Longtime UW-Whitewater head coach Pat Miller to retire after 22 years
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It’s the end of an era for Whitewater basketball.
Longtime head men’s basketball head coach Pat Miller will retire after a 22-year career that included 10 NCAA national tournament appearances and two national championships, UW-Whitewater announced Monday.
“Pat will go down as one of the most successful college basketball coaches ever,” athletic director Ryan Callahan said in a statement.
Assistant coach Jarod Wichser will be interim head coach for 2023-2024, Callahan said.
Miller became head coach at Whitewater before the 2001-2002 season and led the Warhawks to 20 or more victories in four of his first five seasons.
He became the fastest coach to reach 100 wins in the history of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. During the 2014-2015 season, he became the fastest coach in Division III to win 300 games, among active coaches. He finished with a record of 434-167. His .722 winning percentage ranks in the top 15 all-time for Division III.
Miller won his first national championship in 2012 and was honored as the NCAA Division III coach of the year. Two years later, Miller and the Warhawks hoisted those trophies again. Those championship were the university’s third and fourth.
The university commended Miller for leading the team through tough times following the death of the team’s star guard, Derek Gray, who died of a cardiac event in 2022 while participating in a youth basketball camp on campus.
An up-and-down season followed, but the team rallied and upset UW-Oshkosh to win the WIAC tournament championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Warhawks’ journey ended in the Final Four.
Miller was inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2019.
Miller also won a national championship as a player when he was co-captain of the UW-Whitewater team that won the title in 1989. In 2006, he was inducted into the UW-Whitewater Hall of Fame.
Read More: Longtime UW-Whitewater head coach Pat Miller to retire after 22 years 2023-07-31 23:50:44