Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
Via Max Bechtoldt of The Spear
“Inside the Mind of Miles.”
First, the name of a podcast hosted by current San Jose State head coach Tim Miles during a two-year foray into sports media after being fired from Nebraska in 2019.
And now, a destination of speculation fixated on whether he’ll continue his rebuild at SJSU or begin a new one at Cal Berkeley.
On Monday afternoon, the 2022-23 Mountain West Coach of the Year’s mind was mainly focused on getting past Nevada in Thursday’s quarterfinal of the Mountain West Tournament, rapidly predicting and analyzing areas of concern.
Aware of the obstacles the Wolf Pack’s defense, excellent, bulky guards Kenan Blackshear and Jarrod Lucas provide and strong, athletic center Will Baker provide. It’s the basketball version of ask a man what time it is and he’ll tell you how to make a watch.
His love and passion has made him a problem solving savant. A mental makeup to give SJSU its most regular season wins since 1981, second most wins since 1937 and take SJSU from 8-23 and 1-17 in conference play a year ago to winning double-digit conference games for the first time since 1995-96.
And now a chance to do two things SJSU has never done:
Win a Mountain West Tournament game and a postseason game.
The high-hanging clothesline of postseason shame — an NIT appearance in 1981, NCAA Tournament appearance in 1996 and CBI appearance in 2011 — rests above the Spartans during film sessions in Provident Credit Union Event Center on a portable projector and a wheeled out whiteboard.
What Cal currently has that SJSU doesn’t — besides 16 less overall wins — is better facilities and a bigger budget.
Flying commercial out of San Jose’s Norman Y. Mineta Airport? You could share an armrest with Miles, a former Big-10 Coach of the Year at Nebraska.
Taking SJSU’s KIN 015B – Intermediate Basketball to fulfill a basic PE requirement? You could be getting shots up on the same rim used by SJSU and 2022-23 Mountain West Player of the Year and bonafide NBA prospect Omari Moore during practice.
“We still got more work to do, we got to improve our facilities, we’ve got a list of things we can through at the State of the Union later,” said Miles. He’s currently on contract through 2028 and is making nearly $700,000 which is close to $300,000 more than previous head coach Jean Prioleau, who went 20-93 in four seasons before being fired.
“We want to get men’s basketball going in the right direction,” he said. Later adding that he’s “serious about making SJSU better right now.”
Four years ago, shortly after being fired from Nebraska, Miles got a call from newly appointed Cal AD Jim Knowlton and hours later Miles was on a flight to Dallas, but the job ended up being handed to Mark Fox.
“It was just an interview. They gave it to Mark Fox and Mark’s a great guy and a friend of mine,” Miles recalled.
Four years later, Fox has gone 38-86 at Cal while they’ve suffered a 3-28 season that’s included an average attendance of 2,155 which is one of the worst among big name programs nationwide
He was recently linked to Cal, but when asked about it after SJSU’s senior night win over Colorado State he said, “I have had no contact with other teams.” Later joking that his son Gabe texted him the same thing.
This week both Miles and Fox will be on the Vegas strip; Miles at the Thomas & Mack Center and Fox at the T-Mobile Arena where he’ll likely coach his last game as a Golden Bear in the Pac-12 Tournament.
A year from now, will it be Miles in Golden Bear garb running, screaming, shredding officials and leading a program in desperate need of a rebuild at the T-Mobile Arena?
The 56-year-old Doland, South Dakota wants two things: Happiness and coaching.
Both can be achieved at SJSU or Cal.
For Knowlton, Miles is the one that got away and a resume that sells its self to donors. Miles has lifted SJSU 237 spots in the NET without proper facilities, budgeting and a ravenous fan base. It won’t be an overnight fix, but Cal does have a sports culture and interest SJSU doesn’t.
“I was startled to find when I came in the orientation materials students get when they come here athletics is half a page on a 100 hundred page doccie,” said SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya.
“I would like to see more intentionality about what athletics can be and can offer the student population.”
Konya was hired in August of 2021 to replace Mary Tuite who resigned in wake of a sexual abuse and retaliation scandal. He’s aware of the issues; SJSU’s second-lowest fan attendance in the Mountain West pinpointed by a student section-free senior night.
