Bowling Green State University Athletics
Miller And Miller Show Debuts This Winter
August 23, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Aug. 23, 2001
By DAMON BECK, Sentinel Sports Writer - Coming soon to an arena near you for your viewing Pleasure -- it's the new Miller and Miller show.
Bowling Green women's basketball welcomes a new coach this season and, to make his job a little easier, he inherits one of the best players in the Mid-American Conference. Both are named Miller, no relation.
Curt Miller, a long-time assistant at Colorado State, Syracuse, and Cleveland State makes his debut as a head coach after taking over the Falcon program last spring. He will have 5-foot-11 All-MAC Francine Miller on the floor this winter to build a winning team around.
"Francine is a huge piece of the puzzle as we go into a new era," Curt Miller said of his senior forward who has already scored 1,059 points in her career. "She is one of the elite players in the Mid-American Conference and will be clearly be our go-to player."
The Falcons return 11 letter winners from the 2000-2001 squad which finished 11-18 overall, 6-10 in the MAC.
BG lost Angie Farmer, one of the top 3-point shooters in school history and its most athletic player, Afra Smith, to graduation.
In addition to Francine Miller, the Falcons will have a pair of sophomore starters back in point guard Lindsay Austin and 6-0 center Pam Brown. Also returning are three players who have been in-and-out of the top five -- 5-11 senior forward Dana Western, 6-2 sophomore center Kelly Kapferer and 5-7 junior shooting guard Kim Griech.
"(Francine) will be given a lot of responsibility because if you look at our team top to bottom we are still very young and inexperienced," coach Miller said. The Falcons have just two seniors on the roster. "We will rely on Francine and Dana for a lot of leadership.
"Francine has been very receptive to the coaching change, has stayed in town for the summer, and has worked extremely hard in the weight room. She is doing what she needs to do to get ready to play at the level she is capable of playing. I couldn't be more pleased with her attitude, leadership, and maturity this summer. She wants to be ready and she is showing the younger players the right way to do that."
Miller will use much the same up-tempo offensive game Falcon fans have seen in the recent past with a liberal use of the 3-point shot. On defense the Falcons will concentrate on stopping other teams' better players.
"We will play a higher percentage of man-to-man than zone, but I'm a scout heavy type of coach," he said.
"We will go into every game with a game plan on the defensive end. I believe in taking away the other teams' strengths and first options. If they are talented enough to beat us with their second and third options then we will shake their hands and congratulate them at the end of the game but they won't beat us with their go-to player."
Miller said BG's backcourt will be his team's strength while the lack of height and depth in the post will be a problem on both sides of the court.
"We have talented guards. Lindsay Austin is a young talented point guard who is going to do nothing but improve and Kim Griech is as good a shooting off-guard as there is in the conference," Miller said. "Francine and Dana are both wing type players that can score in a number of different ways. We should be tough for most teams to match-up with."
Under the basket Miller will be looking for improvement. The Falcons had trouble last season trying to keep up on the boards and containing taller post players. BG, with sometimes four guards on the court and no one taller than six feet, was out-rebounded by almost every opponent and the smaller Falcons couldn't stop the 6-4 players most teams have in the post.
"We will have to find ways to stop people defensively and have a team effort when it comes to rebounding," Miller said. "We won't be able to defend one-on-one all the time and we are going to need five people going to the defensive boards. We need young kids like Pam Brown and Kelly Kapferer to step up and have big years if we are going to be successful."
Miller also thinks that one of his two incoming freshmen, 6-0 forward Sakima Smith, will be able to help right away in the post.
"She will add more athleticism to our front court. She's a lanky, athletic rebounder," Miller said.
Smith's teammate last season at Detroit's Communication & Media Arts High School, Tene Lewis, a 5-8 guard, is the Falcons' other new freshman.
Rounding out the 13-member squad will be junior 6-1 center Rachal Hamilton, 6-0 junior forward Karen Stocz, 6-0 sophomore guard Stefanie Wenzel, 5-9 junior Megan Jerome, and 5-7 sophomore point guard Emily Pohl.
The Falcons and their new coach will see plenty of action early in the season. They open at Youngstown State on Nov. 17 and play a total of six games in the following 14 days, including a two-game Thanksgiving holiday tournament at Colorado. BG opens at home Nov. 27 with Eastern Kentucky.
"That will be a difficult stretch for a team that's trying to learn a new system but there is no better way to learn than on the floor against opponents," Miller said. "When December rolls around we will have experience under our belts and with the additional practice time available we will know what we have to work on and fine tune for conference time in January."
Jennifer Roos and Brandi Poole are the new assistants in the program. Roos, a player at Davidson, was an assistant at her alma mater for the past eight seasons. Poole served last season as an assistant at West Virginia and has also worked for the WNBA Portland Fire as director of basketball operations.
The 32 year-old Miller received a five-year contract when he was hired and is building a house in Bowling Green. A Pennsylvania native and a graduate of Baldwin-Wallace College, he said the community has been very welcoming.
He pointed to a successful golf outing and evening social that drew over 100 earlier this month.
"I'm excited about the reception we have received," he said. "People are talking about the women's program and the players have the desire to be good."
