Former UR AD Jim Miller offered ear-catching analysis on Spiders' opening
John O'Connor|16 hours ago
After 12 years as the University of Richmond's athletics director, Jim Miller was succeeded by Keith Gill in 2012. Miller transitioned to a newly established role of assistant to the president for athletic advancement at UR, and then became a part-time consultant for the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Miller, 65 and still a Richmond resident, now works as a senior partner at Collegiate Sports Associates, a search firm that helps universities identify and research candidates for administrative and coaching positions. CSA also does consulting work in college athletics. Miller estimated he has visited the campuses of 20 schools in the last few years, on CSA's behalf.
If anybody knows the lay of the land in college athletics and where UR is on that landscape, it's Miller.
He hired Danny Rocco as football coach and Rocco, after five years and three FCS playoff qualifications, left UR for CAA Football rival Delaware in mid-December.
That unusual move "did shine a spotlight on whatever issues were there, positive or negative," Miller said, referring to Gill's May 10 resignation.
Miller made the comments on Tuesday's edition of "The Sports Huddle with Bob Black," a radio show that airs on ESPN 950. Miller is a co-host some days, and was Tuesday, when the topic was the vacancy in the Spiders' athletics director's office.
Miller's insight and candidness were ear-catching. Here are some of his comments.
On the need for alignment at schools:
"Whether it's admissions or anything else, it's alignment. Is everybody at that school aligned with what the objectives of your basketball program need to be, from the board, to the president, to the vice presidents ... I mean, I know you can have outliers ... But is the school in alignment of what you want to accomplish?
"You take a school like Marquette. Marquette doesn't have the resources even that a Richmond has. But you know what? They are committed and aligned with the value of their men's basketball program. ... Duke wasn't always Duke. At some point in time, it was just a small private school in North Carolina, whatever. There became an alignment, an alignment was created - from the top, down, bottom, up - an alignment of what you wanted to accomplish and, 'We're all on the same page.'
"So admissions is not perceived as a hurdle, as a problem. They're perceived as a partner, working to get it done. And that's what a school like the University of Richmond, in order to have the success (that has been discussed), they need to commit to being aligned. We don't know what that technically means with admissions standards and all that stuff, but you've got to be a partner in alignment.
"It is of no value to (basketball coach) Chris Mooney to have a kid come in here and flunk out a year-and-a-half in, and all that mess. It just doesn't work. So they're bringing people to the table - they've already gone through and taken 1,000 recruits and got it down to about six - and when they bring a young man or woman in to try to get them admitted, they strongly believe he can succeed.
"And I'll point it out (that) the kids that have stayed with Chris have graduated, all graduated. I think in the 12 years I was (AD) and five years since, I think there's only been one kid in all the sports who was (academically) ineligible at all. They're academically eligible. They're graduating. And the (coaches) are bringing people you can be proud of. For the most part, they don't get in trouble. They're good kids.
"So the more partnering we can have with admissions, rather than somebody saying, 'We're trying to hold the line and create these standards,' it's going to be much better."
On finding a new AD:
"One of the things over the last couple of years that I've been doing as a consultant has been conducting searches at major schools - schools at the (FCS) level and at the highest level - and doing program reviews at schools and seeing out there what's working and what's not working. And this is not going to come as any great revelation, but I think more than anything, you have to have a good fit.
"No matter how smart a person is, how skilled a person is, how much charisma a person has, if you're not a good fit for what that school needs at that time ... Because it's not a universal. When I first came to Richmond, they needed a certain skill set. When Keith came, they needed a certain skill set. When they hire the next athletic director, there will be a different skill set that's perceived to be important.
"(It was reported) that maybe there was a perception that it got to a point in time that (Gill) was not the right fit. I don't know that. I wasn't on the inside. But fit is so important."
On men's basketball being the flagship sport, and the AD's commitment to the program:
"It's easy to say it. The commitment to it is hard, because you don't have unlimited resources. A 'basketball-centric AD' at Virginia doesn't really mean anything because they've got all the resources to do whatever they want to with anything. Or Virginia Tech, or Duke, or whatever.
"A basketball-centric, if you're using that term, AD at a place like Richmond, even though there's great resources, it's still not unlimited resources. So you have to take from someone to give to basketball. You have to be relentlessly committed to the success at the expense of other sports. That is just the way. If you're going to win at the highest level with limited resources, whether it's personnel or financial, you have to be relentless for that success.
"I was at N.C. State (in athletic administration) for 10 years. You know what? The AD, generally what you do at that level, you move around, keep donors happy. Everybody's got what they need (in each sport). It is a more difficult job at a Richmond, or a Bucknell, or a William & Mary. Because you have to work at it.
"It is important that women's soccer wins. It's important that baseball wins. It's important that lacrosse wins. But you know what? It's important to a very small group of people. But basketball, if you're going to be basketball-centric - that is the term we're using right now - that is very important to that level of success. You have to be relentless looking for ways to be successful.
"That's what everybody at this level ... We spent time with Furman. We spent time with Greensboro. I spent time at a lot of schools. They keep asking me, 'How do we make our basketball program better?' I keep saying, 'You've got to be willing to be a bad guy. You've got to be willing to say, 'No, this is what we're doing. This is what's best for basketball, and this is what we're doing.'"
