Ex-UA basketball staffer David Miller optimistic about new role at San Jose State

Based on tradition and history, former Arizona Wildcats assistant David Miller couldn’t have picked a much tougher place to begin his full-time college basketball coaching career.

San Jose State. You know, winners of zero NCAA Tournament games in just three appearances. Producers of zero NBA picks in the past 24 years, unless you include transfer Brandon Clarke, who moved to Gonzaga before going No. 21 in the 2019 NBA Draft.

The Spartans are also residents of the pro-minded San Francisco Bay area, where fans don’t always have a whole lot of interest in college sports, especially outside of Stanford and Cal.

But Miller, who joined the staff of former UA coach Sean Miller (no relation) as a manager in 2010 and worked his way up the college ladder over the past decade, is OK with that.

For one thing, he’s working for a new SJSU head coach in Tim Miles who has had success at places that aren’t traditionally big winners. Miles took Colorado State and Nebraska to the NCAA Tournament, helped transition North Dakota State to Division I and, previously, took over moribund smaller programs Southwest Minnesota State and Mayville (N.D.) State.

“The part that makes it so appealing is Tim Miles,” Miller said. “He’s been at every level and he’s such a good dude, he’s really easy to sell” to recruits.

For another, there’s football. Under coach Brent Brennan, who drew attention for the UA football opening after last season, SJSU won the Mountain West while going 7-1 last season. Miller said that success excited fans locally, while the administration has also made financial commitments to basketball for facilities and staffing.

“San Jose has the Sharks, the Bay has the Warriors but in San Jose there’s a million people,” Miller said. “People don’t realize how big of a city it is and they want a winner. They’ve been kind of yearning for one and now football has it rolling with coach Brennan … and he’s been really supportive.”

Finally, there’s talent everywhere, starting with four high-major transfers that include former UA wing Tibet Gorener. The Turkish wing played in just eight games last season but drew praise from then-coach Sean Miller for his potential.

“He needs to put on weight, but he did a good job with (UA strength coach Chris) Rounds — he gained about 15 pounds last year,” Miller said. “He’s an elite shooter. He has a really good feel for the game and he’s a legit 6-9.

“The big thing is him just buying in on defense and just getting older. He just turned 19 so I think I think his best basketball is ahead of him. But we anticipate him coming in right away and playing legit minutes.”

Miller’s experience suggests more talent is to come. The son of an NBA broadcaster and former NBA assistant coach who grew up in Los Angeles, Miller has extensive ties in Southern California but also with the talent-rich club programs such as the Oakland Soldiers and Compton Magic.

And despite being known formally as the “operations director” at UC Santa Barbara under former UA associate head coach Joe Pasternack from 2017-19 — and UA’s director of on-campus recruiting during a second stint Tucson over the past two seasons — Miller has already been something of a fourth coach on the UA, UCSB and Alabama staffs.

Speaking at the Section 7 Finals high school showcase event in Phoenix last month, Miller said he’s long been developing contacts and staying in touch with recruits thanks to more relaxed NCAA rules.

Even early in his career, as a UA graduate manager, Miller said he spent a lot of time with high profile recruits such as Stanley Johnson before they committed to the Wildcats, and he said Sean Miller gave him a lot of freedom to grow.

Then Sean Miller and Pasternack called Miles with their recommendation.

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“I actually didn’t know Tim at all, but they called on my behalf and just told him how I helped,” David Miller said. “Those two were really big with getting my foot in the door.”

Tubelis among top U19 scorers

After four games in the FIBA U19 World Cup, Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis is the third-leading scorer with an average of 17.0 points per game and is tied for second in steals with an average of 2.3 per game. He’s also tied for 14th in rebounding (6.8).

UA teammate Bennedict Mathurin of Canada is seventh in scoring at 15.0 while UA center Oumar Ballo is 37th in scoring (10.0), seventh in rebounding (8.0) and third in blocks (2.8).

Wednesday, Tubelis had 13 points, six rebounds and three assists to help Lithuania coast to a 96-53 win over Iran in the round of 16.

Mathurin had 13 points and three rebounds while playing just 19 minutes for Canada in its 86-56 rout of Puerto Rico while UA center Oumar Ballo had 10 points and six rebounds for Mali in its 86-52 loss to France.

Canada, Lithuania head to showdowns

While France’s win knocked Ballo and Mali (0-4) into the loser’s bracket, Lithuania (3-1) and Canada (4-0) moved toward potential marquee showdowns this weekend.

After an off day Thursday, Lithuania will move from Daugavpils to Riga, Latvia and face France in the quarterfinals at 5 a.m. Friday. With a win, Lithuania could be matched up with Serbia in the semifinals and the winner could face USA in the finals.

Canada might play USA on Saturday in the semifinals if it can get past Spain in a quarterfinal game at 2 a.m. on Friday, with the winner to possibly face USA in a semifinal game on Saturday. USA (4-0) will face Senegal (2-2) on Friday at 8 a.m.

In a pre-tournament list of “power rankings” posted on FIBA.com, USA was No. 1, Serbia second, Canada third and Lithuania seventh.

Kier listed on sportswear site

UA transfer guard Justin Kier was added to the Instagram page of Motiv Sports, whose website says it is recruiting college athletes to “test drive our latest gear, help plan community events, and help guide the direction of the company.”

In an Instagram post Tuesday that Kier also posted, Motiv said “Welcome @justinnkier University of Arizona basketball #MOTIVathlete”

The NCAA issued policies allowing all athletes to profit off their name image and likenesses on July 1, the date several state NIL laws went into effect.