By Mike Finger / San Antonio Express-News, 2026-11-14 15:28:46
2026年11月9日周一，得克萨斯州奥斯汀，在NCAA大学篮球对阵格兰布林州立大学的比赛前，得克萨斯大学主教练肖恩·米勒观看球队热身。（美联社照片/斯蒂芬·斯皮尔曼）
奥斯汀——在得克萨斯大学最令人印象深刻的新建筑之一的角落办公室里，肖恩·米勒 (Sean Miller) 从办公桌前能看到他许多前任看不到的景象。
首先就是校园。
在过去，在阿贝·莱蒙斯 (Abe Lemons)、汤姆·彭德斯 (Tom Penders) 和里克·巴恩斯 (Rick Barnes) 那些经常取得成功、偶尔也扣人心弦的时代，长角牛男篮项目的总部设在几个街区之外，在一个高坡的另一侧，对大多数学生来说，那里简直和圣马科斯一样遥远。
如今已被拆除的欧文中心曾发挥过它的作用，但它总是让人感觉与宿舍、图书馆以及那座庞大的体育场脱节——甚至比标志性的学校钟楼更能代表得克萨斯州的资金和实力所能取得的成就。
几代篮球教练都曾试图弥合这一差距。事实证明，这总是比看起来更难。但当米勒看向办公室窗外那座橄榄球圣殿时，他看到了建立联系的潜力。
“这对我来说很容易接受，”57岁的米勒说道，他靠在2022年启用的穆迪中心旁那座最先进的篮球训练设施的沙发上，“在我人生的这个阶段，你在这里真切地看到了那些你知道在其他地方不存在的东西。”
其他地方的篮球项目有着更深厚的篮球文化底蕴。米勒一生中的大部分时间都是在这样的地方度过的。他曾在匹兹堡大学作为大东联盟的控球后卫大放异彩，在北卡罗来纳州立大学的“烟草之路”担任助教积累经验，随后在泽维尔大学两度执教以及在亚利桑那大学执教期间赢下了无数场比赛。
然而，得克萨斯大学是一个能让像米勒这样的终身篮球人最终登顶、甚至可能在这里结束职业生涯的地方，只要他能找到方法，将这里丰富的资源转化为打进最终四强的动力。
作为一名教练，他从未打进过最终四强。作为一个篮球项目，长角牛队也已经近四分之一个世纪没有打进过了。为了实现这一目标，米勒正试图让整个学校都参与进来。
这意味着要将联系延伸到街对面的新橄榄球训练设施，延伸到隔壁的游泳和跳水项目，延伸到市中心办公楼里的捐赠者，甚至延伸到圣安东尼奥等城市的校友群体。
这也是米勒决定与贝勒大学主教练斯科特·德鲁 (Scott Drew) 合作，将周日这对前同联盟死敌之间的对决带到弗罗斯特银行中心的原因之一。自2003年长角牛队挤满阿拉莫穹顶体育馆，在精英八强战中上演史诗般胜利击败密歇根州立大学，并借此打进过去79年来唯一一次最终四强以来，他们就再也没有在圣安东尼奥打过球了。
这场比赛不会像上次那样吸引3万名球迷。但对于一支在米勒执教的第二个赛季初期排名全国第7的长角牛队来说，这位教练表示这依然很有意义。
“我们有很多充满激情的校友，”米勒说，“我们有很多捐赠者。我们有很多热爱得克萨斯大学的人。我认为能够去（圣安东尼奥）总是一件好事。
“我们想要建立的那种合作关系，你们可以从马刺队身上看到（他们曾在穆迪中心打过比赛）。他们在这方面做得非常出色，我认为我们非常清楚并牢记圣安东尼奥对我们来说是一个重要的地方，这很有好处。”
随着周日比赛临近，下层看台仍有大量座位可供选择，马刺队主场的球迷们预计将近距离观看到这支得克萨斯队的首场重大考验——他们在去年三月打进甜蜜十六强后，几乎不得不从头再来。
米勒只从他在奥斯汀执教的第一支球队中带回了一名首发球员（身高7英尺的马塔斯·沃基泰蒂斯 (Matas Vokietaitis)），并招募了全国排名第一的新秀班底，由控球后卫奥斯汀·古斯比 (Austin Goosby) 和前锋小马库斯·斯皮尔斯 (Marcus Spears Jr.) 领衔。
尽管米勒在之前的执教履历中有着培养NBA球员的悠久历史，尽管他在亚利桑那大学和泽维尔大学在NCAA锦标赛中取得了诸多成功，但他在奥斯汀如此迅速地证明自己同样能做到这一点，依然起到了很大作用。他说，上赛季的征程带来了“蹦床效应”，让他在高中生新秀和转学门户 (transfer portal) 球员中赢得了“多得多的公信力”。
当然，转学门户如今已是大学篮球世界的常态。最优秀的球员像本世纪大部分时间里一样，打完一年就去参加NBA选秀，而许多没有离开的人则在寻找更多的上场时间和来自其他学校的更好待遇。
但米勒表示，他认为这正是他能够进一步释放得克萨斯大学潜力的地方。本周早些时候，他邀请了前橄榄球主教练马克·布朗 (Mack Brown) 来给他的球员们演讲。
“你们知道有多少亿万富翁来看你们的比赛吗？”米勒转述布朗的话说，“你们知道有些来看你们打球、成为你们球迷的人，在世界上是什么样的人物吗？当你们离开这里时，这有朝一日能为你们打开多少扇门吗？”
米勒认为，在转学门户时代，这种信息依然能引起球员们的共鸣。他说，建立人脉关系和以往任何时候一样重要。
“有时候，因为变化太大，我们所有人都会忽视这样一个事实，那就是这种联系依然普遍存在，”米勒说，“就像，这依然是来到得克萨斯大学的一部分。”
因此，在他的角落办公室里，随着校园看起来比以往任何时候都更贴近得克萨斯大学的篮球项目，他继续努力弥合这一差距。
通往橄榄球场。通往图书馆。通往钟楼。通往圣安东尼奥。
或许，也通往他前任们曾看到、却未能完全触及的成功。
由生成式 AI 翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
查看原文：San Antonio game vs. Baylor fits Sean Miller's quest in Texas hoops
San Antonio game vs. Baylor fits Sean Miller’s quest in Texas hoops
Texas head coach Sean Miller watches his team warm up prior to an NCAA college basketball game against Grambling State in Austin, Texas, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephen Spillman)
AUSTIN — From his corner office desk in one of the University of Texas’ most impressive new buildings, Sean Miller can see what many of his predecessors couldn’t.
