Miles is up and running

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — It’s hard keeping up with new Nebraska coach Tim Miles.

He’s busy selling hope that a moribund program that hasn’t won even a share of a conference championship since 1950, let alone an NCAA tournament game, can win in the rugged Big Ten.

He’s doing it the only way he knows how, and that’s with lots and lots of energy.

“This train is moving forward,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “You’re either on board or you’re in the way.”

Since getting hired less than three weeks ago, he’s begun assembling a staff, met with players to see who’s staying or going and laid groundwork for recruiting. Miles, the former head coach at Mayville State and NDSU, also has strived to generate excitement among a fan base that has grown largely indifferent from decades of losing.

He’s appeared at booster functions, thrown out the first pitch at a Nebraska baseball game and even hosted a pizza party for hundreds of students on Wednesday night.

When he gets a spare moment, he logs onto his Twitter account ((at)coachmiles) and engages his 13,250-plus followers, a number that has nearly tripled since he came to Lincoln from Colorado State.

Miles seems to tweet about everything other than basketball.

He posted a picture of a parking ticket he found on his windshield this week. “Dang!! Welcome to Lincoln,” he wrote.

He also exchanged niceties with Larry the Cable Guy and empathized with Phil Mickelson after Lefty hit into bamboo and triple-bogied a par-3 at the Masters on Sunday. On Friday, he was preparing to answer fans’ questions during a Twitter chat ((hash)askcoachmiles).

All this outreach comes quite naturally to the 45-year-old Miles.

“Being the youngest of five kids, you’re an attention-seeker, right?” he said. “So you get out among the people.”

Tags: college sports, sports, basketball