James Miller - Men's Basketball Coach

James Miller

Title:
Associate Head Men's Basketball Coach
Phone:
662-325-3800

With nearly two decades of coaching experience, James Miller has worked his way into being heralded as one of the nation's top up-and-coming coaches as he enters his second season at Mississippi State and his sixth season overall on Chris Jans’ staff in 2023-24.

Miller has amassed 115 victories which averages to 23.0 wins per season and compiled a .747 winning percentage over his previous five seasons working with Jans.

Miller owns 18 years of coaching experience and has notched six postseason trips during his eight seasons at the NCAA Division I level which includes previous stops at Arkansas State, New Mexico State, North Texas and Omaha.

Miller was promoted to Mississippi State’s Associate Head Coach in May 2023 after the Maroon and White piled up 21 victories and returned to the NCAA Tournament during the 2022-23 campaign.

The Bulldogs rose to as high as No. 15 in the national rankings after an 11-0 which tied the program’s second-best start to a season. State was one of the nation’s last four undefeated teams on a list that included national champion Connecticut, top 5 mainstay Purdue and New Mexico.

Top 25 victories over TCU and Texas A&M coupled with wins over Marquette, the BIG EAST regular season and tournament champion and a NCAA NET Quad 1 road win at Arkansas provided the blueprint for State’s NCAA Tournament berth.

Defensively, Mississippi State was elite limiting their first 10 opponents of the 2022-23 season to 60 points or less, a feat accomplished by only the 2011-12 Virginia squad during the 2000s. The Bulldogs were among the nation’s top 25 in scoring defense (61.0 – 9th), opponent field goal percentage (39.4 – 10th) and steals per game (8.6 – 23rd).

Miller linked up with Jans for four seasons at New Mexico State. He also was elevated from assistant coach to associate head coach following his first season in 2018-19.

During his time in Las Cruces, Miller aided the Aggies to a 94-26 record and a .783 winning clip. New Mexico State secured a program single-season 30 victories in 2018-19 and continued to validate its reputation as one of the nation's premier mid-major programs.

The Aggies piled up three WAC regular season titles, two WAC Tournament titles and two NCAA Tournament trips with Miller on-staff. After nearly upsetting eventual 2019 NCAA Final Four participant Auburn, NM State toppled Connecticut in a 12-5 upset at the 2022 Big Dance.

New Mexico State was poised for another postseason run following a 19-game winning streak in route a 25-6 record and an undefeated WAC regular season during the 2019-20 season before being cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Aggies amassed a dominant 52-11 mark and an .825 winning percentage during conference games as the WAC's showcase program from the 2018-19 to 2021-22 seasons. The .825 conference winning clip was sixth-nationally during that four-year span.

New Mexico State players accounted for 18 All-WAC honors headlined by 10 selections to either the All-WAC First Team or All-WAC Second Team over the four-year run. Four Aggies went onto to capture NABC All-District accolades headlined by Teddy Allen's first-team nod after he earned the 2021-22 WAC Player of the Year.

Prior to New Mexico State, Miller served as an assistant coach at Omaha (2015-16) under Derrin Hanson followed by a pair of one-year stints at Arkansas State (2016-17) and North Texas (2017-18) both for current Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland. The Mean Green won the 2018 College Basketball Invitational (CBI) championship.

Before making the jump to the NCAA Division I level, Miller gained three years of head coaching experience at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs. The Thunderbirds won 77 games from 2012-13 to 2014-15 and made three consecutive postseason appearances.

Miller cut his teeth in the coaching profession at Colorado State Pueblo as an assistant coach. He also was a student manager at Colorado State where he earned his bachelor's degree in 2005 and received his master's degree from Northern Colorado in 2007.

Miller and his wife Darlene have two daughters: Mia and Maci.

The James Miller File
Seasons • School • Years at School • POSITION
2024-Current • Mississippi State • 1 Season • Associate Head Coach
2023 • Mississippi State • 1 Season • Assistant Coach
2020-21-22 • New Mexico State • 3 Seasons • Associate Head Coach
2019 • New Mexico State • 1 Season • Assistant Coach
2018 • North Texas • 1 Season • Assistant Coach
2017 • Arkansas State • 1 Season • Assistant Coach
2016 • Omaha • 1 Season • Assistant Coach
2013-14-15 • New Mexico Junior College • 3 Seasons • Head Coach
2010-11-12 • New Mexico Junior College • 3 Seasons • Assistant Coach
2006-07-08-09 • Colorado State Pueblo • 4 Seasons • Assistant Coach

Note: Seasons are represented by hyphen and begin with the year’s last date. For example, the 2022-23 season is listed as 2023 which was Miller’s first season coaching at Mississippi State.