PHOENIX -- Xavier coach Sean Miller played in the NCAA tournament three times as a member of the Pitt Panthers, so he has no trouble understanding the hype and pressure that his players are feeling as they prepare to play UCLA in the West Region final today at US Airways Center.

He said those experiences are valuable, but mostly because he's able to talk with his players about the finality of it if you lose. He talked about how Pitt's second-round upset loss to Vanderbilt in 1988 -- the "Barry Goheen game" -- is one of the few games in his career that still bothers him.

"It has been, I guess, almost 20 years since I played college basketball, but you remember the NCAA tournaments like they were yesterday," Miller said. "And unfortunately, I can share that [getting knocked out of the tournament] experience with guys because as great as it is to be a part of the tournament, it is equally like a train wreck when it ends."

Miller laughed when he was asked to compare his Pitt teams -- and in particular that 1988 team which is regarded as the most talented team in school history -- to the current run of NCAA tournament teams. He said he and his former teammates talk often about how they would match up with the current Panthers, and not surprisingly they all agree they'd win.

"We'd look them in the eye that's for sure," Miller said. "And we'd have given any of them a run and probably beat them. Think about it -- we had the nation's leading rebounder [Jerome Lane] and the No. 3 pick in the draft [Charles Smith], and great talent around them.

"And if Barry Goheen's shot doesn't drop, Kansas probably doesn't win a national title that year because they were in our region and they could not have handled us.

"But that is what makes this tournament special -- it is one off night and you go home."

UCLA coach Ben Howland picked up the phone earlier this week and called Pitt athletic trainer Tony Salesi, and Salesi said he had just gotten off the phone with Miller.

Miller said the development wasn't a surprise because Salesi is an institution at Pitt and is the kind of guy who is a friend for life for anyone who comes through the program.

"Ben gravitated toward Tony when he was at Pitt, too," Miller said. "Tony is a great guy, one of those guys that the outside world doesn't appreciate nearly as much as coaches and players."