The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Huskies set to face Temple tonight
Forward’s explosiveness has impressed coaches
STORRS >> Shonn Miller was back inside Yale’s Payne Whitney Gymnasium on Saturday night, merely a spectator.
The UConn forward was on hand to watch his former Cornell teammates in an eventual 83-52 loss to the first-place Bulldogs. He didn’t get much of a chance to renew old bonds, as he had tomake it back to UConn for curfew soon after the game had ended.
Had Ivy League rules been different, however, and he were allowed to play as a graduate student, Miller might have instead been bouncing around the Lee Amphitheater floor for the Big Red. And that’s a truly scary thought.
Watching Miller this season in his one year of eligibility for UConn, slamming home highlight-reel putbacks and alleyoop dunks and snaring rebounds out of thin air, it’s frightening to think how dominant the 6-foot-7 jumping jack might still be at the Ivy League level.
Instead, Miller is among the top players in the American Conference, a likely first-team allleague player who leads UConn in scoring entering Thursday’s key showdown with Temple at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia (7 p.m., ESPN2).
“I mean, they said he was a great athlete, but I didn’t know that he was that type of athlete,” UConn coach Kevin Ollie confessed after Wednesday’s practice. “I knew he was an explosive athlete, but until you see it on a day-to-day basis, the things that he can do, just being 6-7 ... it’s pretty incredible.”
Courtney, for his part, isn’t the least bit surprised that Miller’s talent and athleticism has transcended outside the Ivy League.
“I think that’s what’s so misleading about our league now,” said Courtney, who’s in his sixth season at the Big Red’s helm. “Harvard last year started five tremendous athletes and won the league,” he noted. “But Shonn was the best athlete, by far. I remember his sophomore year, (playing) at Duke, he was catching lefthanded lobs, and we realized what a special athlete he was, especially on dunks and twohanded rebounds.”
Miller has really been a godsend for UConn (17-6, 7-3 AAC). There was a time when Phil Nolan was the team’s expert at tak-
ing charges, when Rodney Purvis was the Huskies’ most consistent double-figures score and when Daniel Hamilton was unquestionably UConn’s best player.
Now, Miller may be all of those things— and a whole lot more.
His 13.5 points per game barely edge out Purvis’s 13.4 for the team lead. He’s been a model of consistency, scoring in double figures in all but two of the Huskies’ 23 games and 18 in a row. He’s second to Hamilton in rebounding at 5.8 per game and second to 7-footer Amida Brimah with 24 blocks.
And Miller has taken a team-high 18 charges; Nolan is next, with a mere five.
“I feel like it should be a little higher than 18, but ...” Miller said with a smirk.
Indeed, Miller doesn’t always agree with the officials and, in fact, has been called for a team-high (by far) 69 personal fouls this season.
“He plays hard, he plays aggressive,” said Ollie. “I want him to leave the referees alone and don’t play with so much emotion. But other than that, he’s been our consistent rock throughout the season.”
Miller said part of his intensity on the court stems from the fact that he’s his own toughest critic.
“I think I’m harder on myself than anybody ever could be,” he said. “Some plays, I’ve got to realize, ‘Alright, next play ...’ and just move on to the next play.”
But he’s shown progress in that area, as well.
“He’s matured,” Courtney reported. “He wasn’t that (mature) as a freshman. He’s taken some stock in that.”
As a freshman, Miller was injured until two days before Cornell’s seasonopener. He started the year as a sixth man, but as the season progressed, made his way into the starting rotation and wound up as Ivy freshman of the year. By the time he was a sophomore, throwing down dunks on the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Courtney knew he had something special.
“You knew he could stand out a little bit,” the coach said.
Miller missed his entire junior season at Cornell after shoulder surgery but bounced back to lead the Big Red in scoring, rebounding, steals and blocks last season (though he lost out to Yale’s Justin Sears as the league’s player of the year). Of course, the Ivy League doesn’t allow graduate students to play, so Miller was free to transfer anywhere and wound up in Storrs.
“He picked the right place,” said Courtney, who watches UConn play whenever he can with his sons, ages 13 and 11. “When you have guards as talented as (the Huskies) have, that makes things a lot easier for him.”
Still, Miller’s overall athleticism has been a revelation at UConn, even to Ollie -- if not to Miller himself.
“It’s been pretty good so far,” he said. “But, I set really high standards formyself ... I know who I am, I know what I can do, and it’s showing now.”