GoHeels Exclusive: Q&A With Wes Miller

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

Ten years have passed since Wes Miller played in his last game for North Carolina, a 96-84 loss against Georgetown in the Elite Eight.

On Thursday, for the first time since then, Miller will return to the NCAA Tournament, this time as the head coach of UNCG. The Spartans, the No. 13 seed in the West Region, face No. 4 seed Gonzaga at 1:30 p.m. in Boise, Idaho.

In his seventh season at the helm, Miller led UNCG to a 24-7 regular-season record and a 15-3 mark in Southern Conference play. The Spartans entered the SoCon Tournament as the No. 1 seed for the second straight year. And after falling short last season, they beat East Tennessee State in the title game, earning the school's first NCAA Tournament bid since 2001.

Before Thursday's game, Miller spoke with GoHeels.com columnist Pat James about his team's season, his time at UNC and more.

Q: Between winning the SoCon Tournament in Asheville on Monday and Selection Sunday, when did everything start to sink in?
Wes Miller: With the six-day break between the time we won Monday night in Asheville to the Selection Show, we had a little bit of time to digest everything. I think as we pulled back into Greensboro on Tuesday afternoon and we started talking to the staff about what we were going to do over the next week and a half, I think that's when it started to sink in. We'd done something pretty neat by winning the league and getting that automatic berth.

Q: What has the atmosphere been like around the school and in the city this past week?
WM: We've been really fortunate that from Day 1, we've felt graced by the UNCG community and the Greensboro community. But over the last two years, it's been really neat as we've started to have some success to see that grow, and then specifically, over the last week and a half or so, it's been exciting. Everybody seems energized by our success. I think we get as much love and attention here locally as you could imagine, whether it's walking around campus or going to Starbucks or the store or restaurants, things of that nature. I think it's been a really humbling experience for our players and our staff.

Q: When over the last few years – maybe it was even this season – did you really start to think it was possible for UNCG to get this NCAA Tournament bid?
WM: We've had this goal for a really long time. As a staff, we hoped it wouldn't take seven years to get here. But over the last couple of years, we felt like we had a real contender. Last year, we won the regular season and were a possession away in the finals of the championship, so we thought we were real contenders last year. We graduated two seniors a year ago that were incredibly impactful players, all-league players, but we returned everybody else, and I think this team had the right kind of mindset in the offseason. Losing by one possession in the conference final, with the chance to go to the tournament, I think they approached it and held that as motivation throughout the offseason. They used it as a day-to-day motivator. And I thought we had the type of offseason we needed to propel us into having a good season this year.

Q: How much do you think you learned about your team at the jamboree before the start of the season?
WM: We had a couple of things early that were different this year before the season started that I thought were really beneficial to prepare us for non-conference play. The first thing, we went to Spain in July. Having a foreign trip and having those practices, those extra practices, in the summer and those extra games were incredibly helpful. Not just the basketball part, but the whole team. We have a really close-knit group, but our team got even closer over the course of that trip. Cell phones don't work, things of that nature, so the guys got to talk, something that doesn't happen as much anymore. And then, you know, the jamboree was a really neat deal because in one afternoon, we played against three different teams and we got a snapshot of who we are in three different types of situations.

I thought that day for us was great. Wilmington took it to us for 12 minutes, and that was humbling. Our guys really responded and had a lot of success in a really short period of time against Carolina. That gave us some confidence moving forward. We nipped and tucked with East Carolina in the third segment. We were able to take some things that day that really helped us teach our guys, helped us learn, helped us prepare. And I thought as we started the season that we had confidence that if we approached it the right way, we could play with anybody. That's something I'd love to do again. I wish the NCAA would allow it every year, because it helped us and it was for a good cause.

Q: You guys have been one of the best defensive teams in the country pretty much all season and currently rank sixth nationally in scoring defense. What's the process been like of getting the guys to buy in on that side of the ball these past few years?
WM: It's been a process. We've really, really tried to build an identity the last few years around the defensive side of the ball. It hasn't come overnight. This year more than any year, our team really bought into that mindset. Our team felt that if we were just a little better defensively a year ago, we'd be where we are now. They bought into it in the offseason and they bought into it on a day-to-day basis in practice. I don't think we're there yet. I'd like us to be a little more consistent. But I think having some upperclassmen that value it as much as the coaches do has helped us get over the hump in that way.

Q: How much has your defensive philosophy evolved from your time at UNC up until this point?
WM: I think if you watch us play, from an X and O standpoint, you may say, 'Hey, it doesn't resemble Carolina a whole lot.' But I think the values of it are identical. The way that we teach and build a defense through practice is straight stolen, for lack of a better term, from what I learned about how Coach builds these defenses. The exact same drills, most of the same teaching points. We play some different principles, so we have some of our own terminology and teaching points. But a lot of it is really the same. From a values standpoint and a fundamentals standpoint, we're trying to base it off a lot of the same things, but the principles are sometimes a little different because we have our own little style and twist on things here at UNCG.

