Mark Miller (basketball player)

Mark Miller
Player information
birthday	September 15, 1975 (44 years and 351 days)
place of birth	Chicago , Illinois , United States
size	185 cm
position	Point Guard / Shooting Guard
college	Illinois-Chicago
Clubs as active
1995–1998 UIC Flames ( NCAA ) 1998–1999 KK Split 1999 Fenerbahçe Istanbul 2000–2001 Telekom Baskets Bonn 2001–2002 Paris Basket Racing 2002 Olympia Larisa 2003 CSP Limoges 2004–2005 Trefl Sopot 00000 00000 00000
Clubs as coaches
2009–2010 UIC Flames (NCAA; Co ) 2010–2018 RMU Eagles ( NAIA ; Co)

Mark Miller (born September 15, 1975 in Chicago , Illinois ) is an American basketball coach and former player. Miller was successful as a player in Europe and in 2001 won the “ Most Valuable Player ” (MVP) award in the top German division, the Basketball Bundesliga . After the end of his playing career, he worked as a coach in his hometown of Chicago.

Career

Miller studied in his hometown at the University of Illinois at Chicago and played three seasons from 1995 to 1998 for the college team Flames in the Horizon League of NCAA Division I. He was only on the team for three years, but was on the with 1458 points seventh place on the all-time basketball list when he left it in 1998. With 154 ball wins, Miller finished fourth on the University of Illinois at Chicago's best list. The since 1981 playing in the Division I and since 1994 in the MWCC or Horizon League Flames won by Miller in 1998 for the first time the championship of their Conference and thus could for the first time for the national finals qualify where they in the first round against the 49ers of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte . Miller was (for his sporting achievements five years later in 2003 in the "Athletics Hall of Fame" German  Athletes Hall of Fame ) received his university.

Miller's sporting success with the Flames was not enough as a recommendation for a commitment in the NBA professional league , so he left his home country and became a professional in Europe. In the 1998/99 season he was initially active at the traditional Croatian club KK Split. The greatest successes of this team, however, were almost ten years ago when they dominated European club basketball with three successive national championships from 1989 to 1991 before the breakup of Yugoslavia . In the meantime, they couldn't even hold their own against KK Cibona Zagreb , which celebrated its eighth Croatian championship in a row with the Croatian double in 1999. Joined the 1999/2000 season Miller to Turkish Istanbul and played for Fenerbahçe in the Turkish Basketball Super League . Miller completed six championship games for the club in addition to six European Cup games, three defeats followed three opening successes and he was replaced at the end of October by his fellow countryman Keith Jennings, who was almost 20 cm shorter.

Despite the prematurely ended engagement in Turkey, Telekom Baskets Bonn Miller signed for the 2000/01 Bundesliga season . Miller flourished in the top German division, averaging just under 18 points and five assists per game. In the Saporta Cup he reached the quarter-finals with the team at European level, while with the Bonners in the Bundesliga after a third place in the main round he moved into the play-off final series for the German championship , where they played against the series champion Alba Berlin , however remained without a win in three games. Miller was voted the best player of the BBL's season just ended in a fan vote. For the following season 2001/02 he moved to the French LNB to Paris Basket Racing , which he had previously defeated with Bonn in the group stage of the Saporta Cup and prevented from progressing. The 1997 French champions, however, had their prime behind them and missed the play-offs for the French championship this season. Miller achieved an average of 17.2 points in 29 league appearances for the Parisians, and he also prepared 4.8 basket successes for his side men.

In the run-up to the 2002/03 season Miller signed a contract in the first Greek league A1 Ethniki at Olympia from Larisa . The season should end catastrophically for the Thessalians as bottom of the table, Miller himself was again released after four games. In March 2003, Miller returned to the French league and joined another big name club that was past its prime. At Cercle Saint-Pierre from Limoges, like KK Split, former title winner in the national championship competition, Miller completed eleven games of the season and was just able to prevent the club in third from last place in the table from falling into the second division again. Only at the beginning of 2004 Miller had a new engagement with the Polish runner-up Trefl from Sopot . With the Ostseestädtern he won the national championship for the first time in 2004, which should mark the beginning of a series of championship successes for this club. In the ULEB Euroleague 2004/05 Miller then played with the Polish club for the first time at the highest European club level. Somewhat surprisingly, the Polish newcomer overcame the first group stage and left traditional teams such as Olympiacos Piraeus , CB Estudiantes and KK Partizan Belgrade behind. In the second group stage of the sixteen best teams in Europe, however, they had no chance and suffered six defeats in six games. Because of progressive and recurring injury problems, including his knees, Miller found no new engagement after defending the Polish championship in 2005.

In August 2009 he joined the University of Illinois at Chicago as an assistant coach. In 2010, Miller was introduced as an assistant coach at the private Robert Morris University in his hometown. The college team of the Eagles is one of the leading teams in basketball in the NAIA college league and has always reached at least the quarter-finals from 2004 to 2011, including the Final Four tournament five times . Miller was in office there until 2018.

Web links

• Mark Miller, Assistant Coach - RMU - Trainer profile on the websites of Robert Morris University ( English )
• easyCredit BBL - Mark Miller - player profile on the easyCredit Basketball-Bundesliga website
• MILLER, MARK - Player profile on the sides of the ULEB Euro League (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ UIC MEN'S BASKETBALL CAREER RECORDS. In: University of Illinois at Chicago Athletics. Accessed in 2020 . 
2. ↑ UIC Athletics Official Site - UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME MEMBERS. University of Illinois at Chicago , accessed June 2, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Mark Miller - Turkish Basketball League Player - 1999-2000 Regular Season. tblstat.net, accessed on June 2, 2012 (English, player statistics). 
4. ↑ Player of the Year: Mark Miller! schoenen-dunk.de, June 9, 2001, accessed on June 2, 2012 (reproduction of a press release). 
5. ↑ Miller Mark | LNB.fr. Retrieved August 21, 2020 (French). 
6. ^ Mark Miller Player Profile (2002-2003). (No longer available online.) Doudiz.com, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 2, 2012 (English, player statistics).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
7. ↑ Mark Miller - Limoges - Joueurs - Pro A. LNB.fr , accessed on June 2, 2012 (French, player statistics). 
8. ↑ Mark Miller - Men's Basketball Coach. Retrieved on August 21, 2020 (English). 
9. ↑ Men's Basketball - Chicago NAIA - RMU. (No longer available online.) Robertmorris.edu, archived from the original on June 22, 2012 ; accessed on June 2, 2012 (English, overview of the successes of the basketball program of the RMU Chicago). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ^ Robert Morris University. Accessed August 21, 2020 .