Mike Miller (Not That Mike Miller), Come On Down
Per Tony Paul, this is the guy Michigan is targeting to fill the ex-head-coach slot:
Hearing this is almost certainly happening.
— Tony Paul (@TonyPaul1984) May 29, 2019
Mike Miller has coached a ton in college, with two HC gigs -- Texas State from 1994-2000 and Eastern Illinois from 2005-12. Last four years as HC in G League.
There's your Howard assistant with HC experience. https://t.co/XTgtMgmMy5
Miller's tenure at Texas State was pre-Kenpom and successful. He won the Southland league and playoff championships in 1997, garnering the program's second-ever NCAA bid, and won the league again two years later. EIU didn't go well at all, with losing seasons in six of his last seven years and no teams that broke into the top 200. EIU had a few teams around the turn of the millennium that were decent and one bid as a 15 seed; Miller's successor has done a whole lot of nothing.
[After THE JUMP: Miller's stock goes up after he hits the G-League.]
After leaving EIU he jumped to the Spurs' G-League affiliate as an assistant; two years later the Westchester Knicks made him their head coach. There Miller's had a lot of success in the chaotic G-league. He was the coach who bounced Trey Burke back into the NBA, and he maintained the W-Knicks' success even after losing him:
This season in particular was a banner year for Miller and the W-Knicks program. The team finished 32-10, tied with (go figure) the Austin Spurs for the best record in the G-League. Westchester finished with the third-best net rating in the league with a +3.7, only behind the Spurs and the Raptors 905 (a team that sports another solid coaching candidate, Jerry Stackhouse). Miller won the G League’s Coach of the Year award. …
Maybe the most important item when finding a new Knicks coach, the Dubs posted elite defensive numbers across the board this season: Miller’s team finished third overall in opponent FG% at 44.4 and second in points allowed per game at 101.5. Defense was a goal all year for Westchester, despite the team’s revolving door of talent throughout the season.
“I think one of the things that happened is, when Trey Burke signed and was gone, we knew that was a big piece of offense that was gone,” Miller said. “We sat down with our group and said, if we don’t become one of the top defensive teams — we had set out to be one of the top five defensive teams, that was something we talked about, we wanted to be one of the best top five teams — and we weren’t there. So we kept moving that way, and got better and better in the second half of the season. I think we defended very well.”
He won the G-League coach of the year award in 2018, which has a pretty good track record. Other recipients include Stackhouse, Raptors coach Nick Nurse, new Arkansas and former Nevada head coach Eric Mussleman, and Jazz head coach Quin Snyder. Quotes from his team after he won the award—including one from a familiar name—sound a bit like Juwan Howard quotes:
Zak Irvin
“Coach Mike is one hell of a coach. It was well deserved that he was able to get Coach of the Year last year and he’s done a good job this year as well, especially when [the] roster changes. You never know [who's] going to be here. He’s able to adapt to that.”
Billy Garrett
"I thought he would win it the whole time. One thing that makes him so in detail with the player development is he understands everyone’s game and he can dissect it and figure out where you need to improve. Not every coach can do that and he knows how to convey what he’s trying to teach to you and not everybody is capable of that. That’s a strength that he has and it’s the reason why he can develop guys and send guy after guy to the NBA.”
Xavier Rathan-Mayes
“It’s just the way he is with guys. He does a great job in helping guys in getting to where they want to be. We go through progress reports every week and where we want to get to and our goals. We set that and lay it out. Obviously, winning as a point guard is big. That’s something he stressed to me is that point guards are looked at upon as winners or losers."
Miller's most recent G-League teams were a bit heavy on mid-range jumpers and light on three pointers, but that might have been a function of personnel. In addition to Trey Burke the W-Knicks had Nigel Hayes. In the G-League you get who you get and Miller was handed midrange city, baby.
The only real negative that pops out to me is recruiting. Miller's never done it at a high- or even mid-major level. Other than that you're getting a guy who got some traction for the Knicks job and is in a G-League COTY award cohort that has a lot of head coach success stories along with important assistants for the Spurs, Heat, and Celtics—three of the best-run organizations in the league. Getting Miller as a college assistant is a small coup.
Seems like a plus that he can adapt to roster changes with the early entries he'll encounter at U-M. Juwan and one/both of the other assistants hired can be the strong recruiters.
Putting this here
According to St Joe's 247, Phil Martelli is coming on to be asst. coach to Juwan.
I'm way ok with that. 2 ex-coaches on the staff more than makes up for JH's lack of HC experience.
I'd rather have a young, bright, energy-recruiter for one of those two spots. One seasoned veteran--ala Jeff Meyer--should be enough.
