'This is what I'm supposed to do.' Meet new Xavier assistant David Miller

When Sean Miller was assembling his coaching staff at Xavier, he was looking for coaches that had the ability to relate to young people, that were likable, respectful, and good people.

David Miller checked all of those boxes.

"David's worn as many hats with me as any person I've ever had," Sean said.

David comes from a basketball family. His father was a longtime assistant coach in college basketball and the NBA, and the first hat David wore while working for Sean was as a student manager at the University of Arizona.

After playing two years at El Camino College, David's dream of playing in the NBA pivoted to coaching.

An opportunity emerged at Arizona and because David had been in college for two years, and played, he was able to hit the ground running in a way most first-year managers aren't able to do. Ryan Reynolds, who's now Xavier's director of basketball operations, was at Arizona at the time and took David under his wing.

David's personality, work ethic, and his ability to cultivate relationships caught Sean's eye.

"He was a manager who also had a great feel for people, back to being able to relate to young people and being likable and just somebody who's a good person," Sean said. "Our players loved him, recruits on visits loved him, the other managers really loved him. We promoted him from within and he became a graduate assistant."

After three years as a graduate assistant, David thought it was time to take on a new challenge.

"I felt like I needed to kind of get away because I came in at 20 years old and was like, 'Let me go try something else, something new,'" said David. "So I got the video job at Alabama with Avery Johnson, which was completely out of nowhere."

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He was there for two years, and after his first year, was promoted to director of player development, a role where David was involved heavily in scouting and recruiting.

Then, Joe Pasternack, who was an assistant at Arizona when David was there, became the head coach at UC Santa Barbara, less than two hours from David's hometown, so he joined Pasternack for two years as director of basketball operations.

"After two years at Santa Barbara, coach Miller called me and said, 'Hey, I have this idea,'" David said. "At that point, I was pretty deep in international recruiting as I transitioned from Alabama to UC Santa Barbara, that's where it kind of started for me and coach (Miller) wanted me to dive into international recruiting."

Sean wanted to make a new position on his staff – director of recruiting – and he wanted to bring David back in that role at Arizona.

"When we brought him back to Arizona the last time he had a huge stake in our international recruiting," Sean said.

David had a big hand in recruiting international prospects like Kerr Kriisa, Ben Mathurin and the Tubelis brothers.

In addition to all the other responsibilities that come with being a part of a college basketball staff, David's carved out quite a place in international recruiting.

"To his credit, he's really forged the know-how of how to recruit internationally," said Sean. "He's got great contacts. He loves to do it."

That international piece is something Sean plans to carry on at Xavier.

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"To differentiate our program, maybe from so many others, being able to blend in the right international flavor to our roster," Sean said. "In one year, it may be one player, and another year, it could be two or three, but I think being able to add that to today's college basketball is a really powerful tool."

David's second stint at Arizona lasted two years and led to his first assistant job at San Jose State under Tim Miles.

"The best experience of my life, the one year at San Jose State," said David. "We did not have a good season as far as wins and losses ... but the amount of responsibility Tim Miles gave me, I'm forever indebted to him. I was 31 at the time, first full-time assistant position. He gave me substitutions during games. He let me call the offense. In practice, he let me do a ton of stuff.

"I already had confidence but it gave me the confidence like this is what I'm supposed to do."

David had no intentions of leaving San Jose State, but like most of the college basketball world, he couldn't help but notice the news that Sean was returning to Xavier.

Pretty soon, Sean reached out and asked David if he wanted to come with him to Xavier.

"Yeah, 100%," David laughed. "He's like, 'It's Cincinnati, Ohio. You've been on the West coast for a while now,' and I was like, 'Coach, I'd go anywhere with you.'

"If there was one person that could get me to leave Tim Miles, it was Sean Miller."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'This is what I'm supposed to do.' Meet Xavier assistant David Miller