Xavier Basketball Coach Sean Miller Tells Rick Pitino To Hold His Beer While Ripping Into Players

Xavier head basketball coach Sean Miller made Rick Pitino’s recent rant look tame while ripping into his own players after a 24-point loss to Marquette on Sunday. The formerly scandalous 55-year-old did not hold back on the Musketeers during his weekly radio appearance and essentially told his team that it is not good enough to play for him next year.

Pitino, in his first year at St. John’s, drew a lot of criticism for his scathing comments last week. He said that his roster is “unathletic” and “unenjoyable” to coach. It was a classic old-school rant.

Miller was not quite as colorful. However, his words were even sharper than Pitino’s.

The disposition of our group in Milwaukee playing Marquette is just fundamentally unacceptable. They were not ready to play, they did not play with great effort, and there’s a couple guys that quite frankly don’t deserve to play anymore.

— Sean Miller

At the root of Miller’s rant was effort.

He wants his players to show up on time, “play for something bigger than yourself,” and “give Xavier maximum effort.” Otherwise, “you will never play” at his program. He wants to hold his team accountable in “a world that doesn’t really allow you to do it sometimes.”