Mike Miller, Eastern men’s basketball head coach, has received another contract extension.

For the second consecutive year, Miller received a contract extension during the season and will now coach at least through the 2011-2012 season.

While Miller’s two-year contract extension had received approval at the January Board of Trustees meeting, athletic director Barbara Burke said the university did not want to release the information until all the specifics were worked out.

President Perry approved the contract extension and released the information on Monday.

Dan Nadler, vice president for student affairs, said since Miller’s contract extension was a multi-year contract, the contract had to be held on announcement from Perry.

“The president receives authorization from the BOT to offer a multi-year contract,” Nadler said in an e-mail. “This is the same process used for any multi-year employee offer. Announcements are made only after documents are reviewed, accepted and signed.”

Burke is happy with Miller’s progress.

“We are very pleased with the direction that coach Miller is taking our men’s basketball program,” Burke said in a statement.

Miller, in his fifth season, helped the Panthers reach their first Ohio Valley Conference Tournament berth last season, the first under his tenure. Before last season, the Panthers last reached the OVC Tournament since 2004-2005. Miller is 47-92 in his fifth year and 31-59 in the OVC.

The 12 wins this season match the most since Miller started. However, with Miller’s current win percentage of 33.8, he has the second-worst winning percentage in program history.

“We feel like we have a great direction,” Miller said. “We do feel like we have a direction. Sometimes it’s a process where you have to get to that point.”

Nadler said, at this point, there is not a salary extension.

Miller made $129,794 in the 2009 fiscal year and $126,013.32 in the 2008 fiscal year, according to the Eastern fiscal budget.

The Panthers are 12-11 this season and 6-7 in the OVC, and they are tied for fifth place with five conference games remaining. The Panthers will also play Northern Illinois in a non-conference game and could possibly play in the OVC Tournament. The top eight teams qualify for the OVC Tournament with 10 teams in the league.

Eastern junior guard Tyler Laser said he is proud of the fact that the Panthers are not the joke of the league anymore and that OVC teams are preparing for them.

This has been the third time Miller’s contract has been extended. Miller initially had a three-year contract, and it was extended after the 2005-2006 season after he went 6-21, and it was extended in February 2009 for this season.

“You can’t build that foundation until you have a program,” Miller said. “We’re excited to have a chance to build on what we started here.”

The Panthers plan to return seven letterwinners for next season and have three players signed for next year in the early signing period.

Two of those players will be freshman and the other player is a National Junior College Athletic Association Division I transfer.

“There’s stability,” Laser said. “You know things are going to be the same way when you come here. I know I’m happy. I get to improve on what he wants. It’s good for us that he got the extension.”

However, 15 players have left the program during Miller’s tenure including three OVC Freshman of the Year: George Tandy, Mike Robinson and most recently Romain Martin.

“It’s college basketball,” Miller said. “Some programs take a long time to recover.”

Miller came to Eastern in March 2005 after serving as the associate head coach at Kansas State.

Prior to Kansas State, he was the head coach at Texas State and took the Bobcats to the NCAA Tournament in 1997 and won the conference title during the 1999 campaign.

He was also an assistant coach at Sam Houston State and Western Illinois.Miller is a 1987 graduate of East Texas State.

Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].