Steve Lutz’ s Oklahoma State men’s basketball staff continues to take shape with the addition of James Miller as associate head coach.
Miller held the same title on staffs at Mississippi State and New Mexico State under Chris Jans. In a six-year span he helped those programs to four NCAA appearances and five conference regular season and tournament titles.
In nine total seasons at the Division I level, Miller has been part of postseason runs at five different schools while collecting nearly 200 wins (194-97, .667). Prior to that, he was a successful head coach at New Mexico Junior College, developing 21 Division I scholarship players in three seasons, including former Oklahoma State point guard Jeff Newberry and current Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kenrich Williams
Lutz said:
“Wherever James goes, success follows. That is no accident. He’s a winner, and I’m thrilled that he and his wife Darlene and daughters Mia and Macy will be joining us in Stillwater. James is as respected and well-connected as any young coach in this business. I am excited to work with him and establish a culture of hard work.”
In Starkville, Miss., Miller and Jans earned back-to-back NCAA tournament bids, breathing life into a Mississippi State program that had danced just once in the previous 13 seasons. The Bulldogs were one of the nation’s stingiest defenses, twice finishing among the top-25 in KenPom’s defensive efficiency rankings.
Miller was elevated from assistant coach to associate head coach in the spring of 2023 after a debut season in which the Bulldogs ranked ninth in defensive efficiency and among the NCAA leaders in scoring defense (9th, .61.0), field goal percentage defense (10th, .394) and steals (23rd, 8.6).
Miller and Jans’ partnership began with a successful four-year run at New Mexico State (2018-22), the last three of which he served as associate head coach. The Aggies became the WAC’s premier program, winning more than three-quarters of their games (94-26, .783) along with three regular season titles and a pair of conference tournament crowns. NMSU’s .825 conference winning percentage (52-11) was the nation’s sixth highest in that span, and 10 Aggies earned first or second team All-WAC honors, headlined by 2022 WAC Player of the Year Teddy Allen.
The Aggies set a program record with 30 wins during the 2018-19 season and took an 18-game winning streak into the NCAA tournament before dropping a heartbreaker to eventual Final Four participant Auburn in the first round, 78-77. Despite not having a player taller than 6-foot-9, NMSU overwhelmed its opponents on the glass, posting the nation’s third-best rebounding margin (+9.7).
The 2019-20 squad was on a similar trajectory, ripping off 19-straight wins – the last 16 during an undefeated run through the WAC regular season – before COVID-19 wiped out the conference and NCAA tournaments.
The pandemic proved to be the only force powerful enough to curb New Mexico State’s dominance. Local health and safety protocols limited the team to just three games and a handful of practices during the first two months of the 2020-21 season, which ended with a 12-8 mark.
The Aggies returned to form in 2021-22 with a 27-7 record, a sweep of the WAC regular season and tournament titles, and the program’s first NCAA tournament victory in nearly in 20 years. Led by Allen’s 37 points, the No. 12 seed NMSU stunned fifth-seeded UConn, 70-63, in the first round.
Prior to New Mexico State, Miller was an assistant under Derrin Hanson at Omaha (2015-16) and under current Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland for one-year stops at Arkansas State (2016-17) and North Texas (2017-18). All three teams earned bids to the College Basketball Invitational.
North Texas, which had never won a postseason game in nearly six decades of Division I basketball, ripped off five of them during its 2018 CBI title run. The Mean Green were one of the nation’s most-improved teams, winning 20 total games (up from eight the previous year).
Miller was involved in a similar turnaround at Arkansas State (2016-17), which doubled its win total from 10 to 20 and reached the CBI semifinals.
During his season in Omaha (2015-16), Miller helped the Mavericks to their first winning season at the Division I level (18-14) and a third-place finish in the Summit League. The team ranked fourth nationally in scoring offense (85.3) and fifth in steals (9.4).
Before making the jump to the NCAA Division I level, Miller spent six years at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, the last three as head coach. His teams went 77-23 (.770) and ended the program’s 17-year national tournament drought with back-to-back appearances in 2013 and 2014.
Miller cut his teeth in the coaching profession as an assistant at Colorado State-Pueblo from 2005-09 after a summer interning with the Arizona State men’s basketball program. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Colorado State in 2005 while serving as a student manager and added a master’s degree from Northern Colorado in 2007.
Miller and his wife Darlene have two daughters: Mia and Maci.
