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DALE MARTIN will begin his 21st season as the head coach of the Miner basketball program and will look to take the team to the conference tournament for the first time since the university joined the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

The Miners are coming off a year in which they finished 7-20, but it did include a victory over a Wisconsin-Parkside team that qualified for the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional. The Miners played in a league that sent a record six schools to the regional tournament last season.

UMR made a five-game improvement over its first season as a member of the GLVC, a league that has produced at least one participant in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in 12 of the last 14 years.

UMR finished its run in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association in the 2004-05 season by finishing with a record of 10-17. UMR had two of the top six scorers in the MIAA -- Jermaine Burks, whose average of 20.1 points a game ranked second in the conference and made him the fourth player in Martin's tenure as head coach to average at least 20 points a game; and Josh Shaw, who finished sixth in the MIAA in scoring and third in rebounds during the season.

Three of the Miners' victories in MIAA play that year came against teams that reached the semifinal round of the conference tournament, including a season sweep against eventual runner-up Missouri Southern.

The Miners qualified for the MIAA Tournament in the 2003-04 season -- their third straight appearance in the event -- as they went 14-14 on the year despite playing a good portion of the year without pre-season All-America selection Brian Westre. UMR finished in a three-way tie for sixth place in the league standings before bowing out in the opening round of the tournament to regular season champion Washburn, which came less than a week after the Miners posted a win over 11th-ranked Northwest Missouri State, the eventual NCAA Division II South Central Regional champion.

During the season, Martin also reached a coaching milestone as he picked up his 200th career coaching victory in the Miners' Nov. 28 win over Central Oklahoma. He enters the 2007-08 campaign with a record of 230-304 and has earned more wins than any Miner head coach other than Billy Key.

The Miners had back-to-back tournament appearances in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 season, falling in the first round on both occasions to Missouri Western. The Miners dropped a 73-56 decision to the eventual tournament champion in 2003 in Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium after losing 64-54 a year earlier on the Griffons' home court. The 2001-02 Miners opened that season with a 7-1 record and received consideration in the Division II national rankings in mid-December, while making an improvement of seven games over the previous year.

UMR finished 5-21 in 2000-01 after an injury sidelined the Miners' top scorer for the three previous seasons prior to the start of the campaign. Despite the struggles to break into the win column on a regular basis, the team did finish the season with the MIAA's top two scorers and top two rebounders, which was a first in the history of NCAA Division II men's basketball.

In the 1998-99 campaign, the Miners finished with a record of 12-15 for the second consecutive season and earned a berth to the conference tournament on the final day of the regular season. UMR finished 6-10 in conference play a year ago and went to the tournament, where they were defeated in the first round by league co-champion Pittsburg State.

Although the Miners finished below .500, the team did pull off some accomplishments during the year. They beat Northwest Missouri State in Maryville for the first time in 19 seasons with an overtime win in January. They also got their first win at Central Missouri State in six years - and only the third all-time at the CMSU Multipurpose Building - and swept the season series from a conference opponent for the first time since their 1996 championship season by beating Missouri Southern twice.

The Miners also went 12-15 in 1997-98, but a seventh place finish in the MIAA at 7-9 got them a spot in the tournament against MIAA co-champ Northwest Missouri State. The Miners led that tournament game at halftime before losing.

The best season for UMR under Martin came in the 1995-96 campaign. After the Miners won just 21 games in the two previous years combined, the team busted loose for its best season ever that winter as it went 25-6, won the MIAA regular season and post-season tournament titles and earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years. The Miners reached the championship game of the regional -- held in Rolla -- before falling to North Alabama.

In addition, UMR finished the 1995-96 regular season ranked eighth in NCAA Division II, its highest ranking ever. The Miners were in the national rankings, where they had not been since the 1983-84 season, on two different occasions during the year.

The magical year came on the heels of a season in which injuries to the Miners' two biggest players started a tailspin that turned a promising start into an eventual 10-16 finish. UMR opened the year with nine wins in its first 12 games before the injury situation depleted the lineup during the heart of the MIAA season.

For his efforts, Martin won two major coaching honors after the season. He was named as the MIAA's "Coach of the Year" and the South Central region "Coach of the Year" as selected by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He was also named as the top coach in the region by Division II Bulletin.

