Thomas More University
NCAA DII • G-MAC
Date: August 1, 2024
Would Recommend
It says, Discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly. As a former player for Coach Miller, Coach Moorehead, Coach Hawkins Coach McBride and Coach Belli at Ave Maria University over three seasons so I will discuss that very thing; the good, bad, and ugly about Jillian or Miller as we called her. She is what many would describe as a chameleon, Coach Moorehead was a low-key dictator but did a decent job with his staff and Coach Hawkins was generally knowledgable about basketball but ALWAYS lost and disorganized. Coach Miller being the female coach is one that we would normally gravitate to but she is one who can adapt and adjust to her surroundings to fit to what she needs to survive. In my three years as a player the number of times I can count that she fit to her environment instead of being genuine and honest would be every single day. Miller consistently discussed with us the importance of being a good person, honest, and true to yourself. She would often tell us in our individual meetings how important it was to "seize the day" and be "where your feet are", how it was "by the grace of God" that our HC (Alex Moorehead) brought her to coach collegiately at Ave Maria. Let me just explain how looking back on it now we understand she only used every single one of us to attempt to advance her career. When "Miller" first recruited me she told me that the level of play (NAIA) did not matter and that our team is a family, she was adamant that she would remain through a recruiting cycle, even go as far as stating, "I am here as long as Coach Moorehead will have me", fast forward three years later and from what we know she made a decision without being offered a position to now be the coach at Thomas More. She decided that our family did not measure up to what she had not been offered. Imagine my feeling when you hear every day to be honest and upfront with those around you that my assistant coach, female assistant for that matter left the program. Let me also add that this individual DID NOT say goodbye to us, IGNORED OUR MESSAGES, and the relationships she claims she wants, she has NOT spoken a word about faith and becoming a mature young woman, like she spoke about while she was here. The hilarious part about this entire scenario is that Coach Miller was the LEAST KNOWLEDGABLE coach we had on staff. She never knew or drew a play my entire playing career there and was fortunate enough that her and Coach Moorehead were legitimately best friends. I remember when she ran our film session one time and she spoke 5-8 minutes after every single clip, so what was supposed to be a full game film review for an hour turned into 8-10 clips that took around 1.5 hours. Any time she was given the opportunity or chance to show her capability as a coach, she would argue with Coach Moorehead about it. She had the chance to coach our exhibition game this last year, we hear her accusing Coach Moorehead of planning to leave because why else would she allow her to coach a game. Let it be known that exhibition games DO NOT count and we play FGCU every year and their HC let's their assistant do the same thing for exhibition games.... must be a trend? WELL let me tell you one distinct feature you will see she will not argue about is how Coach Miller went from "lacking confidence" on the court with basketball to having no shame in showing off her confidence towards male coaches and showing off her bottom half. The dressing the part and presenting yourself in a respectful manner did not pertain to her as you will see from the tight short shorts and leggings she will consistently wear without covering up. If you think someone on these posts is lying, please just wait until students return for the Fall and if you all discuss her ability as a coach or her looks instead. You will see very quickly why she was selected as a coach for the Thomas More staff, please ask any of her former players if she knew what she was doing as a basketball coach, watch her demonstrate a drill and tell me that her new boss selected her for her coaching ability or was he interested in something else? I will leave this last event for you to make your judgement, our entire team is made up of players from all different states and backgrounds, Coach Miller rarely ever discussed with some of the better players on the team, she consistently would get onto them for sometimes absolutely nothing but she enjoyed players lower in the rotation, treated them better than anyone else even when they would make mistakes. Now if you can locate her from her time "playing" at John Carroll, her D3 school in Ohio, you will find out why, she RARELY ever stepped foot on the actual basketball court. She will tell you though that she played for a D1 coach and helped her team win a championship. Once again like I said fitting into the environment. The amount of connection, respect, loyalty, and care for us as players is 0. She got a coaching award this year and never once thanked any of us, she now thinks she is better than the players that made her career. She left us as fast as Kim Kardashian finds husbands. I wish Jillian Miller well because the way she left our program, my teammates, and program was BS for someone that claimed to loyalty and to care for us and people wonder why athletes jump in the portal.