Thad loves Sean

...and vice versa. We get caught up too often in silly stuff. The fact that some Xavier fans still resent Thad Matta has exactly no bearing on the game today. The players don't care. The coaches don't care. Miller told an interesting story Friday: When Matta hired him away from NC State to be his top assistant, Miller lived in Matta's house for a month. Years before, the two shared a tiny office in Millett Hall, when they were assistants at Miami. The bottom line on Matta and X is this: The guy used XU as a steppingstone to a better job. X WANTS coaches that have that sort of ambition and talent; it's very, very good at finding them. No coach who has worked there since Bob Staak has left the place worse than he found it. Far from it.

Where Matta whiffed was in how he left. A few weeks after speaking glowingly to me about Father Hoff and the "Xavier family'', he was off to Columbus, divorce complete. That was disingenuous, at best. It was also a very coachly thing to do, and happens all the time at the big-time level. Every coach has a little Nick Saban in him. Matta was no different.