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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Miller can talk with U-M

David Goricki / The Detroit News

Michigan officials have received permission from Bowling Green to talk to Curt Miller about the women's basketball coaching job.

Miller has coached the Falcons for six seasons, guiding them to a 103-25 record the last four. Bowling Green has earned three straight Mid-American Conference titles and NCAA Tournament bids. The Falcons finished 31-4 this season and lost to Arizona State on Saturday in a Greensboro Regional semifinal.

"Michigan asked for permission to talk to Curt, and we granted it to them," said Janna Blais, Bowling Green associate athletic director. "We sat down with him well before the NCAA Tournament started and told him where we stand. We'd love for him to stay, but we knew he'd be hot. We can't compete with BCS schools' contracts."

Miller, 38, signed a five-year contract last spring. The Toledo Blade reported Miller's contract states if a Big Ten school wants to hire him, it does not have to pay the buyout for his contract, which runs through 2011.

Darn it.

The Blade fills in some details on his contract and the overall job market:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... /703260366

I think he ends up at UM or Cincinnati. If he put provisions in his contract to allow it you know he has to feel good about those openings.

Sadly, we will never be able to match Big 10 or Big East money.

Just because Curt is going to talk to Michigan doesn't mean he will be offered the job or that he will accept it. He'll make the best decison for his family. Maybe it will be another school, maybe it will be to stay at BG.

Let's jsut hope for the best.

CLindsay16 wrote:I think he ends up at UM or Cincinnati. If he put provisions in his contract to allow it you know he has to feel good about those openings.

Sadly, we will never be able to match Big 10 or Big East money.

This is incredibly false. Burnett, the previous coach at Michigan, had a base salary under 170k. She had a much much much more impressive resume when she was hired than Miller does now.

Michigan may pony up for their next coach, but to say we can never match that kind of money just isn't true.

I think Michigan will end up hiring a woman.

Ummmm......not according to this article......

Enough leverage to command a salary in line with the $350,000 annually that Michigan was paying former coach Cheryl Burnett.

http://www.mlive.com/sports/aanews/inde ... xml&coll=2

Michigan may pony up for their next coach, but to say we can never match that kind of money just isn't true.

Someone tell Janna Blais.

CLindsay16 wrote:Ummmm......not according to this article......

Enough leverage to command a salary in line with the $350,000 annually that Michigan was paying former coach Cheryl Burnett.

http://www.mlive.com/sports/aanews/inde ... xml&coll=2

Her base salary was just over 168k. She apparently also had some perk packages worth over 100k as well.

http://apps.michigandaily.com/blogs/thegame/?p=436

She also had a much better run of success than Miller has had, so there's no guarantee Miller would receive a similar salary or perk package, especially considering the politics of the situation.

CLindsay16 wrote:I think he ends up at UM or Cincinnati. If he put provisions in his contract to allow it you know he has to feel good about those openings.

Sadly, we will never be able to match Big 10 or Big East money.

I do not think Cincinnati is interesting to him because it's a no win situation. In that conference, it's going to take him quite a few years to get towards the top and the University won't give him that kind of time. He needs to look at what happened with Gary Waters and Stan Heath before he goes and takes any old BCS conference job. I think he's smarter than that.

As for Michigan, I'm still hearing that it's Suzy Merchant. They want to talk to Curt out of respect for the job he's done but they've already made their decision. Curt would have to really WOW them in order to change their minds. He also will not be offered the kind of dollars that many folks here think he'd get. Sure, it will be more than BG could give him, but not by much.

If Curt wouldn't want to go to Cincinnati then why would he ask for an out clause in his contract if offered a job at UC?

Something to chew on....

CLindsay16 wrote:If Curt wouldn't want to go to Cincinnati then why would he ask for an out clause in his contract if offered a job at UC?

Something to chew on....

does that actually exist? Maybe he asked for it, maybe he didn't but is it an actual part of his contract? Has anybody else heard this?

Also, if UC was going to come knocking, why haven't they? They've had opportunity and if there really is an out clause, they don't even need to ask permission to interview him.

I don't know what is or is not in his contract. All I know is that in 2007, UC is a dead end, no win job for him to take and I TRUST that he is smart enough to see that. I trust that he has learned from others in the coaching profession who left good MAC jobs just to get into a larger conference and are no longer employed in those conferences because they couldn't create miracles. Sure, the examples are Men's coaches...but it's all the same game when you get right down to it. TWO coaches, Stan Heath (former Kent St.) and Robert McCullom (former Western Michigan) got canned yesterday. It was Gary Waters (former Kent St.) last year. These are 3 extremely talented coaches who sold out for dollars and the lure of a major conference and took any old job. Not only are they expected to turn losers into winners...they are expected to win conference championships immediately. Curt Miller needs to be aware that if he doesn't choose a ready for Sweet 16 job, he could wind up in the Horizon league 4 or 5 years from now.....stuck in coaching quicksand.

He's going to do what he's going to do. I'm just saying that I'd be shocked if he goes to UC.....and if he does, I'd be even more shocked if he were to be able to produce results at that particular University.

CLindsay16 wrote:If Curt wouldn't want to go to Cincinnati then why would he ask for an out clause in his contract if offered a job at UC?

Something to chew on....

And if Urban Meyer wouldn't have wanted the Notre Dame job then why would he ask for an out clause in his contract if offered a job at ND?

Just because a clause is there doesn't mean it will be exercised.

Greg -- the out clause for UC was in his contract, but I don't know if it was included in the new contract or not. I would assume it's in there.

I don't see him going to UC either. UC isn't going to be overtaking the Big East powers anytime soon. He'll be fired before he has enough time to implement his schemes and players.

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:Greg -- the out clause for UC was in his contract, but I don't know if it was included in the new contract or not. I would assume it's in there.

I don't see him going to UC either. UC isn't going to be overtaking the Big East powers anytime soon. He'll be fired before he has enough time to implement his schemes and players.

thanks!!! I didn't want to totally dispute CLindsey's statement, I was just shocked when I saw it and wondered if anyone else knew of that. It seemed odd for UC to be an out clause.

Wow, I need to do some fact finding. I don't recall that UC was particularly good 6 years ago....but maybe at the time, for a young coach getting his feet wet, it SEEMED like a type of program he could wind up at??

UC won 26 games in 2001-02, Curts first year here. The BIG EAST got 8 teams in the dance this year, the MAC just one. Curt turned an awful team into a champion in the MAC, I would be willing to bet he could turn a 15-win team into a championship contender at UC or elsewhere. Remember, the AD at Cincinnati was at Akron so I am sure he is familiar with Curt and what he has done here.