Ralph Miller’s View : Top Winning Coach Dislikes Shot Clock

Ralph Miller of Oregon State begins his 35th season with more victories than any active college basketball coach and with something new to teach his players that he doesn’t like.

It’s the 45-second shot clock.

“It is the initial step in stereotyping the game of basketball,” Miller said. “You have deleted a certain strategy by a coach or a team, and its a shame that a team cannot use the avenue of balance control to play against a team they would not be able to compete with.”

The 66-year-old coach, who knew Dr. James Naismith in the 1930s when Miller played basketball at Kansas under the legendary Phog Allen, said he didn’t think that’s what Naismith had in mind when he invented the game.

Miller, who in addition to being a basketball star at Kansas was an all-Big Eight quarterback, has had a remarkable career for a man whose teams have never advanced beyond the final eight in the NCAA playoffs.

He has 601 victories against 325 defeats during coaching tenures at Wichita State, Iowa and Oregon State. He was named national coach of the year twice--at Oregon State in 1981 and 1982. He was a conference coach of the year six times--twice each at Wichita State, Iowa and Oregon State. And he’s starting after his seventh straight 20-game win season.

“It’s a nice honor to be the winningnest coach,” Miller said. “But, actually, when you get down to brass tacks it is just the start of another season. Certainly, I would like to add to the list of victories.”

The salty mentor said he didn’t know how some of his teams of the past would compete with teams of today.

“Basketball has improved,” he said.

But Miller did name three teams he believes were his best--Wichita State of 1964 which had Dave Stallworth, Iowa of 1970 which had J.J. Johnson and “Downtown” Freddy Brown and the 1981 Oregon State team which had Steve Johnson and Mark Radford, plus Charlie Sitton as a freshman.

That Wichita State team went 23-6 and won the Missouri Valley Conference title with a 10-2 record.

The 1970 Iowa team won the Big 10 title with a 14-0 record and was 20-5 overall. It averaged more than 100 points a game and lost in the NCAA playoffs’ second game to Jacksonville, 101-100.

Oregon State went 26-2 in 1981, winning 26 in a row before bowing out in the NCAA playoffs. The next season his Beavers advanced to the final eight in the NCAA but again were eliminated, this time by Georgetown when Patrick Ewing was a freshman.

Miller isn’t predicting a winner in this year’s Pac-10 race. In fact, he says, “I think almost anybody in the conference has a good chance to win it. I know the coaches picked Washington as the best team in the preseason, but they are not that far ahead of anybody else.”

Miller lost star forward A.C. Green by graduation. Green is now with the Lakers and Miller said he believed the 6-9 forward may get more playing time than any other NBA rookie this season except Ewing.

To replace Green, Miller is counting on 6-10 Jose Ortiz, a former member of the Puerto Rican national team.

“We believe he has some talents that will definitely help us,” Miller said in what may be an understatement. “He’s our best jumper.”

Ortiz won’t be eligible until Dec. 22.