Miller follows dream to Florida
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- In high school, Mike Miller played
basketball in an arena made of corn. He went to college at Florida
to play for a program built on dreams.
It took guts for the All-American player from Mitchell, S.D., to
take the chance he did. Kansas, Kentucky, and several other
big-name programs were begging him to come.
|  | | After Mike Miller hit the game-winner vs. Butler, the team piled on in celebration. |
But Miller chose Florida, a struggling program with no tradition
and, some thought, no hope -- just a young, eager coach who saw the
resources at Florida and had trouble believing basketball wouldn't
work there.
"Some people said I was selling the guy a pipe dream," Florida
coach Billy Donovan said. "I don't think I was selling him a pipe
dream. I was selling him something I believed in."
Miller believed, too. And now, the Gators are in the Final Four.
They arrived in Indianapolis on Thursday to prepare for Saturday's
game against North Carolina.
"I took a lot of criticism," Miller said. "But that's part of
making a sacrifice. My sacrifice was to come here and to take all
the negative publicity from the people who thought I was throwing
it away."
Labeled as the cornerstone of Donovan's rebuilding project,
Miller lent legitimacy to a program that had enjoyed pockets of
success but never anything sustained.
Still, when he made the decision, South Dakotans had trouble
hiding their dismay.
"Some people were quietly disappointed," said Miller's father,
Tom. "They were hoping to see him more and some of them thought he
might be better served going to a bigger-name school."
Miller's high school coach, Gary Munsen, said people were
"shocked" by the decision.
"It was like, why Florida?" he said.
And why not Kansas, Iowa or Kentucky? All were within a long
day's drive and all were places where parents, friends and
neighbors could still be part of the hometown hero's success.
That's the kind of town Mitchell is. Located 70 miles west of
Sioux City, the city of 14,000 takes its basketball seriously, even
though all the games -- boys, girls and those of the area college --
are played at a place called the Corn Palace.
"Every kid in Mitchell dreams of playing in the Corn Palace,"
Miller said. "You kind of have to see it to believe it."
The building is made almost entirely of corn kernels. Huge corn
mosaics adorn the walls, inside and out.
The pictures depict scenes from America's agricultural heritage.
They change every season. So do the basketball players, none of
whom has made a bigger impression than Miller.
"I've had some good ones," Munsen said. "There's no doubt he
was the best."
It's something Donovan and assistant coach John Pelphrey
recognized as early as when Miller was in junior high. That's when
the coaches, then at Marshall, headed for the Great Plains.
Instead of "recruiting" Miller, they built a relationship with
him.
Donovan moved to Florida and, coming off 13- and 14-win seasons,
he pulled off one of the biggest coups of the recruiting season.
Kansas coach Roy Williams was among those who accused him of
recruiting violations, figuring Donovan must have cheated to bring
one of the best players in the country to a program considered one
of the most beleaguered.
But nobody ever proved Donovan cheated. And Donovan, knowing the
relationship he and Pelphrey had built, doesn't think it was such a
reach for Miller to head south.
"All I did was talk to him openly and honestly throughout the
whole thing," Donovan said. "There were probably some things he
didn't like to hear. There were probably some things he did like to
hear. It was more of a relationship where I was able to talk to
him, to his family, to make him feel more comfortable."
As expected, Miller arrived last season and Florida got better,
making the round of 16. Still, the most highly touted recruit in
Florida history has never been one to light up the scoreboard.
He's averaged 13 points and six rebounds over two years and has
only scored more than 20 points four times.
At times, he's almost invisible on the court. But in some ways,
Pelphrey says, that's the strength of his game. He doesn't try to
force things when his game is off. Then, he can strike.
Like when he grabbed 18 rebounds in a home win over Kentucky
this year. Or on that last-second shot that saved the first-round
game against Butler. He had 16 points and 13 rebounds in that game.
"His feel for the game is what sets him apart," Pelphrey said.
"A lot of times, the stats don't tell the tale of Mike Miller.
Just having him out there gives guys enormous confidence. There's a
lot of substance to the person and to his game."
And thanks to Miller, there's more substance to Florida's
basketball program, as well.
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