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In just nine years in the coaching profession, Miller has been able to coach in the ACC, the Big Ten and the Pac 10. |
DAYTON, Ohio - The University of Dayton has selected one of the top young assistant coaches in the country to be its new men’s basketball coach, naming Ryan “Archie” Miller today.
Miller, 32, comes to UD from the University of Arizona where as Associate Head Coach he helped the Wildcats to a 30-8 season that ended with an Elite Eight berth. Miller succeeds Brian Gregory, who was named head coach at Georgia Tech last Monday.
Miller has a recent connection to two teams that just missed the Final Four this year. Prior to the last two years at Arizona, he was at Ohio State for two seasons.
The Beaver Falls, Pa. native was at Arizona the last two seasons, where his brother Sean is head coach. After going 16-15 in 2009-10, the Wildcats had the biggest turnaround of any top program in the country, improving by 14 wins to 30-8.
In just nine years in the coaching profession, Miller has been able to coach in the ACC, the Big Ten and the Pac 10 while working in the some of the nation’s most fertile recruiting grounds in the East, Midwest and West. His wide range of responsibilities at all of his coaching stops have allowed him to learn from three of the most-respected coaches in the country while developing contacts from coast-to-coast. Every one of these experiences have prepared him to be a Division I head coach.
“Archie Miller is the right guy for this time at the University of Dayton,” said UD Vice-President and Director of Athletics Tim Wabler. “He is someone who embraces of building on what has come before and getting us annually in the NCAA Tournament. He has a tremendous basketball pedigree and is well-respected at the highest levels of the game.
“He is a great fit for the University of Dayton, and it became clear as our search progressed that he was our man.”
Miller knows all about Dayton basketball.
“I have always had great respect for the Dayton Flyer basketball program, the University of Dayton, and the Dayton community, and even more respect for how they are so intertwined,” Miller said. “It is so special.
“I don’t take lightly for one second the opportunity or responsibility in front of me,” he added. Our program is one of the rare programs that stacks up with any in terms of the total package of athletics, academics and community support.”
Miller is regarded as a top recruiter – Arizona’s incoming recruits are a Top 10 class – and game strategist – he was the architect of Arizona’s upset of eighth-ranked Texas to get them to the Sweet 16.
That really shouldn’t be a surprise. Basketball is the family business. Archie and Sean both played high school basketball for their father John at Blackhawk High School. John was one of the country’s top high school coaches when he retired in 2005, with 657 wins in a 35-year coaching career. Archie, Sean and their sister Lisa all played Division I college basketball.
Archie and Sean Miller are one of three Division I head coaching brother combinations. Brad (Radford) and Seth (Virginia Tech) Greenburg, and Bill (New Hampshire) and Tom (Marshall) Herrion are the other two.
