Our ITG Next Alabama “4 Questions with the Coach” spotlight this week is on Hazel Green High girls basketball coach Tim Miller, who is in his 24th season as a high school coach in Alabama and his 11th with the Lady Trojans. Coach Miller has enjoyed a successful coaching career that has produced 10 state championships overall, including six in a row at Hazel Green, an Alabama state record.
Speaking of records, Green is the only high school basketball coach in Alabama to win three state championships, each with a different team, and his Hazel Green team set the Alabama High School Athletic Association record for consecutive wins with 87. (The streak was snapped last year by the Hoover Lady Buccaneers.) In short, it’s been an incredible career for coach Miller. Let’s hear more from him in this week’s 4 Questions segment.
Q. Coach Miller, thank you for joining us as our 4 Questions guest. Let me start by congratulating you on such a great career. While a lot of people reading this are aware of the success you’ve had at different schools, what they may not be aware of is the fact that the programs you took over had really struggled prior to your arrival. At Bob Jones High, Hillcrest, Jeff Davis, and even at Hazel Green, things were bad prior to your arrival. What was the process like in getting these basketball programs turned around?
A. Taking over Jeff Davis when they had won only five games in three years was tough. Hazel Green had only won two games prior to me coming, and Bob Jones could not make it to the final four or get past Sparkman. [The challenges are] getting kids and especially parents to buy in to the program and trust the process. Weeding out wannabes and what I call jersey toters. This is not easy and quick to turn around. There are a lot of up and downs in this process.
Q. There is the old adage that we hear so much about that says, “To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best.” Was that something you felt was important with your teams and scheduling your opponents?
A. I knew at Jeff Davis I had to get to north Alabama girls basketball if I had a chance to compete for state championships. I could get to the final four, but no further; a team from the north always put us out. So I started scheduling teams from north Alabama, as well as attending as many tournaments in the north as I could. When we did this, we finally broke through and won one, after three tries.
Q. There’s no question you have had some great basketball players come through Hazel Green. There are also a lot of players who may not have made the headlines as frontline starters but were just as important to the success of the team. Talk about the joy and satisfaction you get from instilling that sense of winning through players maybe not gifted with the pure raw ability as some of the more talented players.
A. Every player is important, from the players who scores the most points to the one that doesn’t get in the game. They are all treated the same. It’s been really fun that we may have D2, D3, and juco players going against D1 signees and win. Our players understand who and what they are playing for. They play for each other, their school, and their family.
Q. Let me ask you about this season so far. It’s been a good season overall, although your girls hit a bit of a rough patch right before Christmas. Since then, your team has played well. How would you sum up this 2023-2024 team and your chances heading into the postseason? How does the team compare to these past few championship teams?
A. I would not call it a rough patch this season. The schedule has been great for competition. We went to Phoenix, Arizona and played in the TOC [Nike Tournament of Champions] national invitational tournament. We played in the top bracket, where only nationally ranked teams could play. There were seven divisions. We went 1-3 and lost to three Top-20 teams in the country, including the best one. Lost by four, five, and nine points in those games. Not to make excuses, but we were down two starters for the tournament.
This has been the most competitive schedule I have ever had. We also went to Georgia and beat the top team there, as well as going to Washington D.C. and beating a nationally ranked team there. We tried to make it a national schedule this year. Hopefully all will pay off for our post season run. We have seen and been through it all so far, and we look forward to the playoffs.