As of right now, he doesn’t see the needle being moved for the budget.
“The budget is the budget,” said Konya.
But he’s hopeful the recent success SJSU Athletics has seen will offer a facelift to all sagging aspects.
“This is a moment where San Jose State as a university should take pride in the athletic program because they’ve never had this amount of success ever,” said Konya.
The football team has gone to two bowl games in the span of three years for the first time since the mid ’80s. Last year, the women’s golf team fell just short in the NCAA Championships while Natasha Andrea Oon was a First Team All American.
Head Coach Joanne Bowers led gymnastics to the MPSF Conference Championship a year ago and the baseball team more than tripled its win total from 2021 to 2022 and lost in the Mountain West Tournament Championship Game under head coach Brad Sanfilippo.
What’s not encouraging in Miles’ case is how an uptick in wins didn’t correlate with an uptick in in student interest.
“We have 6,000 students living on campus. We have 6,000 seats in the Provident Credit Union Event Center. If all the students came, we’d have a sell out,” said Konya.
“For some reason from our students its not innate in them to walk the 200 yards from the residence halls to the Event Center when we have a game.”
Attempts are being made with SJSU implementing a new scoreboard this season, a partnership with NBC Bay Area and newly appointed president Cynthia Teniente-Matson confirmed they will be debuting this Silicone Valley inspired glow in the dark court next season.
Although it comes a year after it was originally planned to be implemented, it’s a step in the right direction.
Alongside Deputy Athletic Director Scott MacDonald, who’s been Konya’s righthand man since their time at Oakland Northeastern together, SJSU’s AD is putting together a rebuild of his own.
He’s made numerous new hires, sharing that SJSU’s marketing team is fully-staffed for the first time in several months and is led by Megan MaCleod, who was hired in May of last year.
Progress is being made under Konya, who’s grown a strong rapport with Miles through weekly summer golf games. But the two “haven’t discussed,” the answer to the question everyone wants to know:
If a bidding war arose, could SJSU keep Miles?
“We are aware of what could potentially happen, but I do think Tim is content and he’s come in here with eyes wide open and does what Tim does; which is using his abilities to maximize the resources and produce a winner and in year two that’s exactly what he’s done,” said Konya.
After SJSU suffered a heartbreaking overtime loss to rival Fresno State in the Mountain West Tournament, Miles delivered a statement nested in gall, hutzpah that’s now flown its way to prophecy.
SJSU claimed the sixth best rebound margin nationwide with grad-transfer Sage Tolbert from Temple, transfer Robert Vaihola from Fresno State and a fully healthy Ibrahima Diallo and an immensely improved defense.
They’ve helped put SJSU three wins away from the NCAA Tournament, an assumed couple of wins from the NIT and a high-chance of playing in the CBI. However, Konya can’t confirm if SJSU has the budget to afford the $25,000 buy-in the tournament requires. There that six-letter B-word goes again.
Because Miles will be coaching next year. The two years he spent traversing through Big 10 and Mountain West country broadcasting games and his “Inside the Mind of Miles” podcast were a time to recharge and reflect after Nebraska fired him with two years and $2.5 million left on his contract.
But Miles says that it wasn’t done to run out the clock.
In 2021, when Richard Pitino came in at the eleventh hour to nab the New Mexico head coaching gig from him, Miles was open to continuing the same role. His decision to come to SJSU wasn’t motivated by a last ditch effort to stay relevant.
The isolation and table for one dinners at steakhouses don’t align with his constant need to schmooze and his obsession with conflict and compromise. He’s glutton for the intense frustration and draining lows that revolve around a pebbled-surface ball going through the net.
On Monday afternoon, Miles held his chin and stroked his index finger over his mouth, trying to spot a missing detail with the other hand tucked into his side during practice. A posture and scene that has become frozen in time.
Inside the mind of Miles is a never-ending rotation of gears like that of a finely tuned Rolex Watch.
Those gears will still be turning a year from now, but will his whistle dangle in front of a Spartan logo?