Campus, for one thing.
In the old days, during the often successful and occasionally captivating eras of Abe Lemons, Tom Penders and Rick Barnes, the Longhorns men’s basketball program was headquartered a few blocks away, on the other side of a rise that to most students might as well have been in San Marcos.
The now-demolished Erwin Center served its purpose, but it always felt detached from the dormitories and the libraries and the massive stadium that, even more than the iconic school tower, represented what Texas money and know-how could achieve.
Generations of basketball coaches tried to bridge that gap. It always proved to be more difficult than it appeared. But when Miller looks at the shrine to football just outside his office window, he eyes the potential for connection.
“It’s easy for me to embrace,” the 57-year-old Miller says, leaning back on a sofa in the state-of-the-art basketball training facility next to the Moody Center, which opened in 2022. “Where I’m at in life, you really see things here that you know don’t exist in other places.”
Other places have programs where the hoops culture is more deeply ingrained. Miller spent most of his life in places like that. He starred as a point guard in the Big East at Pittsburgh, cut his teeth as an assistant on Tobacco Road at North Carolina State, then won lots of games as a head coach throughout two stints at Xavier and one at Arizona.
Texas, though, is a place where a basketball lifer like Miller finally can get over the top, and maybe even finish his career, if only he can find a way to channel its abundance of resources toward Final Fours.
As a coach, he’s never made one. As a program, the Longhorns haven’t been to one in almost a quarter-century. To get there, Miller is trying to get the whole place on board.
That means extending connections to the new football practice facility across the street, and to the swimming and diving program next door, and to donors in office buildings downtown, and even to chunks of the alumni base in cities like San Antonio.
That’s one reason why Miller decided to work with Baylor coach Scott Drew to bring Sunday’s showdown between the former conference foes to Frost Bank Center. The Longhorns haven’t played hoops in San Antonio since packing the Alamodome for an epic 2003 Elite Eight victory over Michigan State that sent them to their only Final Four of the past 79 years.
This game won’t draw 30,000 fans, like the last one did. But for a Longhorn team ranked No. 7 in the country early in Miller’s second season, the coach says it still makes sense.
“We have a lot of passionate alums,” Miller says. “We have a lot of donors. We have a lot of people that love Texas. And to be able to go (to San Antonio) I think is always healthy.
“That partnership we want to develop, you see it through the Spurs (who’ve played games in the Moody Center). They do it great on their end, and I think it’s good for us to be very aware and very mindful of how San Antonio is an important place for us.”
With plenty of lower-level seats available heading into Sunday, fans at the Spurs’ home arena figure to get an up-close look at the first big test for a Texas team that basically had to start over after making last March’s Sweet 16.
Miller brought only one starter (7-footer Matas Vokietaitis) back from his first team in Austin, and added the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class, led by point guard Austin Goosby and forward Marcus Spears Jr.
Even though Miller strung together a long history of producing NBA players at his previous stops, and even though he’d had lots of NCAA tournament success at Arizona and Xavier, it helped that he proved so quickly he could do it in Austin, too. Last season’s run, he says, led to a “trampoline effect” that lent him “so much more credibility” with recruits in high schools and in the transfer portal.
The portal, of course, is the way of the college basketball world now. The best players leave for the NBA after one year, like they have for most of this century, and many of the ones who don’t look for more playing time and better deals on other campuses.
But that’s where Miller says he thinks he can unleash even more of the power of Texas. Earlier this week, he invited former football coach Mack Brown to speak to his players.
“Do you understand how many billionaires attend your games?” Miller says Brown told them. “Do you understand that some of the people that are fans of yours, that are watching you play, who they are in the world? The doors that can one day open when you leave?”
That is the kind of message Miller thinks still can resonate with players in the transfer portal era. Making connections, he says, matters as much as it ever did.
“Sometimes, because of how much it’s changed, all of us can lose sight of the fact that that’s still prevalent,” Miller says. “Like, that’s still a part of coming to the University of Texas.”
So from his corner office, with the campus looking closer than ever to Texas’ basketball program, he keeps trying to bridge the gap.
To the football stadium. To the libraries. To the tower. To San Antonio.
And maybe to the success his predecessors saw, but couldn’t quite reach.
By Mike Finger / San Antonio Express-News