New rock at The Rock
Transfer Till makes significant impact
Micah Till isn’t one to dwell on “what-ifs,” but one frequently crosses the Slippery Rock forward’s mind — where would he be today if he had committed to Rutgers?
Till, a three-star football recruit out of Wise High School in Upper Marlboro, Md., received offers from numerous Division I programs and ultimately committed to N.C. State as a tight end in 2014.
He also was a standout basketball player, and Rutgers was the lone Division I school to offer him a scholarship. He had NBA dreams, but his older brother, Titus Till, was a defensive back for Maryland at the time, and Micah decided to follow in his footsteps.
Micah Till’s career at N.C. State came to an end when he was dismissed because of a violation of team rules in September 2015. He reportedly had no outstanding legal charges at the time.
That dismissal, the circumstances of which Till declined to discuss, allowed him to pursue his first passion — basketball. After a strong season at Harford Community College, Till transferred to Slippery Rock before this season, and his performance so far shows indications that he should’ve stuck with basketball all along.
Till, a 6-foot-7 forward, is averaging 20.7 points, 10.6 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.4 blocks per game, shooting 53.2 percent from the field and 34 percent from 3-point range for The Rock (11-4 ).
“My parents instilled in me to always have faith, and everything that happened at N.C. State happened for a reason,” Till said. “It’s led me to where I needed to be. ... I knew that basketball was the right path for me. The biggest thing I can say about all this is just having the faith that everything would turn out the way I needed it to be and I would be where God wanted me to be. That’s all I have to say on that situation.”
Till has been one of the most versatile players in Division II basketball this season. This redshirt sophomore is grabbing 4.4 offensive rebounds per game, the second-most in Division II, and is the only player in D-II to average more than 20 points and four offensive rebounds per game.
Slippery Rock coach Kevin Reynolds said Till brings a football mentality to basketball, and it’s probably not a coincidence that the two pro basketball players to whom Till compares his game — Draymond Green and Charles Barkley — are known for their toughness on the court.
“He loves contact,” Reynolds said. “I think that’s great. He loves the contact of the game, and that physicality really helps him out twofold. Being a tight end, he has real good hands. Passing and catching, he does a real good job with. I know it’s an elementary skill, but he does a real good job with that. And I think that helps him in rebounding where he’s able to locate the ball above his head almost like a pass.”
Till said he enjoys using that size on the court.
“I think the football side does help me with rebounding and going up to shoot the ball at the highest point,” Till said. “I do a lot of practice with high pointing the ball in football, so that does come into effect on the court. I guess you can say football has some sort of influence on basketball.”
The Rock won 20 or more games five times between 2008 and 2015 but won 15 games in the 2015-16 season and 14 games a season ago.
Reynolds said after surprising the league with some good seasons, we “weren’t sneaking up on teams anymore.” Till has helped re-establish the mindset that helped Slippery Rock emerge as one of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Division’s best teams withinthe past decade.
“That’s really the goal. We have to challenge [IUP] for the conference championship, and our goal is to make the NCAA tournament,” Reynolds said. “Obviously, guys like Micah need to keep playing at the level they’re at and aspire to get better to get back to where we were two years ago.”