Wes Miller’s return to the Smith Center on Tuesday night is loaded with familiar faces, old memories and a very current job to do.
The Charlotte coach is heading back to Chapel Hill for an exhibition matchup against UNC, the place where he once played and won a national championship. Now, in his first season leading the 49ers, he’ll be on the other side of it, trying to beat the Tar Heels at 7:30 p.m. in a homecoming that means plenty to him.
“It’s always special to go back,” Miller said during a Wednesday press conference in Charlotte.
This trip has layers. Miller will coach against Sean May, his former teammate who is now on the UNC staff, while Marcus Paige - another Tar Heel favorite - will be on Miller’s bench at Charlotte. Both May and Paige have jerseys hanging from the rafters at the Smith Center.
For Miller, those relationships are the point. He said the emotion around the night comes from the people he met in Chapel Hill, and he made it clear he enjoyed sharing the floor with May far more than getting ready to oppose him.
“I think that stuff’s cool,” Miller said.
Miller’s own Carolina résumé is a sturdy one. The 5-11 guard transferred from James Madison and joined UNC as a walk-on, then spent three seasons under Roy Williams.
He was a reserve on the 2005 national title team, started 16 games the next year and averaged 7.2 points while shooting 44.1% from 3-point range. That season brought him the team’s defensive player of the year and most improved player awards.
As a senior in 2006-07, he served as a captain for a team that went 31-7, won both ACC championships and reached the NCAA Elite Eight.
That past is part of why Miller wants Charlotte players to build something lasting with the 49ers. He sees program loyalty and personal connection as central to the job, and he hopes his players eventually feel about Charlotte the way he feels about North Carolina.
When they leave the program, he wants them to feel “the way that I feel about North Carolina.”
Still, nostalgia only goes so far. Miller said almost all of his attention is locked on getting Charlotte ready for the season.
“Ninety-nine point 99 percent of my focus and energy and attention will be on preparing our team for this season,” Miller said.
That urgency matters because Charlotte is working through a roster full of new pieces. Miller said teams in that position can be behind early, and he’s pushing his staff and players to accelerate the chemistry-building process before the games start counting.
“We have to have a ton of sense of urgency over the next two weeks to get ready for opening night at Indiana State,” Miller said, who has seven 20-win seasons and a 285-209 career coaching record.
Charlotte has already had one tune-up, a 87-67 road loss in an exhibition at Georgia on Oct. 16. The 49ers open the regular season Nov. 2 at Indiana State, so there isn’t much runway left before things get real.
Miller’s coaching path since leaving Chapel Hill has included 10 seasons at UNC Greensboro, where he went 185-135 and earned Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors twice, in 2012 and 2018. He then moved to Cincinnati in 2021, where he went 100-74 in five seasons and reached two NIT quarterfinals before the school fired him.
At Charlotte, the focus has been on tightening the group fast. Miller said continuity gives other teams a natural edge early, since returning players already know the system and each other’s tendencies. To help close that gap, the 49ers have leaned on demanding practices and a late-May trip to Puerto Rico.
“Shared adversity is a great way to connect the team,” Miller said. “So, our practices are competitive, they’re combative, they’re edgy.”
One of the players carrying a bigger load is sophomore point guard Keyshaun Tillery, one of three Charlotte players who followed Miller from Cincinnati. Tillery averaged 3.8 points in 31 games last season as a reserve, and Miller said their relationship was forged through some difficult stretches during an 18-15 season.
Miller also had a little fun describing the examples available to Tillery at point guard.
“He’s got a great point guard as a player in Marcus Paige, and a terrible one in myself,” Miller said.
Jokes aside, Miller likes having a trusted lead guard running the show.
“It is nice when your leader plays the quarterback position,” Miller said.
He also pointed to two returning Charlotte players who stood out when he took over. Redshirt junior transfer forward Arden Conyers, who Miller said has grown a couple of inches to 6-8 over the last year, shot above 40% for much of last season before a February slump dropped his final mark to 35.8%. Miller said Conyers’ size and shooting give Charlotte a useful option.
Another name he likes is redshirt freshman Australian 6-8 guard Frank Oguche, whose length, athleticism and basketball IQ impressed him during workouts.
Among the newcomers, 6-5 fifth-year guard Chaze Harris brings the kind of production that can change a lineup. He was the Sun Belt Player of the Year at South Alabama in his lone Division I season after previously playing at the junior college and NAIA levels. Fifth-year 6-11 Richmond transfer center Michael Walz also arrived later than some of his teammates, and Miller said both players should settle in more as the season wears on.
“Their best basketball will be played in December, January and February,” Miller said.
Tuesday’s exhibition gives Charlotte one more useful measuring stick before the opener, and Miller said games like this matter for a team still figuring itself out.
“Every time in the preseason you get a chance to play against a different opponent, it’s worth about 10 practices,” Miller said.
The setting may be personal, but the goal is practical. Miller is going back to Chapel Hill, where so much of his basketball life began. What he needs most from the night, though, is another step toward making Charlotte ready for the season ahead.
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