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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Curt Miller Agrees to Contract Extension
May 02, 2006 | Women's Basketball
May 2, 2006
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Bowling Green State University has reached an agreement in principle with Falcon women's basketball coach Curt Miller on a two-year contract extension, BGSU Director of Athletics Paul Krebs has announced. The contract will run through June 30, 2011.
"We are delighted to reach this agreement with Coach Miller," said Krebs. "He is an outstanding, energetic individual and coach, and he and his staff have returned Bowling Green to prominence in women's basketball.
"Coach Miller and his staff have recruited a group of student-athletes that have been successful in the classroom as well as on the court, and this extension is a reward for his outstanding contributions and the team's numerous accomplishments over the past several years. We are excited about keeping him in the Falcon family."
Miller completed his fifth season as BGSU's head coach in March, and has an overall mark of 93-56 along with a Mid-American Conference ledger of 51-29. Over the last three seasons, Miller and the Falcons are 72-21 overall and 40-8 in MAC regular-season play.
"The announcement of a contract extension is an unbelievable cap to our magical season," said Miller. "The future is bright for BGSU women's basketball, and we hope this announcement helps springboard the Falcons into an era of continued excellence.
"I have truly enjoyed the start of my head-coaching career, and I want to thank Paul Krebs and (Associate A.D./Senior Woman Administrator) Janna Blais for their belief in and support of our program. Paul is an incredible A.D., and I will miss working for him. My staff and I appreciate the tremendous commitment shown by the BGSU administration with this extension."
Miller was named the seventh head coach in the program's history on May 8, 2001, and has made his mark in a big way, guiding the Falcons to MAC regular-season and tournament titles in both 2004-05 and 2005-06. BGSU has posted at least 20 wins in each of the last three seasons, including a school -- and a MAC -- record victory total in '05-06, as the Brown and Orange won 28 games. BGSU has advanced to the championship game of the league tournament in three consecutive years, winning the last two.
The Falcons posted a perfect 16-0 league record in 2005-06, and added three more wins in the conference tournament. Miller was named the MAC Coach of the Year in both 2005 and 2006, and in '06 also was named the Russell Athletic WBCA Region 4 Coach of the Year.
In February of 2006, the Falcons broke into the national rankings for the first time in 12 years, with a 25th-place ranking in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll on Valentine's Day. BGSU entered the 2006 NCAA Championships ranked 21st and 23rd, respectively, in the USA Today and Associated Press polls.
Miller and the Falcons ended the 2005-06 season with an overall record of 28-3, one of the best in the nation. For the second consecutive season, four of the five BGSU starters earned conference honors, as Ali Mann was named to the All-MAC First Team, while Kate Achter and Liz Honegger each earned second-team accolades and Carin Horne was chosen to the third team. All four players have at least one season of eligibility remaining.
In 2004-05, Miller guided the Falcons, picked to finish third in the West Division, to the league's best overall record, as the Brown and Orange earned the program's first regular-season and tourney titles in over a decade. The success of the last two seasons came on the heels of a magical 2003-04 campaign, when Miller and his staff orchestrated one of the top turnarounds in the nation. BGSU, picked to finish sixth in the MAC West that year, tied for second, finishing 21-10 overall. The Falcons posted back-to-back buzzer-beating victories in the league tournament to advance all the way to the championship game.
Miller, a native of Girard, Pa., had ties to both Ohio and the MAC prior to his appointment at BGSU. He graduated from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, and spent a year as a graduate assistant at Kent State University, where he was a volunteer coach.
Miller joined the Falcons after spending three years as the associate head coach at Colorado State University. During the 2000-01 season, Miller was listed as one of the top 10 assistant coaches in the country in an article in the Women's Basketball Journal, as voted by his peers.
Miller helped Colorado State to an overall record of 81-20 over his three seasons there. The Rams, guided by head coach Tom Collen, a 1977 BGSU graduate, finished with a 25-7 record in 2000-01. CSU won the Mountain West Conference Tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The year prior, CSU qualified for the WNIT and advanced all the way to the final four of that tourney, losing to the eventual champion. In 1998-99, Miller's first season in Fort Collins, CSU won the preseason WNIT title and the Western Athletic Conference championship. The Rams posted a 33-3 record, the best in school history, and advanced to the "Sweet Sixteen" in the NCAA Tournament. That squad was ranked as high as fourth in the nation.
Prior to Colorado State, Miller spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Syracuse University (1994-98). The Orangewomen shared the Big East Conference championship during the 1995-96 season.
Miller was an assistant coach at Cleveland State University for three seasons, and was the youngest top assistant in the country upon his hiring in 1991. Prior to his stint with the Vikings, as mentioned, Miller served as a volunteer assistant coach at KSU. The Golden Flashes finished 17-12 that season (1990-91), and enjoyed the second-best turnaround in the nation, with a 12-game improvement over the previous year.
Miller received his Bachelor of Arts degree in physical education and business administration from Baldwin-Wallace in 1990. He has taken courses toward his Master of Arts degree in sports administration at KSU.
Curt Miller - YEAR-BY-YEAR AT BGSU
Year Overall MAC Finish MAC Tournament
2001-02 9-19 (.321) 6-10 (.375) Fourth, East Div. Lost in First Round
2002-03 12-16 (.429) 5-11 (.313) T-Sixth, West Div. Lost in First Round
2003-04 21-10 (.677) 11-5 (.688) T-Second, West Div. Advanced to Championship
2004-05 23-8 (.742) 13-3 (.813) FIRST, West Div. TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS
2005-06 28-3 (.903) 16-0 (1.000) FIRST, East Div. TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS
Totals 93-56 (.624) 51-29 (.638) 2 Regular-Season Titles; 2 Tournament Titles;
2 NCAA Championships Appearances
