Columnist Ron Kantowski: Miller refill hits the spot for Lady Rebels

Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2004 | 10:28 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Although I'm not sure how automotively inclined she is, UNLV women's basketball coach Regina Miller has at least one thing in common with that Fram Oil Filters guy.

Instead of paying her now, as she had hoped back in late March, UNLV wound up paying her later.

Nearly five months after she, or at least those close to her, began trolling for a contract extension, Miller finally got one Monday as UNLV tacked three years onto her contract that still had a year to run.

Having spent a lot of time around the Lady Rebels last spring, count me among those who believe this is a good thing. The progress Miller's teams have made since she took over a program that predecessor LaDonna McClain had run into the ground is such that I was half-tempted to take $20 out of my own wallet if it would help keep her around.

Well, maybe a third-tempted. I mean, there are ethics, no matter what our city councilmen believe, and when was the last time a sports writer reached into his wallet for anything?

But the only guy who matters in personnel matters such as these is UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick, who this week came through for Miller. Terms, as they say in the college coaching business, were not disclosed.

For a point of reference, the base pay on Miller's old contract was $109,000.

Noting her 119-61 record at UNLV, last year's 26-8 season that culminated in a loss to Creighton in the WNIT championship game and the Lady Rebels' three postseason appearances (one NCAA) during her six years on the job, Hamrick said the extension was a reward for a job well done.

But back in March, when word first got out that Miller might be looking for a salary bump, it appeared it might not be forthcoming.

"We're very happy with the way the season turned out," Hamrick said at the time. "But Regina and I both agree that we need to be in the NCAA tournament."

That sounded like a "no" but apparently I read too much into it. Hamrick said when he sat down with Miller after the season and they reviewed what she had accomplished, not just last season but in getting the program back on firm footing, it wasn't difficult to justify the contract extension.

"She'll be here through the 2007-08 season," he said, with it understood there could be an option beyond that. "That's a good extension."

The part about the NCAA tournament was something Hamrick reiterated in announcing Miller's new deal and again Tuesday. With a beefed-up schedule that includes a potential eight games against postseason qualifiers -- the Lady Rebels will open the season Nov. 14 against Final Four participant Minnesota -- there's a good chance that if UNLV wins 22 games during the regular season, as it did last year, it will get there.

And if not this year, then next year for sure when Lauren Ervin becomes eligible.

Ervin, a 6-foot-4 forward, spent her freshman year at Kansas but before that she was a McDonald's All-American and ranked the No. 2 prospect in the nation by several recruiting services.

Those who have seen her play say she could be another Linda Frohlich, only with a little more French pastry, as Al McGuire used to say, than the under-the-basket strudel Frohlich baked on her way to the WNBA.

Indeed, there are those who believe that Miller is a better recruiter than a bench coach. But if you can only be one, it had better be the former. Players win games, and only Bob Knight seems to get by without them.

But if you ask me why I am a Regina Miller fan, it's not the won-lost record or the kind of players she attracts. It's because I've been to Lady Rebels practice. I'm not saying they are all business, but the practice floor at Cox Pavilion would make Donald Trump's board room look like the Friar's Club.

I found this surprising, because away from the court Miller is a sweetheart. But when it's time to pick-and-roll, she becomes the Battle Axe of the Republic. She walks and talks softly, but the Lady Rebels still mind her as if she's carrying a big stick.

As she has often said about her players, "I'll be their friends after the season."

Las Vegas' track record for supporting live sports may preclude women's basketball from ever generating the kind of interest here that it does in places such as Storrs, Conn., Knoxville, Tenn., or Austin, Texas.

But with Regina Miller locked up through the 2007-08 season, give the UNLV administration credit for doing its part.

Even if it took five months to get it done.