Bethel High grad to dance ot NCAAs
Bethel High grad McMillian to play in NCAA Men's Tournament with Grand Canyon
Everything is fine with Chance McMillian, but he’s going to experience some madness this weekend.
The 2019 Bethel High School graduate will be hanging out in Indiana this week, having joined his basketball teammates at Grand Canyon University in punching their ticket to the NCAA Men’s Tournament by defeating New Mexico 74-56 in the Western Athletic Conference Championship. The Antelopes will play No. 2 seeded Iowa on Saturday at 3:25 p.m., with the game being aired on TBS.
McMillian, who also played high school basketball for St. Patrick-St. Vincent before transferring to Jesse Bethel for his senior year, scored nine points and grabbed four rebounds in 16 minutes in the conference championship. After the game McMillian was able to climb a ladder and help his team cut down the net.
McMillian is the first player coached by both Dwayne Jones (Bethel) and Derek Walker (St. Pat’s) to compete in March Madness. Former Vallejo High head coach Duke Brown believes McMillian to be the first men’s player from Vallejo to compete in the men’s tournament since DeMarcus Nelson played in games for Duke from 2005 through 2008. Nelson played for Vallejo before transferring to Sheldon of Sacramento.
On Monday Grand Canyon’s flight arrived in Indiana to prepare for its Saturday contest.
“I’m still trying to take all of this in. It’s just crazy,” McMillian said. “We have come out here and just a few minutes ago we drove past Lucas Oil Stadium. It’s a great feeling being here. This was actually the second time I’ve cut down a net as we did it after we won the regular season title, but this time it felt different. I had my family there and half the school seemed to be there at the game. Then there are so many other people watching on TV. I couldn’t sleep that night.”
One of the first people McMillian called after he helped cut the net was his former coach at Bethel, Jones.
“I’m proud of him. He’s the first player I’ve coached to make it (to the NCAA tournament),” Jones said. “I’m actually trying to find out if I can come and see him play. He finds out (Monday) how many tickets he gets and if I can go I’m going to head there (Indiana) immediately.”
Jones said he’s kept an eye on McMillian since he graduated. McMillian went to Golden State Prep for a year after leaving Bethel before deciding to compete and study at Grand Canyon.
“He was recruited by Dan Majerle, but he was fired last year,” Jones said. “But Chance decided to stay when a lot of players might leave. He fell in love with the campus and the school. I mean, a lot of schools wanted Chance — like St. Mary’s, they really went after him hard. But (Bryce Drew) didn’t play Chance all that much in the beginning, which kind of disappointed me. But once the regular season began he (Drew) realized he needed Chance and he started to play well once he found out his role.
“He’s gotten a lot better at passing and is now a legitimate point guard,” Jones continued. “His jump shot has always been there and will always be there.”
McMillian feels he’s matured as a player during the last year at Grand Canyon.
“I’m not dribbling so much and I’m not forcing shots,” McMillian said. “I’m always trying to make the right reads out on the court.”
In the WAC semifinal, McMillian showed off his jump shot, shooting 6-10 from the field and scoring 14 points in a 81-47 blowout. Although the Antelopes would eventually cruise past New Mexico in the final, it wouldn’t be a smooth start to the game.
“We were down 8-0 right off the bat in that game,” McMillian said. “We had to refocus and lock back in. We also wanted to do it right away as we didn’t want to play catch up in the second half. We didn’t really change anything, we just went on a run. We locked down on defense and the offense flowed from that.”
Grand Canyon will now see if its Cinderella team can fit perfectly into a glass slipper. It starts with the underdog Antelopes taking on Iowa, which went 21-8 and has big wins this year against Ohio State, Wisconsin and North Carolina. However, Grand Canyon’s head coach, Drew, knows a lot about upsets. In 1998 he had a buzzer-beating shot in the first round of Valparaiso’s run in the 1998 NCAA Tournament as the No. 13 Crusaders upset Ole Miss, the No. 4 seeded team that season.
Can McMillian have his one shining moment like Drew?
“First we need to slow down (Luka) Garza,” McMillian said. “Then we need to slow down their shooters because their guards can really shoot well. We need to limit the number of 3-pointers they make. We need to lock down on defense and have our offense flow through that. If we do that, anything is possible.”