You mean the same guy who has as many NCAA Tournament wins in his four years at his current stop as his newest main coaching rival has in his entire 18 year career?
This UCLA fan notion that Miller can't coach really is funny considering what he inherited. He didn't have the best roster last year (that would be the Bruins) and has still yet to start a true point guard. You'll get to see Miller's coaching ability over the next six years with McConnell/TJ and in the meantime with one of the glut of McD's AA that will be maturing.
Cmon now when the media voted on the Pac 12 they picked UA first, UCLA 2nd. UCLA had more first place votes but a couple of guys were concerned Bazz might not clear so they voted UCLA down and that's how UA finished first. Of course when that vote was taken, Josh Smith and Tyler Lamb were still members of UCLA's team. You don't think if the media knew UCLA was going to have 8 players they would have voted UA even more first place votes?
UCLA had 8 players and were bad enough to lose to Cal Poly during the OOC. Miller had several key returning uppper classmen, a key transfer, and 3 future NBA bigs coming in. He had a terrific OOC, and then the team didn't improve in conference anywhere near as much as everyone else did and he managed to not win the conference despite having the best roster and being the only one of the top teams to NOT have any problems. He didn't have 2 players transfer out, he didn't have a key starter get hurt and miss games(Travis Wear, Dominic Artis, Roberson). He had the deepest roster, totally healthy, and still didn't win the conference.
I don't think he's a terrible coach, I do think the Cats clearly underachieved in conference play and if we're going to judge a coach, I think conference play is the best metric to use. It is the same teams playing against each other. It's not a full play each other twice schedule anymore but if noticed, UA had one win against the best teams in the Pac 12 this season(regular season) and that was the controversial Colorado one, every other game against a good Pac 12 opponent they lost. You can take that 2 ways, they didn't have many collapses (like UCLA against WSU), or they never beat anyone that had somewhat comparable talent in conference.
Conference games are all about coaching ,everyone's seen your OOC film, often you have kids they recruited so they know your roster. Conference games are tougher for that reason, less surprise and better preparation.
I think Miller is a better coach than Alford I'm not at all happy we hired Alford. But I do think it's accurate to suggest Miller isn't the greatest coach. How many times do you have to lose for the same reason, mark Lyons jacking up 3's, before you start pulling him from games when he does it?
I should add the best coaching job in the conference was done by Altman IMO, if he doesn't lose Artis to injury they likely would have won the conference outright.
