What you need to know about Purdue’s Big Ten championship run
The Associated Press – HONOLULU (AP) Purdue basketball coach Tim Miles says he thinks he knows what it takes to get Purdue to the Big Ten title game, but he has no plans to go to Indianapolis to do it.
Miles, a native of Fort Collins, Colorado, was the only coach to win a national title in college basketball in the 1960s and 1970s.
But he didn’t see his program’s path to another championship until he was fired by Michigan in November, six months after it won the national championship.
Now, he is on the road coaching for the Purdue women’s basketball team, hoping to help them to another national title.
The Hoosiers will be playing in the national semifinals in Atlanta on Feb. 27 and have a bye the following week before hosting Michigan State on Feb 14.
Miles is also the coach of the Fort Collins High School Pioneers.
He’s coaching the Hoosier women’s team in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Miles was hired in May after a 1-6 start.
He won only three games in his first season as coach.
Purdue lost four games in its first 20 contests to fall to No. 25 in the preseason AP poll and was eliminated in the second round of this year’s NCAA tournament after losing to Villanova in the semifinals.
Miles said he is “not looking to go out and do anything crazy” with the team in February, which could include an all-in-one coaching search.
Purdue is 6-8 overall, 3-6 in the Big 12.
Miles and his assistants will have a much easier time with Purdue’s new roster than they did with the current roster, including new stars, like sophomore guard Kelly Oubre Jr., who averaged 19.7 points and 6.6 assists per game last season.
The Pioneers have been the hottest team in college hoops since they joined the Big 10 Conference.
They finished No. 1 in the AP poll.
The program has played a new style of basketball, which was evident in their season-opening victory over No. 11 Ohio State on Wednesday.
“It is what it is.
I am not going to rush it, I am going to work hard and be prepared,” Miles said.
“We have a lot of players we can develop in the coming weeks.
We are going to go and work as hard as we can, play hard and give it our all.””
I’m not going out and doing anything crazy.
We are going to go and work as hard as we can, play hard and give it our all.”
