In all honesty, the fact that his teams never shoot threes is a bit terrifying.
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Another way of saying he had one good season as a D1 head coach 20 years ago.
What can I say, right now I’m disappointed with how the staff looks, but we’ll see the results in time.
I don’t want to be a total pessimist. It’s my natural state.
That’s why you look at conference records, which in Miller’s case don’t look any better.
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Guess I had him pegged as one of the three main assistant roles. If he is indeed the fourth assistant, I largely agree with you
If memory serves me right, there have been a couple former UM players on his Westchester Knicks rosters. Would guess (hope?) Howard and/or someone in the program would have reached out to them for their opinions at some point in the interview process?
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Well they just saved $1.3- $1.8 million on the head coach, So there’s that.
And stating an opinion that things ought to be a certain way doesn’t indicate a lack of awareness that it may not turn out that way. In other words, if they do not spend more on basketball that is purely because they choose not to. The funds are absolutely there in an abundance even if the will is not.
Then I guess I’m not sure what type of person you are expecting for that job. If you want someone with HC experience, it is probably someone that was not a good HC. That also doesn’t make them a bad assistant. And this guy has proved in the GLeague he’s not a bad HC, and he was fine as a D1 HC at beyond awful programs.
The 3 point thing is interesting as Dylan mentioned. GLeague teams shoot A LOT of 3s, they shot a much smaller percentage, but still had quite a few guys who got a lot up. Their 2pt% was much better than their opponents this season, so maybe he was playing to the teams strengths. Lack of 3 pt attempts often leads to bad 2 pt shooting as well because of bad spacing, but that was not the case.
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Zak Irvin and Trey Burke both played for the Knicks G League team.
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I wouldn’t think that you would hire a guy from the G-League who is known for his player development to serve as a special assistant that can’t coach in practice. He would be one of the three primary assistants I would assume.
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maybe he was reading umhoops forum and found out open midrange is making a comeback baby!!!
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Looked up his eastern Illinois kenpom stats and beyond his teams being horrific they played super slow.
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This, last few coach b teams would have benefited from pushing it more and looking to get easy baskets in transition as opposed to slowing it down/ shooting lots of threes. I think this could help, particularly with z.
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So he fits in good with our current roster
Yea I don’t really see why people are harping on his records at TSU and EIU. Those places are waste lands and any former head coach they could bring in was going to have warts, otherwise they would still be a head coach somewhere.
Miller obviously knows the college game and can sell recruits on his development skills. Sounds like a solid hire to me.
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I guess we’ll find out. What are the coaching headcount limits as far as recruiting goes? Is it HC + 3? Whatever caused him to underwhelm, record-wise, as a HC, let’s hope it’s circumstantial (as @kturnup argues) or not applicable to his role on Howard’s staff.
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Stealing this from MGOBLOG (h/t robpollard), past winners of G League coach of year:
2016-17: JERRY STACKHOUSE, RAPTORS 905
2015-16: DAN CRAIG, SIOUX FALLS SKYFORCE
2014-15: SCOTT MORRISON, MAINE RED CLAWS
2013-14: CONNER HENRY, FORT WANE MAD ANTS
2012-13: ALEX JENSEN, CANTON CHARGE
2011-12: ERIC MUSSELMAN, LOS ANGELES D-FENDERS
2010-11: NICK NURSE, IOWA ENERGY
2009-10: CHRIS FINCH, RIO GRANDE VALLEY VIPERS
2008-09: QUIN SNYDER, AUSTIN TOROS
Decent list
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Yes, you get a head coach and three assistant coaches.
Everything else is basically support staff.
I can’t agree that he was “fine” as a D1 HC. The numbers (including in conference) just don’t back up such a claim.
However, it seems I’m in the minority today and I don’t want to rain on everyone’s parade, so I think I’ll check out for the rest of the day.
I’ll be hoping for some good recruiting news in the next week or so to put me in a better frame of mind about the team.
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Some quotations that stood out from his G-League players:
Billy Garrett
“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.”
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Interesting to read the player quotes from his Coach of the Year season. A lot of mentions about “development” and “communication” not as much praise for his Xs&Os, which perhaps explains how he could fit in as an assistant for Coach Howard’s staff, while maybe struggling to be a Head Coach of his own at the collegiate level?
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