Q: How much do you talk to your players about your own playing experience?
WM: Not a whole lot unless I'm joking with them. I mean this in a joking way, but they see a 5-foot-11 white guy and they don't think I can play dead. So I joke with them sometimes that I could beat them or dunk on them. But honestly, it's 10 years ago. None of them really watched me as a player. They hear about it often, just being in the state of North Carolina – people come up to them and talk about it, so they're aware of it. But I don't talk a whole lot about it. I try to use it to relate to them when I think it makes sense.

Q: How often do you talk with Coach Williams throughout a season? Have you spoken with him since last Monday?
WM: We've been trading texts and phone calls since Monday night. We haven't talked on the phone because we haven't been able to reach each other, but the neat thing about Coach is he's always there. There might be a week I talk to him three times, and I might not talk to him for two weeks because we're both trying to coach our teams. But he's always there. I felt like this from the day I left there – if I needed to get Coach on the phone, within five or 10 minutes, he'd be on the phone. And it's always been that way when it was needed. But I don't think any college basketball coach has time to talk to anybody on a daily basis outside of the program. We talk regularly, and he's just always there, especially when I need them.

He was one of the first texts and first voicemails – he texted me and called me as the buzzer sounded on Monday night. I had quite a few, but he was one of the first texts and voicemails. Then I looked down at about 2 or 3 in the morning, as I was going through everything, and he had called me three times. I had another voicemail saying, 'I'm sorry, I think I butt-dialed you.' That's a little bit of a snapshot of how he is with his former guys. He's always there. I don't think there are many who have ever coached college basketball who have been like that with all of their players.

Q: As you become further removed from your time at UNC, how much more appreciative have you become of your time here and of the Carolina Family in general?
WM: It's not something I could really put into words. The further I'm away from it, the more I appreciate it and the more I realize how special and unique it is. Whether it's having somebody like Coach Williams as a mentor or the other coaches that coached in the program that I didn't play for, assistant coaches that I did play for – guys like Joe Holladay and Steve Robinson, C.B. McGrath. Those are guys I talk to on a regular basis. And then guys or coaches from Carolina that weren't in the program when I was there, like Larry Brown. He spent a week with us this year. I can keep going down the line.

And even as far as the former players. There's a text chain of former players, and I couldn't believe all of the congratulatory texts I got from guys who played 10 years before me, 20 years before me. It's really special.

Q: Being in your current position, how much have you enjoyed watching your players as they've gone through this experience for the first time?
WM: That's been the best part. When the buzzer sounded on Monday night, watching those guys, I wanted to go celebrate with them, but I was doing so many interviews that I couldn't. But being able to watch them celebrate and be rewarded for all of the work and the commitment that they put into this whole thing, I don't think anything's better than that feeling as a coach.

Q: How much have you been able to watch Gonzaga this year, if at all?
WM: I catch them late at night. As coaches, I think we all have those sleepless nights. I've had plenty of those. They're on TV late at night playing on the West Coast, and I have caught them over the years. But I've never really dove into them until the last 14 or 16 hours. It's been really obvious why they've been so good and why they've sustained success for so long. As we've started to dive in we've found out they are really, really good. They have great players, they're great on both sides of the ball. I want to say I saw a stat that they're one of the only teams in the country that's in the top 20 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. They're really consistent in what they do. We understand that we have an incredible program and an incredible team in front of us on Thursday. We know we're going to be underdogs. We're respectful of how good they are, but we also believe we can play with anybody and we're going to come out swinging.

Q: The personnel has changed, but is there anything that can been taken away from the national championship game last year?
WM: I was sitting in the stands last year, acting like a fan, just living and dying by every made shot, every stop for North Carolina. I wasn't looking at it through the lens of a coach. But what I learned watching them throughout the tournament throughout the years that I didn't know before last night is that they're great in transition, they're elite on the backboards and they really guard you. It actually sounds a little bit like North Carolina when you start describing them like that. I remember thinking last year watching that game, there are a lot of similarities between the two programs in terms of their style of play and the things that they value. But I think most of the learning we're doing right now is from breaking down film of this year's team and the things that they've done really well this year.

Q: What's been your message to the team since you found out who you are playing?
WM: The first thing is I really want them to enjoy this experience. I want them to enjoy every moment. It's a lifetime experience. I certainly have incredible memories from my experience playing in the NCAA Tournament, and I want my players to have the same sorts of memories. But at the same time, the second thing is, we have to approach this the same way we've approached it all year. That's been a team that's come in the gym every day, trying to grow and get better, one day at a time. We've got to make sure as we're enjoying this and going through this exciting time, we're remaining true to who we are on a day-to-day basis and preparing to go out there and compete as hard as we can and play the best basketball that we can on Thursday when we take the court. I am thrilled that we're not playing Carolina in the first round because I like to pull for them, too.

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