Yay?
Yay!
I am whelmed by this hire.
What's the O/U?
Ditto. It might be that the guy was contacted primarily to help Howard with the desk work, which is very much a need, but he seems overqualified for that. He's not exactly a sure thing either, though.
It's a very common sense hire for the situation considering who's available.
Very whelmed.
Any recruits in Texas? Seems like Mike would be the man for that.
Jalen Wilson plays in Texas!
At the risk of stating the obvious, it seems like "we will put you in the NBA" is going to be a major pitch to recruits.
My only issue with that logic is that they don't have a track record of putting kids in the NBA.
They coached people that already had the requisite skills to be professional basketball players. Beilein coached people who didn't have those skills into having those skills
Of course knowing what it takes is important. But I just don't agree with the "we will get you to the NBA" logic because that's not what they did.
That being said, everything I just said could make them much more attractive to a kid in the top 20 because they're already close to having those requisite skills.
My issue with this take is that Beilein literally demonstrated that this doesn't work. He consistently got deep into the tourney and got his players into the NBA yet any top-100 recruit so much as glancing Michigan's way felt like getting asked out by Charlize Theron.
Charlize is South African, isn't she? Too bad the football team didn't meet up with her on their trip abroad. Does David Turnley know her?
JH needs someone on his staff to show him the ropes and help him transition to the college game, so he's going to hire someone whose last successful stint as a college HC was almost 20 years ago and who has been out of the college game all together for 7 years?
I don't get this one.
Huh? Miller was coaching in college just 6 years ago in 2013 as an assistant at UC-Riverside. His stint as head coach at E. Illinois ended in 2012.
That's fine.
Saddi was Beilein's right hand man when it came to NCAA off-the court shit, so he will still do that for Juwan I bet.
I think this is a solid hire. Curious to see who the third coach is going to be.
Check out the Kenpom numbers for his Eastern Illinois teams (they're not very encouraging). As I said, his last successful stint as a college HC was almost 20 years ago. I forgot about his year as an assistant in 2013, but that's still 6 years since he's been in the college game at all (which also means it's been 6 years since he's been recruiting, too).
I'm not saying it definitely won't work out; maybe Miller will do a fine job. I'm just not particularly enthused by the hire.
Doesn't matter if he's not successful. Most assistants are either not successful as head coaches or are up and comers. What matters is dealing with the NCAA bs that comes with it. As long as he can advise Howard on that stuff, we're golden.
I don't think 6 years is that long of a layoff when you consider that he coaches young players in the G-League as well. Recruiting wise, Saddi, Howard and whoever the 3rd assistant is will probably have that all covered.
It matters that Miller wasn't a successful HC because that's one of the few data points we have regarding his ability to coach in the college game. It doesn't automatically mean he's not a good coach but it is relevant, especially since one of his main jobs at Michigan would be to teach JH how to run a program. If Miller wasn't good at doing that himself, what makes you think he'd be able to guide JH successfully?
Recruiting is obviously important, so if you're not expecting Miller to contribute much in that regard then he'd need to be great at everything else to justify the hire. I don't see that as being the case. If the 3rd assistant also ends up being a coach currently working in the pros (like Howard Eisley), recruiting would become even more important for Miller.
Yak’s high school teams were terrible but he worked out? Sometimes you’re felt a crap sandwich. Can’t win many poker games with a 7-2 off suit
Were Yaklich's high school teams terrible? I didn't know that. Sometimes you get dealt a 7-2, sure, and you can't do much with that. Miller was at EIU for 7 years though, which is plenty of time to demonstrate his ability to build a program. If he was holding a 7-2 there it's because he dealt it to himself.
It seems like he can develop players based on his success in the G League, which is a big positive. If he's the guy we're trusting to teach JH how to be a head coach at the college level, I'd feel better about it if he had a more impressive college resume. I think there are legitimate questions about his ability to recruit, too.
You underestimate how difficult it is to recruit basketball players to Eastern Illinois. It's not a particularly nice college town, it's nowhere, and they have no history of success at all (they've won the OVC tournament once and have never won the regular season title in any league since joining D1 in the early 80s).
They have a fairly solid FCS football history though
Or maybe EIU is the 7-2
This post brings to mind the worst part of the MGoCommunity: out-the-ass analysis of assistant coaches who they have virtually no qualification to opine on.
Is it better to objectively consider the potential hire or just blindly support it?
objectively consider of course. Since you haven't actually done that, I will be intereseted to see what you come up with.
