Coach Tony Miller on The Lost Art of Teaching Basketball

It was a great pleasure to sit down with Dr. Tony Miller, Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach and Professor of Sports Management and Sports Administration at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, winners of two NCCAA Conference Championships in the last three years. Coach Miller is an accomplished teacher and coach, as well as a brilliant basketball mind and content creator to help coaches grow in their profession.

Coach Miller has taught at the University for 18 years and coached basketball there for 13, while managing family, faith, and side projects of curating basketball philosophy and content to help coaches improve their craft. Using his inquisitive skills as a professor, Tony has put much thought into what makes a coach successful and how coaches can improve in their teaching the game of basketball.

As he puts it, “I think the secret sauce is being able to teach players, and not just coach them as we traditionally think about it. I have the advantage from what I do for work full-time that supports basketball and then also the basketball experiences give me opportunities to bring real life examples into the classroom. So I feel really fortunate to have the opportunity to have two careers simultaneously, if you will, that support each other and overlap and I think actually both make the other better, which is kind of a hack that I’ve just been fortunate to stumble into.”

Historically, many high schools in America hired “coaches” to coach all the sports. While this worked on paper to save money and positions, it didn’t necessarily mean that each sport received quality instruction and expertise. Today’s athletes and sports are so detailed and research-based that the old model of thinking is no longer as productive; something that Coach Miller has studied to identify and improve.

“I do think that historically because so much of basketball was taught in the past by football coaches who, in their sport, emphasize technique, technique, technique… which is also important in basketball, but not the sole focus, that teaching them ‘how to play’ was overlooked. However, the game of basketball does not resemble the game of football. The game of modern basketball more closely resembles how soccer is played. It is a free-flowing sport with limited stoppages to call a play, so the players are heavily reliant on decision making. The amount of times that they’re being forced to make decisions on their own requires us to teach them decision making…Teaching has evolved, as well as the way that we understand how people learn, [so] there’s a better way to do that even now— how can I teach multiple things at one time? How can I prepare them adequately, while still developing the physical skills that I think coaching basketball was designed to do?…So it’s just kind of like a shift in a mindset to better prepare coaches.”

One of the unique ways Coach Miller is teaching the game in new ways is by using what he calls ”Small-Sided Games” where he has their players train in 2-on-2 and 3-on-3 games to emphasize desired actions within the flow of competition before moving to 5-on-5. Too many times coaches do drill after drill focused on a single concept, only to have it lost in 5-on-5 play as players get overwhelmed with multiple options.

“The example I always use is, ‘All right, we’re going to throw the ball into the post, and then whatever action you do out of that’…Then you go 5-on-5, you check up the ball, and the ball never touches the post, and then you’re mad at the players for not ever getting the ball to the post—and it may be partly their fault; but it’s partly your fault too for not setting it up for that thing to happen. So I can very easily do a 3-on-3 game and say to them, ‘We cannot score until there is a post touch with a split action or something.’ Playing games with constraints, I think is a way for you to control and manipulate things as a coach, to set your players up to actually encounter game-like conditions, and to train them better, so they are better prepared for games themselves. We reverse engineer that to make it as quick as possible to get them into understanding ‘how to play’.  I try to balance systems of play with individual skill development…and skill development doesn’t just mean the physical stuff, like I said before, it’s also the mental as well.”

Coach Miller understands and has harnessed the part-whole concept to teach athletes how to play, and how to play together. That is ultimately the goal of every coach. Using game play to teach fluid decision making and flow is important to his program. “When I have new players in, we’re using more small-sided games, but we get to five-on-five as quickly as we can, because there’s nothing that simulates a real game like five-on-five…and there’s always that end goal in mind of what we want it to look like.”  One of his major influences on his coaching philosophy is credited to Furman University Head Coach Bob Richie. “I’m a big fan, I mean, he’s a great guy…things matter to him—what he calls just simply ‘person development’, rather than ‘player development’.  They use a lot of small sided games. I spend most of my summer over there in their gym, watching them do stuff, and I get ideas from them.”

His value placed on teaching and learning is not lost on those around Coach Miller. He has a true desire to help every coach and every player get better. His advice to every coach regarding offense is to verbalize what good offense is. Only then can a coach communicate and teach that to his players. “That’s the secret sauce, how to teach them how to understand those concepts… I challenge any coach to really think through and put on paper or talk with somebody else, because I think it will make you a better communicator of your concepts. There are plenty of coaches out there who know about the game and know far more than I do about the game, but they can’t communicate it to their players, and if there’s no learning, then who really has taught?”

As mentioned, Coach Miller has great talent as a content creator and platform voice to help coaches. He notes his approach with his various platforms is actually strategic.  “I try to use different platforms for different purposes. I’m on Instagram, coach.miller, where I share a lot of small sided games and coach wisdom in general; and then on X, @tonywmiller, where it’s a little bit of everything…there’s some plays on there, there’s some short videos and small sided games. I found that the coaches themselves use the platforms a little bit differently, so I try to use them the way that they use them, and then the podcast, “A Quick Timeout” is just an opportunity for me to connect with coaches, and designed to help coaches become better teachers of the game. I want them to learn how to teach better, so their players can learn better, so they can have more success, not just out on the floor, but also in their journey to help players become better people as well, I think it’s really important.”

One of his latest platforms to help coaches succeed is in his partnership with Ballogy to create content for our app library.

“To be honest, it’s a platform that I’ve wanted to partner with for a long time. The best technology and the best apps are the ones helping coaches and trainers maximize their time, because time is of the essence, they need one place where they can get exactly what they need, and get it quickly… it helps them make efficient use of their time.”

“I think coaches are going to really benefit from not just the small-sided games, but everything that’s there on the Ballogy app, and I’m excited about using it, and I think it’s something that your players will enjoy too…what they enjoy looking at is short form video, short reading, checking in, get a message real quick, and communicate with their coach, or get the information from their coach, and so the app does all of that.”

“I’m hearing from people, not just in the sports world, but outside as well, people are recognizing that culture is the most important thing about their organization, and they’re really looking at not just what it is, but what does it need to be, and how do we achieve that? How do we maximize time; how do we maximize our resources? How do we become more efficient?”

Coach Miller and the staff at Bob Jones University have built a culture of success and excellence.  At Ballogy, we strive to help coaches embrace that same mentality and continue learning and growing every day to help them and their players get better.  Welcoming Coach Tony Miller as a collaborating creator and contributor will only strengthen our platform as the premier skill development app in the world.

That value on culture could not be more important to Coach Tony Miller, Bob Jones University, or to Ballogy. We want your culture to be one of excellence and success.  And to that end, we welcome Coach Tony Miller enthusiastically to Ballogy as a contributor of culture, knowledge, and content to help coaches and athletes get better one day at a time!