Coach Candidate: Wes Miller’s UNCG rebuild is exactly what Boston College is looking for

Coach Wes Miller of UNC Greensboro is a successful mid-major head coach that could be a candidate for Boston College’s men’s basketball head coaching search. He’s in his 10th year as head coach of the UNCG Spartans and has helped bring that program from a bottom-feeder to a conference contender.

Wes Miller has been the head coach of UNC Greensboro since the mid-season of 2011, posting a 185-134 (.580) overall record and a 109-66 (.623) conference record in the Southern Conference. The Spartans had gone an abysmal 22-80 (.216) in the 3.5 seasons leading up to Miller’s tenure. In just 6.5 years he brought them to a conference championship and an NCAA tournament berth in 2018 (in which they pushed #8 Gonzaga to a very close opening round game). In the following 3 years he’s finished in the conference’s top-3 every year and this season he brought them another conference championship and March Madness appearance.

Before his tenure as head coach, Miller was an assistant at UNCG, High Point, and Elon. He also played college basketball at UNC (the ACC one, not UNCG).

Why he’d be interested:

As is the case with most mid-major head coaches, Boston College is a definitive step-up as a program. The resources BC and the ACC offer are of a much greater magnitude than those of UNCG and the Southern Conference. His salary at UNCG is just over $300,000 and Boston College would easily be able to top that as well. He did just sign a 10-year contract with UNCG in 2018, so his commitment to that program may be a hurdle if BC wants to land him.

Why it could work:

Miller has a great experience of bringing a terrible team up to a competitive level, which is exactly what BC needs right now. This rebuild isn’t going to be easy or quick, so BC needs someone with the youth to see it through and the experience of knowing what it takes. Miller is also just 38-years-old, so his youth and energy will be a boon to a program that will undoubtedly have to endure some tough times in the coming seasons. Much like another coaching candidate, Dennis Gates, Wes Miller is a young and hungry leader with the proper experience to lead this program to success.

Why it could flop:

He has very little coaching experience outside of UNCG, and no coaching experience in the P6. He hasn’t been an assistant at major programs or in the NBA, and his recruiting experience has never really dealt with the ACC-level talent that BC needs to recruit and compete with. It’s unclear whether Miller could replicate the great UNCG rebuild at another higher-profile program.

How likely is this hire?

Not likely but certainly possible. He checks most of BC’s boxes and is a fresh young face that could bring the program in a new direction. We haven’t heard anything from the Boston College administration on who they’re vetting, but in public Wes Miller’s name has not come up very often. Twitter hype isn’t a metric to really measure potential coaches, but Miller’s profile is one of the lowest of potential BC candidates.