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Miles winning over Huskers fans

LINCOLN (AP) — Tim Miles had just wrapped up his postgame radio interview when a bunch of pep band members, cheerleaders and other students started chanting, “Coach Miles, Coach Miles, Coach Miles.”

The kids were imploring him to join them in shooting a video of the latest dance craze, the “Harlem Shake.”

Miles was in good spirits because Nebraska had just beaten Penn State, so he gladly obliged. It took all of 45 seconds. The YouTube video has almost 140,000 views in less than two weeks.

One might wonder what mingling with the student body has to do with his job as the Cornhuskers’ first-year coach.

There are two answers: nothing, and everything.

Miles isn’t winning many games. No one expected him to, at least not yet.

He is, however, winning over fans and boosters and students, too. That’s a good place to start for a coach at a school with a dearth of basketball tradition and where interest in the program has been lukewarm for decades.

“He’s very shrewd,” longtime radio play-by-play man Kent Pavelka said. “He’s pushing every button there is.”

Miles built his reputation as a fan-friendly coach at Colorado State, where he shot zany videos promoting the Rams and began his practice of tweeting his thoughts at halftime. The program was down when he took over at CSU, so he did all he could to compete for attention with the Denver pro sports teams and the mountains.

There aren’t nearly as many distractions in the Cornhusker State, he said.

“Here, at least, we have a captive audience,” he said. “They just need to be stirred. That’s our job, to put out the type of program that people love watching. Husker fans will support quality and they will support success. It also is my job to be the front man for the program, whether that be to speak to the masses or to promote our program. There is a CEO element of the job, no doubt about it.”

One of Miles’ first tasks is to make Nebraska basketball relevant. The wins might not come in bunches immediately, but he’s well on his way to cultivating a supportive environment outside the walls of the team’s Hendricks Training Center headquarters.

“I haven’t talked to an ex-player or alum who doesn’t love the guy,” said Beau Reid of Lincoln, who played for the Huskers from 1988-91. “He’s everything he’s supposed to be. He’s genuine, very excitable and passionate — which is what it takes to sell this place.”

If all goes according to his plan, the Huskers will become more entertaining to watch as new players come in the next couple years. Miles said several five-star recruits have visited and gone away impressed.

The trick is to get them to sign.

 

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