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Doland native and former Northern State University assistant men’s basketball coach Tim Miles, left, is now the head coach at San Jose State University. Courtesy photo.
There’s an art within the profession of coaching college basketball that has largely disappeared and leaves Tim Miles feeling whimsical.
For years, he recruited high school basketball players, working to build not only the next year’s team, but also a foundation for a successful program, a roster on which players could develop for a couple of years and lead the way as upperclassmen.
But in the era of the transfer portal, that process doesn’t work so well.
College coaches now have to scour the portal and come up with Name, Image and Likeness money as they assemble a new lineup season after season.
NIL money and the transfer portal have converted college athletics into more of a business, and the head men’s basketball coach at San Jose State University knows he has a limited line of credit.
Miles
Miles, a Doland native who used to be an assistant men’s basketball coach at Northern State University, said that after a loss, he used to start thinking about how to better recruit to fix any shortcomings. Now, after a defeat, he thinks about how he can raise more money to attract better players.
His shift in mindset doesn’t mean Miles believes college players shouldn’t be paid. To the contrary, he said he thinks it’s wrong that for decades they couldn’t. But in one sense, coaching has changed fundamentally given that players can transfer schools each year, looking for more money, more playing time or a new setting.
Miles expects that buyout clauses will soon be added to NIL contracts — financial penalties that should keep players from entering the transfer portal so often.
Those contracts allow student-athletes to make money as schools use their images or names. In other words, if a jersey with the player’s number and name is sold, they get a cut.
In the new landscape, Miles will have to keep mining the portal instead of spending more time nurturing younger players through four or five seasons. Recruiting a high school player used to be a six- to 18-month endeavor. Now, it lasts two to six weeks, he said.
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The process isn’t completely gone. It’s just changed dramatically.
But everybody needs to adjust. Miles said he encourages younger players to get on the floor and be productive. A player needs to be where a coach and program will invest him so he can be his best.
“And then, great things happen to everybody,” Miles said.
One thing that hasn’t changed is that players still want to be coached and get better, he said.
Miles has done a fine job of developing players and turning around programs during head coaching stops at Mayville State, Southwest Minnesota State, Colorado State, Nebraska and now SJSU. He’s been named conference coach of the year four times, and in 2013-14 won the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award, leading the Cornhuskers to 19-13 record
San Jose State, he said, reminds him of Mayville State. Both programs have limited resources and, when he started, were coming off rough stretches and in need of a little TLC.
In two years leading the Comets, Miles had a 35-22 overall record as Mayville qualified for the NAIA Division II national tournament both seasons.
Lessons learned at Northern State
That was during his first stint as a head coach. Before then, he spent six seasons as the Northern State men’s basketball recruiting coordinator. From 1989 through 1995, Miles helped lead the Wolves to five regional titles and five NAIA national tournaments. Those teams had five all-America players and played in two national NAIA championship games.
Former Northern State University assistant men’s basketball coach Tim Miles is entering his fifth season as head coach at San Jose State University. Miles grew up in Doland. Courtesy photo.
The lessons learned haven’t been forgotten, Miles said.
He said former Northern head coaches Bob Olson and Don Meyer were great tacticians and leaders.
There’s ample evidence of that.
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Six players from the Olson and Meyer eras have gone on to be NCAA Division I head coaches. Aside from Miles, the list includes Craig Smith, Sundance Wicks, Paul Sather, Ryan Miller and Steve Smiley.
Smith was an assistant to Miles at four schools and has gone on to coach at the University of South Dakota, Utah and Utah State.
Wicks is the head coach at Wyoming, Sather at North Dakota, Miller at Murray State and Smiley at Northern Colorado.
“I think that says something about what Northern was doing for us,” Miles said.
The community, its people, the campus and the athletic department were always supportive at Northern, he said.
Olson, Miles said, had a defining trait.
“The discipline — he had incredible discipline in his coaching,” he said.
