Great expectations

In November 1989, Douglas Wilder became the first black governor in the United States, the Germans tore down the Berlin Wall, and Fran Dunphy coached his first game for Penn.

With that 69-64 triumph over Lehigh, a prolific era in Quakers' basketball history had officially begun. During his tenure, Dunphy's teams compiled one top-25 ranking, 10 Ivy League titles and 310 wins - the most ever in school history. Fondly dubbed "the Dunph," the beloved taskmaster became synonymous with Penn basketball. An institution unto himself, the uncanny idea of ever losing Dunphy seemed impossible.

And then, just days after Penn nearly shocked two-seed Texas in last season's NCAA Tournament, the Red and Blue faithful received a shock of their own: Their coach was transferring across town to Big 5 rival, Temple.

So now, this November, a new era commences for the first time in 17 years. When the Quakers open their season tonight at 5:30 p.m., Glen Miller will step on the court as the 17th man to coach the Penn men's basketball program.

"I have a great deal of respect for coach Dunphy," the Quakers' newest head coach says. "He has had a tremendous amount of success. With that said, I can't worry about that. My approach is to look at every day and do the best job I can do. . I can only control what I can control."

While no rookie Quakers coach has ever had bigger shoes to fill, Miller's prior success indicates his feet may be just big enough for the task.

Simply put, Miller has made his career out of putting Humpty Dumpty back together again, beginning at his alma mater, Connecticut, in 1986, just months after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology.

"When I first got to UConn, that was the very first year coach [Jim] Calhoun was there, and the program was at a level where a lot of people didn't think they should be in the Big East," Miller remembers of his time as an assistant.

Seven years later, Connecticut was well on its way to becoming a perennial powerhouse and Miller earned his first head coaching position at Connecticut College in 1993.

Over the next six years, Miller orchestrated an unprecedented turnaround, culminating with a 28-1 record and trip to the NCAA Division-III tournament semi-finals in 1998-99. Soon after, Miller was promoted to Division-I ball when Brown tagged him as its new head man.

"When I was at Brown, I took over a program that was at rock bottom in the Ivy League," Miller says of the last place, 4-22, Bears he inherited. "We only had 16 seasons of .500 ball over 93 years. We looked at Penn and said this is what we want to turn Brown into. . We want to model our program in the Ivy League after the University of Pennsylvania."

By following his current employer's system, Miller revolutionized Brown basketball. In seven years, the Bears posted four winning seasons and punched their first ticket to the National Invitational Tournament in 2003. Despite finishing six games under .500 during his tenure, Miller led the previously perennial cellar-dweller to a 54-44 mark in conference play.

Miller and I have "competed against each other for the last seven years," says Dunphy, who boasts an 11-3 mark against his successor. "I have great respect for him. He is a great basketball man and family man.

"He knows what he's doing. He's surrounded by a lot of good guys."

That being said, Penn presents Miller with an entirely different challenge. There is nothing to fix. The team is not in ruins. Rather, the program has a rich tradition of winning. What's more, the program is anxious - and expecting - to take the next big step in the immediate future.

"The expectation level here is different than most schools," Miller explains. "The expectation level here is not just to get to the NCAA Tournament, but to win games in the NCAA Tournament. The support for the program here is much stronger from the alumni standpoint and the student standpoint."

Adding to the pressure is the fact that Miller is now coaching in Philadelphia - the city of the Palestra, the Big 5 and arguably the strongest college-basketball tradition in the county. Thus far, however, he is taking it all with stride.

"Basketball in the city of Philadelphia is huge. For me, from a professional standpoint, it's a great situation to be in. This is what I do for a living. I coach basketball. I don't do anything else. Why wouldn't you want to be in this environment? I'm enjoying every day of it," he said.

Joining Miller in his resettlement from Providence are wife Yvonne and children Tony, Genelle, Jillian and Emma. The Millers now reside in Morristown, N.J., a convenient 20-minute commute from the coach's office.

"The proximity is great. These days go by quick. We're in the office, and it's all basketball - it's recruiting, it's talking to this person and that person, it's putting together practice plans, it's advanced scouting for our opponents.

"It seems like I go from Morristown, over the Betsy Ross Bridge, down 95 and I'm here, and before I know it I'm on my way back," Miller jokes. "I don't get a chance to go into the city too much."

So what exactly is Miller scheming in his Weightman Hall office all day? What formula is he concocting to produce a tournament victory, something Dunphy's teams failed to accomplish in their last eight straight attempts?

"Coach Miller likes to play a little more up-tempo," senior Mark Zoller says. "He has a different philosophy. He looks at the game a different way than coach Dunph, and I think as a player, that's something that you've got to take for what it's worth and use it to become a better basketball player."

Penn's radio analyst Vince Curran, who played under Dunphy until 1992, has noticed the change of pace as well.

"From what I've seen so far, Glen looks like he wants to force the tempo up, take the first good shot that presents itself and play the game with the metronome clicking at a very high rate.

"Some guys should thrive in" this system, continues Curran. "Obviously, the three seniors are what they are. They'll have great years regardless of who coaches. A player like Tommy McMahon should thrive. Miller encourages [taking] the first open jump shot, and he's going to get a lot of them."

Nevertheless, the Red and Blue Crew should not dread an abandonment of the traditional physical play that defines Big 5 basketball. Miller insists there are many similarities between his and Dunphy's systems.

"We will be a movement-team offense, similar to what Penn has been in previous years. . From a defensive standpoint, we are a predominantly man-to-man team," also a style Penn has traditionally played.

Even though many things are staying the same, any change to a new offensive system is still drastic, as everyone must learn from square one together.

"What's different about that was you had, as a freshman, twelve guys who already knew the system," last year's Ivy League MVP Ibrahim Jaaber said. "Dunphy was teaching it to you, and you were learning it, but there were also twelve other guys helping you.

"It's taking a little longer for the younger guys and the older guys to adjust and get on the same page."

Ivy League rival Princeton recently endured a similar coaching change. When John Thompson III departed for Georgetown in 2004, the Tigers chose Joe Scott as his successor. Despite his previous success at Air Force, Scott stumbled in his first two seasons, leading the Tigers to a mediocre 27-28 combined record.

As opening tip-off approaches, people close to the team are convinced Miller will not suffer a similar fate.

"He's organized. He's intense. He's self-critical. He really drives himself," Curran said. "He sees things he doesn't like, and he harps on himself. He constantly tries to improve. When you're in that mindset of always wanting to get better and never being satisfied, you are going to have success."

The man who hired Miller, Penn athletic director Steve Bilsky, could not concur more with Curran's assessment.

Miller "has the drive and motivation, is a very good teacher and recruiter, knows the Ivy League and has a great respect for Penn Basketball and its history and traditions," Bilsky said via e-mail. "The interest for the position was extremely strong, and he has all the attributes I was looking for."

Now, Bilsky and the Quakers faithful will wait and watch, hoping that Miller will, sometime down the line, make Dunphy the second-winningest coach in Penn's history.

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