Dan Muller once experienced success as a player at Illinois State, but now he’s making his mark as the coach, recently being named MVC Coach of the Year
All together, Dan Muller has been a part of the Illinois State program for nine seasons. ISU punched a ticket to the NCAA Tournament (1998), Muller’s senior year. From the time he stepped foot in Redbird Arena, Muller impacted the program. Muller won the MVC Freshman of the Year in 1995 while the Redbirds earned a berth in the NIT Sweet Sixteen. ISU experienced four-consecutive postseason trips during his playing time.
In the back half of his career, Illinois State competed in the 1997 and 1998 NCAA Tournaments, making it to the second round in ’98. The MVC named Muller the conference tournament MOP his final year.
Eventually, Muller graduated and pursued and pursued his MBA from Florida in 2003. He served as an assistant coach at Vanderbilt from 2001-12 under his former coach at ISU, Kevin Stallings.
Following the 2012 season, then ISU coach Tim Jankovich took a position at Southern Methodist University. Muller is currently in his fifth season as the ISU coach.
So far, ISU has clinched a spot in a postseason tournament in two of his first five seasons. In 2016-17, ISU ran off a 17-1 conference record. The Redbirds did not drop a game in January (10-0) while splitting the series with Wichita State.
Senior guard Paris Lee joined Muller in the postseason accolade department. Lee earned the Larry Bird Conference Player of the Year as well as the MVC Defensive Player of the Year. He was also named to the MVC First Team.
Muller and the Redbirds face Evansville at noon Friday in the quarterfinals of the MVC tournament in St. Louis. The ‘Birds look for a berth in the championship for the second time in three seasons.