspension of 30% to 50% of a season β or 9 to 15 games.
Ex-Cat Lee commits to College of Charleston
Ira Lee has committed to play for the College of Charleston, according to an Instagram post by the former Wildcat forward.
Lee played four seasons for the Wildcats before announcing shortly after the 2020-21 season that he was transferring to spend his extra COVID-19 year of eligibility elsewhere. He chose George Washington but did not play last season after suffering a knee injury last August.
Last week, Lee announced he was entering the transfer portal again and posted his new choice on Instagram on Tuesday.
βLOL. You thought I was finished?β Lee posted.
Boswell class uncertain
UA signee Kylan Boswell played with UA target Dusty Stromer on Team Why Not in EYBL play last weekend, the first open evaluation weekend of the spring, but has not decided whether to stay in the class of 2023 or play for Arizona next season.
Boswellβs father, Brandon, said via text message that a decision will be announced this week. Boswell could technically play EYBL ball through July and then reclassify, if he can accelerate his high school graduation.
Smith excelling in Guaymas
After spending 10 games in the G League earlier this season, former Wildcat guard Dylan Smith is leading the springtime Mexican Pacific Coast league in scoring.
Smith is averaging 24.2 points over six games so far for Guaymas in the Circuito de Baloncesto de la Costa del PacΓfico (CIBACOPA). He had averaged 5.0 points for Lakeland in the G League over 10 games from November through January.
Rim shots
Ramon Cartwright, a regular at home and road games during the UA career of his son, guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, passed away recently. βHis spirit will continue to live through me, my family, and the many lives he touched,β Jackson-Cartwright posted Sunday, thanking those who have expressed support.
Former UA signee Shane Dezonie committed to Saint Josephβs. Dezonie decommitted from Arizona last spring after Miller was fired, then played a reserve role at Vanderbilt last season.
Arizonaβs Instagram account has been following prospects such as Stromer of Southern California, Koa Peat of Gilbert, Matas Buzelis of Lithuania (via Chicago), Tyrese Proctor of Australia and Henri Veesaar of Estonia. Proctor chose Duke last week while preparing for the Nike Hoop Summit game; Buzelis backed out of the game because of an injury.