Martin also acquired his 100th career victory in that season's opener and went well over the .500 mark for his coaching career during the season. His 168 wins entering the 2000-01 season are the second-highest number of wins by a UMR basketball coach. The record of 278 is held by his predecesor, Billy Key, for whom he served under as an assistant at UMR for seven years prior to becoming the head coach upon Key's retirement in 1987.

Prior to the 1993-94 campaign, Martin led the Miners to three playoff berths in four years. UMR made its first tournament appearance in nine years during the 1989-90 season, as it recovered from a slow start to win five of its last seven regular season games. After missing the playoffs in 1990-91, UMR rebounded with a 17-9 overall record the next year and finished in a tie for third place in the MIAA, the highest finish for a Miner team since 1977. The 17 wins fell one win shy of the previous school record, and that team set or tied numerous school marks.

In 1992-93, the Miners tied for fourth place in the MIAA and went 16-11 overall. Along the way, UMR won games over a Washburn team that was ranked second in NCAA Division II at the time and Division I opponent Northern Arizona. UMR also played the University of Evansville, an eventual NCAA Division I Tournament team, to a nine-point game in Evansville, Ind. UMR set 22 new school records during the 1992-93 season and was the MIAA's top scoring team for the second year in a row.

Martin's first team at UMR finished 12-13, and the 6-8 conference record represented the highest number of league wins by a Miner team in eight years. The 1988-89 team finished at 9-16. The 1996-97 team, the one that followed the championship team, was 14-12 but missed the conference tournament as it won only six of 18 conference games.

Martin came to UMR from Central Missouri State University, his alma mater,where he served as an assistant coach for three years under current Missouri Western State College head coach Tom Smith. While at CMSU, the Mules went 26-2 in 1979-80 and advanced to the NCAA Division II South Central Regional -- the first of six straight appearances by the Mules in the tournament. Central also had winning records of 16-11 and 14-13 in the other two seasons that Martin served as an assistant.

A native of Wright City, Mo., Martin was a unanimous All-State selection during his senior year at Wright City High School. He helped lead teams into the Missouri State Championships during his junior and senior years.

At Central Missouri State, he played basketball for four years -- serving as a co-captain during his senior year -- and joined the coaching staff upon receiving his bachelor's degree in 1976. He also received his master's degree from CMSU.

Martin, and his wife Janece live in Rolla. They have three children, Amber, Eric and Abby. Martin is also a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and has served the NABC Congress as a representative of NCAA Division II.

JIM GLASH in in his first season as the assistant coach for the UMR men's basketball program. Glash came to UMR from Olney Central College, where he served as the head coach for nine seasons. He left the program following the 2004-05 season after winning 160 games at the college, the most by any coach in school history.

“This is a tremendous institution that competes in an outstanding league and I am looking forward to the challenge here at UMR,” Glash said. “I hope that with my background that I can help attract those student-athletes who can compete in this conference and get a great education.”

“I’ve known Jim for a number of years and believe that he will be a great addition to our program,” said Miner head coach Dale Martin. “Jim has a proven track record not only as a recruiter as many of his players have gone on to play at the Division I and Division II levels, but also in his commitment to academics.

“The student-athletes in his program graduated at an impressive rate and he knows the type of players you need to be successful in the Great Lakes Valley Conference,” Martin said.

Glash helped turn around a program at Olney Central that had finished in the lower half of the Great Rivers Athletic Conference in nine of the previous 11 years, leading it to an outright league title in 1999-00 after sharing the league title the year prior to that. The 1999-00 squad that claimed the conference title helped Glash land the league’s “Coach of the Year” award.

During his tenure, 11 Blue Knight players earned all-conference honors and 11 were named to the All-Region 24 team. The school’s first two All-America players also came through the school during that time.

Before his stint at OCC, where his teams finished in the top half of the conference in eight of the nine years he was there, Glash served as a coach at both the junior college and four-year level. He served on the staffs at the University of Illinois-Chicago for four seasons and at North Park College in Illinois for one year when that school won the Division III national championship.

Glash also spent time at Kennedy-King College in the Chicago area and at Columbia College in California.

In the time he spent at Olney Central, Glash’s players graduated at a 93 percent rate and 39 of his players went on to earn scholarships at other four-year institutions, including seven who played at schools in the GLVC.

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