Vacated wins overshadow Sean Miller's 450th official victory, leaving him with a personal milestone and a testament to his true coaching legacy.
When the buzzer sounded on Saturday, the Texas men's basketball team had defeated rivals Oklahoma 79-69, keeping its NCAA Tournament hopes well in reach.
For the Longhorns, it was just another win in their journey to the postseason, but for Texas head coach Sean Miller, the victory represented a milestone.
Texas' Red River Rivalry win was Miller's 500th victory as a head coach, spanning his 20 years at three programs (Xavier, Arizona, and Texas).
The problem?
Officially, the win will only go down as Miller's 450th victory. To explain, we have to go back to late 2022, when Arizona had 50 wins vacated from 2016-2018.
The Wildcats were charged by the NCAA for bribing players (pre-NIL era), including future No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, Deandre Ayton, along with falsifying documents related to player eligibility status.
In total, Arizona committed 10 violations, including three of the Level 1 severity, leading to its discipline.
The dilemma is that Miller was found to be not at fault (for the most part) of these violations.
His assistants, Emanuel "Book" Richardson and Mark Phelps, were the main masterminds behind the crimes, and they were punished accordingly, including show-cause penalties and even an arrest.
The NCAA's Independent Accountability Resolution Process deemed that Miller's assistant's actions were hard to detect, and could not find a reason to punish the head coach on a personal level.
But the damage had already been done.
A coach's record is something they take pride in. When a milestone is hit, it's a proud moment for them and their team.
And for the time being, it's taken away what should be Miller's 500th win ceremony... at least officially.
Because in his heart, no one can take away what he's accomplished in his tenured career.
"The one thing that I would say about those 500 [wins] - and I'll just leave it at this: I can assure you that I looked at the scoreboard 500 times, and I was the winner 500," Miller said after Saturday's win.
"I shook the other coach's hand, walked into the locker room that I was a part of, and had the joy that you only experience in college sports. That did happen to me 500 times."
No matter what the record book says, the "joy" of winning cannot be vacated, and for Miller, that's what matters most.