College Basketball

Texas vs. Xavier: For Souley Boum, Sean Miller and Rodney Terry, happiness is all about fit

Updated Mar. 24, 2023 3:11 a.m. ET

KANSAS CITY — Souley Boum has experienced plenty across his five seasons in college basketball.

Hostile road crowds, long bus rides with teammates, late night shots in an empty gym, cramped flights across the country and even the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. There is not much in the game that the graduate transfer has not seen or felt firsthand.

On Friday night however, Boum’s past has conspired to offer up something fresh and unique as 3-seed Xavier takes on 2-seed Texas in the later of the two NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional semifinal games.

As the prolific scoring guard trots out onto halfcourt with his trademark smile wider than ever, he’ll do so while taking a handful of final instructions from his current head coach Sean Miller before turning in the direction of the opposite bench to give a slight nod to his former coach who also played a role in getting him to the Sweet 16 for the first time in his career.

"It's crazy because it just shows you how everything comes full circle," said Boum, who played at UTEP under current Longhorns interim coach Rodney Terry. "I played for him for three years. We have a great relationship. I know he cares about me. I care about him.

"Stuff like this, it rarely happens. So, I'm just trying to soak it all in, appreciate everything about it."

It may be an infrequent encounter at the moment, but an ex-player meeting an ex-coach on one of the game’s biggest stages in March Madness will soon no longer become all that novel in the day and age of the Transfer Portal. Coaches change jobs, players move on, the search for better opportunities elsewhere will continue — all accelerated by the ease of movement that has become so prevalent in college athletics over the past two seasons.

For most, however, the relationships remain even with the change of address.

"You talk about a great kid, one of my favorites to coach. Came to us at UTEP after having a really successful rookie campaign as a freshman at San Francisco — he was a guy that was wired to score," Terry recalled of his former player. "Souley is so focused on winning sometimes to a fault. He's like, just give me the ball. Let me go do it. I'll show you, Coach. We'll get it done. Just a fierce competitor, great kid. Love him like my own son."

Setting aside the competitive fire that will be reserved for tip-off, the two still texted each other regularly over the course of the season and Terry made it a priority to do so before the Musketeers’ game against Pittsburgh in the Round of 32 — knowing the bracket would set up a potential reunion in Kansas City the following week.

While both sides surely would have preferred that their hugs and friendly exchanges in the bowels of the T-Mobile Center prior to Thursday’s shootaround would have occurred wearing the same colors, there is an acknowledgment by both coach and player that they’re right where they should be going into a career-defining contest with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line.

For Boum, who was one of the better scorers in Conference USA with the Miners, making it to the Big Dance for the first time was always the overriding aim when he opted to enter the portal last spring with more than 2,000 career points to his name.

Miller ended up being one of the first coaches to reach out shortly after he had accepted the job for a second time at Xavier. The urgency to bring Boum to the Queen City wasn’t just a case of a coach taking over a program looking to add scoring to a team that was fresh off a run to the NIT title, but rather the result of the scoring guard leaving quite a lasting impression on the then-Arizona coach when the two squared off against each other at McKale Center back in December of 2020.

Outscoring future lottery picks such as Dalen Terry and Bennedict Mathurin, Boum poured in 16 points in a three-score game that came right down to the wire.

"You scout a team, you prepare for them, and then you play against the team, I think you have a pretty good feel for players and different things. That firsthand experience allowed me to feel good about him," said Miller. "I'm thrilled for him. A lot of the things that we talked to Souley about a year ago that we thought could come true, have come true for him. He had a great opportunity, and he's taken advantage of that opportunity."

Boum has blossomed under Miller’s tutelage, finishing the year second in the Big East in scoring and playing a critical role in the team’s numerous close wins over tough competition with his stellar free-throw shooting.

"Could I have projected he would be a First Team All-Big East player and he would have a feel for the game? No way," added Miller. "Not that I didn't think he'd be as good as he is, but he's been a super player for us. If you talk to other coaches in the Big East, they'll tell you he's a big difference in our team. He came to us for all the right reasons, and he's meshed with the group and our team and our university, in almost like a seamless way, as if he has been with us longer than a year."

Perhaps that’s just Miller unwittingly speaking about himself as he enters day 369 on the job at a place he first made his name at more than a decade ago — three years as an assistant to Thad Matta and five more as head coach from 2004-09.

Now he's looking to remake his name in a second stint after a turbulent ending to his time in Tucson. Miller later told FOX Sports that he wasn’t sure what kind of coaching job he could get after being let go by Arizona amid connections to the federal investigation into corruption in college basketball. But he has embraced this second chance with a Musketeers program that he knows so well.

"You can’t take it for granted. Certainly, I don’t," he said. "I’m grateful for the opportunity and all I can do is take advantage of it."

That’s been apparent to anybody watching this season. The often-blistering personality that developed over a dozen years in the desert has mellowed in the return to Xavier, with Miller looking refreshed, refocused and far less volatile in leading his team back to the second weekend of the tournament — well ahead of the expected schedule.

Perhaps that’s as much to do with the circumstances of this return to the Cincinnati area. The 54-year-old notes he and his wife are now empty nesters and not raising three young boys while trying to balance the demands of being a coach with a ferocious fan base that hangs on every result. Middle son Cam is even on staff nowadays as the team’s Director of Operations.

"It's a fantastic place that sometimes has an understated tradition when it comes to this tournament," said Miller. "The passion for college basketball hasn't changed. As a matter of fact, now that we're in the Big East conference ... I'd say there might even be more passion towards our team and the college basketball season."

The kind of renaissance that Miller is experiencing at a place near and dear to his heart is something that his opposite number is feeling, too.

This is Terry’s second stint with the Longhorns, the first coming as an assistant under Rick Barnes which was highlighted by the team’s last trip to the Sweet 16 back in 2008. One of the lead assistants responsible for recruiting many of the most talented players to roll through the 40 Acres like Kevin Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge, the Angleton native who played college ball down the street in Austin at Division II St. Edwards has been grateful for the support he’s received from many of those prominent alums as his current team has gone on this blistering run in March.

"When you sign up to be a part of a program, they're part of your family for life. I think that's just, again, just a reflection of your lifelong relationships that you have with your players," said Terry. "You don't just coach guys for four years and you're still not a part of their lives. You're going to be at their weddings. You're going to call them and talk to them when they have their first kids. I think I've always tried to do a great job of staying in my former players' lives and still being a part of what they're doing and investing in those guys as a true extension of my family as well."

To underscore the point, look no further than the player who Terry has been furiously scheming to stop this week.

The same one who will also receive the biggest of embraces no matter what the scoreboard reads when it goes final.

"I learned a lot from him. He pushed me and my teammates a lot and he’s a very compassionate coach. He cares about everyone, it’s not just about basketball for him. I feel like he’s shown the world he’s deserved that job (permanently)," remarked Boum. "I'm just going to try to do my best to give him some fits tomorrow."

"We'll be major competitors come Friday night," Terry agreed. "He wants to win. I want to win."

In the end, only one will. But what an experience it should be for all involved.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.

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