MA hires Miller as boys basketball coach

Mike Miller Jr. knows the importance of basketball at Marshall Academy.

“I had a friend tell me that every night in the gym here, it’s like the movie Hoosiers,” he said. “I’m really excited about it.”

Miller was recently hired to coach MA boys basketball. He replaces Craig Dailey, who is the new headmaster at Delta Academy.

Miller, 47, of Memphis, Tenn., loved playing basketball at Christian Brothers High School but he also had a 92-mile-per-hour fastball from the pitching mound.

“Baseball was my ticket to get college paid for,” he said.

He played baseball at the University of Memphis and Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., before also playing a year professionally in Indiana.

Miller finished his degree in business and marketing and got into coaching basketball in 1999. He was a volunteer assistant at Christian Brothers and “fell in love with it.”

“That’s when I figured out I wanted to make it my profession,” he said.

He made a move to Middle Tennessee, to work in the public school system, and earned the additional credentials needed at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tenn.

He was in the Middle Tennessee area for six years, and the stay included coaching his sister at Immaculate Conception School.

Then he decided to move back home. He worked in education in the Memphis area but did not coach, and he missed it.

“I had a couple of opportunities and then COVID hit,” Miller said. “There were not a lot of jobs opening up. I wanted to get back into coaching as quickly as possible.”

He said he would look on every single job board within driving distance of Memphis. One of those was the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools, of which Marshall Academy is a member.

“I saw it posted and got my resumé in quickly,” Miller said.

Later that day, headmaster Tony Banks responded via text and asked when he could come in for an interview. He was in Banks’ office the next day.

“The winning tradition here — that’s what drew me,” Miller said. “There’s a great love for the game here.” He will be assisted by his father, Mike Miller Sr., a former AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) coach in the Memphis area.

“He coached eight guys who ended up playing at Memphis,” his son said. “He has a basketball background as well.”

Miller is looking forward to beginning some summer work with his new team in June.

“I will be evaluating the talent and then deciding what style we will play,” he said.

“Ideally, I like to get up and down the floor offensively and press from sideline to sideline defensively.

“But that all depends on the hand I’m dealt.”

In four weeks of summer work, he hopes to be able to put some of his system in place.

“I hope they have a good understanding of what we’re trying to do, and maybe that will peak the interest of some other guys who will come out for basketball and give it a shot.”

Miller said he realizes the “bar is high” at Marshall but he has no predictions at this point until he spends some quality time with his new team.

“My goals will always be high, too,” he said.

He pointed to two of the most important praises a coach can receive.

“One, the team got better throughout the year,” Miller said. “And second, the kids play hard. For 32 minutes, I want our kids to play as hard as they can play.”