For the first time in 24 years, Glen Miller is a coach without a basketball team.

Since his dismissal from the University of Pennsylvania last month, Miller has been adjusting to an unfamiliar life loaded with free time.

His new daytime routine includes running errands and heading to the gym to work out.

"I'd much rather be working long hours and be in the gym," Miller said. "Hopefully, I'll get another opportunity as soon as I can to get back to that. It gets old after a while. I'm bored to death."

Miller is maintaining a positive attitude while dealing with the first firing of a coaching career that started in 1986 as an assistant at UConn.

He's staying involved in the sport. Last weekend he stopped by former UConn assistant Karl Hobbs' practice at George Washington and then sat behind the UConn bench for its game at Georgetown. He attends Philadelphia and New Jersey area high school basketball games.

Still, he has good days and bad days.

"You've got to hold your head high," Miller said. "It happens to a lot of people and it happens to coaches who've had a heck a lot of success over their careers. It's difficult but you've got to maintain your pride and keep your chin up. At the end of the day people appreciate and have respect that you're still out here trying to move forward.

"The alternative is put your head between your legs and sit in the house. That's not going to do anything for my future at all."

After turning perennial losing programs at Connecticut College and Brown into winners, Miller's coaching career was on the rise when Penn hired him in April 2006. In his first season, he won 22 games, an Ivy League title and an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

But a series of season-ending injuries helped send the Quakers into a losing spiral, going 23-36 overall (14-14 in the conference) the last two years while putting Miller on the hot seat.

Miller also knew he had to overcome another obstacle - Penn alumni already angry about athletic director Steve Bilsky's failure to keep popular coach Fran Dunphy - and wanting someone with Penn ties to run the program.

"You don't have much of a rope at a place like Penn, which is fine," Miller said. "Being an outsider, I had less of a rope."

Miller scored some victories on the recruiting trail, bringing Tyler Bernardini and Zack Rosen, who both went on to earn Big Five rookie of the year honors. He had one of the top-rated recruiting classes in the Ivy League coming in next season.

Still, pressure mounted as Miller was entering his fourth season. And when the Quakers stumbled to an 0-7 start due in part to injuries to key players, Bilsky fired Miller in mid-December and hired former Penn standout Jerome Allen as an interim coach.

Since Miller's departure, Penn has gone 1-4.

"I'm not an excuse-maker but I don't think there's any coach or any team that's going to be able to withstand those serious losses like that and move forward in a positive direction," Miller said. "But that was a situation that you had to find a way to overcome and that didn't happen for me."

Miller, a Groton native, can afford to take his time finding his next job. His contract runs until April 2011. For now, he plans to remain living in Morristown, N.J.

He's keeping his options open, preferring to stay at the Division I level as a head coach or an assistant.

"Right now, anything is a possibility," Miller said. "It's very difficult at times like it is for anybody in this situation. I hope I never have this opportunity again that I haven't had in 24 years. I'm going to self-evaluate, reorganize and really make some adjustments to what I do and make myself a better coach."

"I think when any successful person faces adversity he uses it as a positive to improve himself. Hopefully, that's what I can do."

g.keefe@theday.com