Jim Kretchman and Todd Jordre were also influential during Miles’ time at Northern, he said.
Responsibilities change throughout a coaching career, the recipe Miles learned with the Wolves has not. Find good kids, train them hard, treat them well and always leave the locker room cleaner than you found it is a good combination, he said.
While he was hired as a graduate assistant at Northern, Miles said he was always treated like a head coach. He said NSU set him up for a lifetime of success. For that, he’s grateful.
Life after Nebraska
Most times, Miles has moved on by choice, though he was fired from Nebraska in 2013 after a 19-17 season, a 116-114 overall record and three postseason appearances in seven years.
He thinks his fate would have been the same even had he won more games or qualified for the NCAA tournament in his final season. A new athletic department administration wanted change, he said.
The next two years, Miles worked as a college basketball TV analyst for FS1 and the Big 10 Network. He said he enjoyed the duties, but “just missed (coaching) with my whole heart.”
He had chances to take jobs in the Mid-American and Missouri Valley conferences, but couldn’t pass on the allure of the Mountain West Conference when SJSU called.
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It’s a bigger conference and one Miles was familiar with from the five seasons he spent rebuilding the Colorado State program. In 2007-08 during his first year in Fort Collins, the Rams were 7-25 overall and 0-16 in Mountain West Conference play. Five years later, they were 20-12 and qualified for the NCAA tournament before Miles left for Nebraska.
Entering his fifth season at SJSU, he has the same aspirations for the Spartans.
One thing Miles said he did while working in TV was find a way to be more grounded, and he’s taken that philosophy to the West Coast. He said there’s more to enjoy in life than building an elite basketball program.
That includes a little golf.
“I still hit a weak bleed little slice and try to hit under 90 whenever I can,” Miles said with a chuckle.
But when it’s basketball season, he’s all business. It’s more a lifestyle than a job, he said.
Official practices begin Sept. 23, Miles said, then, “I’ll wake up and it’ll be April 1.”
Tim Miles is the head men’s basketball coach at San Jose State University. He grew up in Donald, attended the University of Mary and was an assistant men’s basketball coach at Northern State University. Courtesy photo.
Miles, San Jose State have been to postseason two of past three seasons
San Jose State has been to the postseason in two of the past three seasons. It’s the first time the program has achieved the feat since 1981. But the dream, of course, is the NCAA tournament. That last happened in 1996, when the Spartans won the Big West Conference Tournament.
The ecstasy and the agony are no different in Division I. Miles said his teams have beaten Indiana three times, but those victories didn’t feel any better than when he was at Southwest Minnesota State and downed the Wolves.
In Marshall, Minn., he revived the Mustangs, posting a 78–39 record in four seasons and leading Southwest to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight before heading to NDSU in 2001. There, he helped the Bison transition from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I and, in six years, accumulated a 99-71 mark.
While the process is different nowadays, his job still involves building a team, just like he did in Aberdeen or anywhere else.
“Well, if we can make a shot, we’ll be OK,” Miles joked about the upcoming season.
He knows the Spartans won’t be favorites, but said, “I’m at a place in my career where I want to get San Jose State to a place it’s never been before.”
It would take something extraordinary to get Miles to leave San Jose, he said.
His daughter Ava is a SJSU graduate and is now studying sports law and business at Arizona State as she works on her master’s. His son Gabe runs track at North Dakota State where he studies business and finance.
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Miles still makes it back to South Dakota, though not as often as when his parents were alive. He has siblings in the state and said he’s visited Brookings to watch Gabe run. His son’s speed certainly came from his mother, Kari, Miles said.
It was tough, he admitted, to follow the Wolves as they won just two games last season, but he’s confident new NSU head coach Matt Wilber can turn things around.
Miles, who turns 59 on Aug. 20, said he still loves the Barnett Center and all of his memories from his time with the Wolves.
“I just cherish those times,” he said. “And what a way to start a career.”
