Considered one of the nation's best up-and-coming college basketball assistants, James Miller is set to begin his fourth season as the associate head coach at NM State in 2021-22.
Since arriving in Las Cruces, Miller has aided the Aggies in remaining atop the WAC while also maintaining their reputation as one of the nation's premier mid-major squads. In his three seasons on staff, Miller has helped NM State post a 67-19 (.779) record which includes a 38-7 (.844) mark in regular-season WAC showdowns. NM State's winning percentage in conference play through the past three seasons stands as one of the top three among all NCAA Division I men's basketball squads. With Miller on their side, the Aggies have laid claim to WAC regular-season titles in 2019 and 2020 as well as the league's tournament crown in March of 2019. That tournament title pushed NM State to its 22nd NCAA Tournament appearance in the history of the program.
Over the past three seasons, NM State players have secured a total of 13 All-WAC honors of some kind while three student-athletes have gone on to earn NABC All-District laurels. Those players have helped NM State claim two of the last three WAC regular season titles as well as the league's automatic bid to the 2019 NCAA Tournament. That year - Miller's first season with the Aggies - saw the team experience tremendous growth with a program record 30-5 record and 19-game winning-streak.
As a matter of fact, the Aggies have posted 19-game winning streaks in each of the first two seasons of Miller's involvement with the program and NM State enteered the 2020-21 season riding its latest 19-game unbeaten run after the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to all college basketball for the remainder of the year on March 11, 2020.
Even though they were barred from playing any games within their home state in 2020-21 as a result of in-state COVID-19 restrictions, the Aggies were still able to achieve a degree of history. NM State matched the longest winning streak in program history (21 games) by emerging as the victors in their first two games of the year. Miller also helped guide NM State to its ninth consecutive appearance in a WAC Tournament championship game.
He spent the 2017-18 season on the North Texas staff that won the 2018 College Basketball Invitational title while also posting the nation’s fifth-best win-improvement with 12 games. The 20-18 overall record last year was the first 20-win season at UNT since the 2011-12 campaign.
Prior to his time in Denton, Miller was an assistant under Grant
McCasland at Arkansas State in his first year at the helm. While in Jonesboro, Ark., he helped the Red Wolves to the nation’s second-largest turnaround in the NCAA with a 10-win improvement in 2016-17.
During the 2015-16 season, Miller was an assistant at Omaha. The Mavericks participated in just their second postseason tournament since making the move to Division I with an appearance in the College Basketball Invitational that. The Omaha offense was ranked fourth national in scoring offense (85.3 PPG), fifth in steals per game (9.4) and
12th in turnovers forced per game (15.8) and was just one of three teams in the Summit League to reach postseason play.
Miller is quite familiar with the Land of Enchantment, having been the head men’s basketball coach at New Mexico Junior College from 2012-15 after spending the previous three season as an assistant (2009-12). During his tenure as the head coach, the Thunderbirds were 77-23 overall with three-straight postseason appearances. Miller also had 21 players move on to play at Division I programs during that time span that included Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, TCU and NC State to name a few.
In his final season with NMJC, the Thunderbirds went 23-9 overall and advanced to the semifinals of the NJCAA Region V Tournament. Miller’s first season at the helm saw the Thunderbirds capture the Region V Championship and earn their first national tournament berth in 17 years.
He spent four seasons (2005-09) at CSU Pueblo before serving as an intern with the Arizona State men’s basketball team out of college.
Miller was also a student manager with the men’s basketball team at Colorado State where he graduated with bachelor’s degree in 2005. He also received his master’s degree from Northern Colorado in 2007. Miller and his wife Darlene have two daughters, Mia and Maci.
