Curt Miller hopped into the driver’s seat of a disheveled Bowling Green State University Women’s Basketball team 10 years ago with a five-year plan to restore the program to its successful past.
He exceeded his own expectations when he took the Falcons to the Mid-American Conference Tournament Championship in only his third season as head coach and again when they won the tournament the following season.
Since their first tournament championship appearance under Miller in March 2004, all his Falcons have done is win games.
And when a team becomes a perennial league powerhouse in so short a time, the coach must be credited.
Miller attributes much of his success to having the same coaching staff in place during his 10-year tenure:
“The key behind [the success] is having a coaching staff that has been with me the entire time,” Miller said. “We’ve never lost an assistant coach. They’ve been very loyal and dedicated to staying here and helping build something special.”
Miller’s teams get it done in the classroom as well, making the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll three out of the poll’s last four years.
“We call it the golden double,” Miller said. “We want to be in the top 25 on the basketball court, but we also want to finish in the top 25 in the GPA poll.”
The Falcons had cumulative GPAs of 3.47 (5th) and 3.5 (6th) in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons. The 2010-11 season poll has yet to be released, but Miller expects his Falcons to rank in the 15-25 range.
But with success comes press, and based on his team’s success on the court, as well as in the classroom, it is only natural for other schools to strike an interest in Miller.
“I am very honest with the team that if we continue to have success, every offseason there’s going to be a little bit of a coaching carousel, and at times, with success, you’re going to be contacted about opportunities,” Miller said. “It’s a topic that is addressed with every single recruit as well.”
Miller recently interviewed with the universities of New Mexico and California Berkeley.
The UNM job provided some appeal, as its Vice President of Athletics, Paul Krebs, hired Miller while he was the Athletics Director at the University. Miller also coached at Colorado State for three years prior to coming to BGSU, so he is familiar with the Mountain-West Conference.
“It was a situation that my players knew I was going to listen to, and it was an opportunity I thought my family and I deserved to listen to,” Miller said.
UNM decided to promote internally, hiring 11-year assistant coach Yvonne Sanchez.
Cal contacted Miller for an interview in the midst of his UNM visit and asked him to fly to Oakland, Calif., before returning home, according to Miller.
“That opportunity presented itself … I flew from Albuquerque to Oakland and took a day to talk with representatives with Cal,” Miller said. “But upon leaving that interview, Cal was not for me.”
He said he has turned six other BCS jobs down in the past–including a Big-East offer–and that this offseason was not unusual but acted as a productive learning experience.
But Miller has put the offseason events behind him and is entirely focused on the upcoming season.
The Falcons recently lost six seniors–four of them starters–to graduation. The 2011 class is considered one of the best recruiting classes in school history, and their departure has created some voids.
“When you graduate the all-time leading scorer in school history and two of the best three-point shooters in the country–let alone on the same team–the immediate worry is, ‘Can we score like we have through the years?’ You know, where are we going to get our offense from?” Miller said.
Miller will be looking to five freshmen and a redshirt sophomore from Duke to step in and help fill some of these voids over the next few years.
Logan Pastor, out of Green High School in Uniontown, Ohio, might be the most highly-touted recruit the Falcons have signed since Lauren Prochaska, according to Miller. Further, with the losses of two of last year’s leading-scorers in Prochaska and Tracy Pontius at the guard position, Miller can see Pastor providing a spark to the offense as a freshman if ready.
Another Ohio recruit joining the Falcons next season is 6-foot forward Shanique Ogle, out of Lorain High School in Lorain, Ohio.
“She’s [Ogle] an outstanding post player, and we graduated four post players, so the need and the depth have really been hurt,” Miller said. “She’s the number one shot-putter in the state right now, to give you an idea of her explosiveness and power.”
While “rebuilding year” is not a phrase that has applied to Miller, considering his teams have been regular-season champions of the MAC for the last seven years, this year should be trying for the Falcons.
But the transition is one that Miller and his coaching staff are excited about.
“I was in a role more of managing over the last couple of years than teaching,” Miller said. “And with nine freshmen and sophomores coming in … the coaching staff is really excited about the new era, and that we’re going to be teaching again.”
He said this year’s team will likely not be the favorite: The same was thought of an inexperienced 2008-09 team which went on to win 29 games and made it to the MAC Tournament’s championship game.
Miller and company are also excited about the upcoming venue change and are looking forward to establishing the same home-court advantage they celebrated in Anderson–they were 46-2 in the last 48 games at Anderson–at the Stroh Center.
The transition from “The house that roars” into the $36 million Stroh Center gives the recruiting process a year-round “wow” factor, whereas before it could only be accomplished on game night, according to Miller.
It appears the sky is the limit for the well-established Falcons women’s basketball program, as long as Miller remains in its corner.