I have, though. As I've already said, I think Miller's work in the G League shows he's good at developing players. That's a big positive. I'm discouraged by his track record as a HC, as well as the time that has lapsed since he was a college coach/recruiter.
Overall Miller could work out but he's far from the great hire some people here seem to think, in my opinion. This also may all be irrelevant, as it sounds like maybe Phil Martelli is getting the job. What are your thoughts on Miller?
It's not about being supportive. It's about you breaking down something that, unless you're inside a practice facility, you really have no idea about. You don't have enough knowledge of Mike Miller or what assistant basketball coaches do (or what Juwan Howard wants him to do) to make credible comments about it one way or the other. And that's ok.
You're putting a lot of analysis into something you aren't qualified to break down. And that's weird.
If I'm coming off as trying to convince anyone that I'm more qualified to analyze a basketball hire than anyone else, I apologize. I have an opinion but am completely willing to admit that I might be wrong. And if Miller ends up being hired, I hope I am.
It’s Eastern Illinois...He was having success in the G league where things are more equitable.
Jeff Meyer was a mediocre head coach that Beilein brought out of mothballs and he was our best assistant for almost a decade. This hire reminds me a lot of him.
Right. Of course it wasn't going to be a successful head coach because a coach like that would still be an HC somewhere! It's not like he was gonna get Roy Williams. Saban has been hiring lots of fired HCs and it's worked well for him.
What former head coach would you have wanted to hire?
A former HC who was recently successful at a D1 school at any level.
By JH, do you mean Jim Harbaugh?
No? Although the idea of Jim Harbaugh coaching both the football and basketball teams would really be something.
We're gonna need some agreed-upon abbreviation conventions for Juwan Howard vs. Jim Harbaugh. FJH and BBJH (football and basketball)?
Things are going nicely for Howard so far. This sounds like an 'A' hire.
Yak wasn’t a proven recruiter either, who knows how that will go but can’t argue with the resume. To get a guy with even minimal nba head coaching chatter for a college assistant spot is good news
You can't argue with a resume that includes a whole lot of meh to bad seasons and which peaked 20 years ago? You certainly can argue with it. Past success at a P5 school in any capacity? No. Past success recruiting? No. Uhhh, soooo, name recognition? At least Juwan has that, buuuuut nope.
I like that he won G-League COY but he did it when he was 55. 55! The other guys Brian mentioned did it early in their careers on their way up the ladder. This guy is stuck on the second rung, which wouldn't be that bad if not for Saddi being on the same rung.
I'd rather have at least one up-and-coming superstar that is going to produce well above his pay grade even if only for a couple years. Maybe that'll be the third guy.
Could be fine, and yeah, yeah, trust Juwan. But this is underwhelming when you let a budding superstar walk.
Personally I’m trying to grasp how are Saddi and Yak not on the same level? They both would be described as up-and-comers.
Saddi was at Oakland as an assistant for ten years. That's a long time to be at mid-level program without being the coach in waiting.
He's not being handed the keys to half the gameplan and producing top 5 units. He's not getting phone calls from other big programs looking to hire him away. He's not coming up very quickly that's for sure, but fine he is on a gradual incline.
Yak's ascension is rapid and he's killed it at every stop.
Saddi’s player development skills are on par with Yak’s defensive chops...ppl here fail to realize no one was offering Yak a head coaching gig. He still has a few years ahead of him as an assistant before he garners that attention. He’s good but when Beilein left he could’ve put Yak in charge but opted for Saddi.
Yeah the disrespect Saddi and Dre Haynes get on here starting from Brian on down is fucking ridiculous.
Does anyone remember Billy Donlon? Because he was the guy who actually made the defense respectable by bringing them up from being ranked 95 to 37 before he left for Northwestern.
Yak did the rest.
Yak...and Matthews..and Simpson...and Teske. Yaklich's arrival was nicely timed with arguably the 3 best defensive players at Michigan in the last 20+ years.
Duplicate
To me, this choice screams "player development" which is exactly where we want to be.
Not a bad pickup for an assistant spot. Recruiting will be a thing but the hope, I assume, is that Howard, Washington, etc. will be able to help there a bit and, who the hell knows, maybe Miller will do well on the trail with a big name behind it?
I tend to think Michigan's issues recruiting in college are less of an issue since they likely won't ever be chasing those top-30 kids where it'll matter just how smooth you are. Sure, you want to recruit top players, but guys in the top 50/100 likely know they'll need a year or two in college to be successful, and those guys you can win over with development and winning metrics that, I hope, Michigan can keep going on.
Man some of you commenters are some hating ass haters. I like this hire. Hate on that.
I hate you
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