A storied coach with significant experience at the NCAA Division I level, Eldon Miller begins his 48th season as a collegiate coach in 2019-20, as well as his 12th alongside his son, Ben, as a volunteer assistant coach for the Braves.
After earning four varsity letters as a player at Wittenberg, Miller moved to the bench as an assistant coach for one year before assuming the head position at the tender age of 23. His first team posted a 26-2 record, won the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) and advanced all the way to the NCAA College Division championship game before losing by two points to South Dakota State.
It was the start of an illustrious 36-year coaching career. After guiding the Tigers to four more OAC titles through 1970, Miller moved on to Western Michigan from 1971-76, Ohio State from 1977-86 and Northern Iowa from 1987-98. At Western Michigan, he produced the school's first Mid-American Conference championship in 1976, and at Ohio State, four of his 10 Buckeye teams advanced to the NCAA Division I Tournament and the 1986 squad captured the National Invitational Tournament title.
While at Northern Iowa, he led the Panthers to their first NCAA Tournament victory - a monumental upset of third-seeded Missouri in the 1990 NCAA Tournament.
A native of Gnadenhutten, Ohio, Miller remains third in Wittenberg school history with 142 coaching victories and is tied for second with five conference titles. Miller, the second of five straight Wittenberg men's basketball coaches to go straight to NCAA Division I, was inducted into Wittenberg's Athletics Hall of Honor in 1986. He would later be inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
His overall record is 568–419 and 5–6 in NCAA Tournament games. His record includes 142 wins at Wittenberg, 86 at Western Michigan, 176 at Ohio State and 164 at Northern Iowa. He also mentored 13 eventual NBA Draft picks.
