In Salt Lake City, Men's Basketball Misses Miller

SALT LAKE CITY—The Harvard men’s basketball team felt the absence of point guard Corbin Miller when it travelled to Miller’s hometown for the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Miller—a native of Salt Lake City suburb Sandy—took a two-year leave after his freshman season to go on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Junior co-captain Laurent Rivard, sophomore forward Wesley Saunders, and Crimson coach Tommy Amaker discussed their ongoing relationship with Miller in their press conferences on Wednesday evening.

“He’s on his mission, so he can’t talk much,” Rivard said. “But he sent us a couple of emails that coach posted in the locker room. It’s always good to have news from him.”

The 6’2” point guard averaged 3.8 points in 11.6 minutes per game. Miller was the Crimson’s most efficient free throw and three-point shooter, sinking 80 percent of his shots from the stripe and 45.6 percent from the arc.

“We miss him, and there’s no question about it,” Amaker said. “Every time I have a chance to communicate and email with him, believe me, I say that to him. He was an outstanding shooter and scorer for us last year as a freshman, and I think he’s going to continue to do really, really neat things for Harvard.”

Though Miller’s playing time was limited behind Harvard’s starting backcourt of Oliver McNally ’12 and Brandyn Curry, the freshman came up big in a number of games. Miller scored in double digits four times during the season and saw playing time in all but three games, which he sat out due to injury.

Miller’s moment in the sun came at Penn, when the Crimson pulled out a 56-50 win at the Palestra last February. The freshman posted a career-high 17 points—including nine from three—on 50 percent shooting from the field, and he added three free throws in the final 33 seconds that kept Harvard’s perfect conference record intact.

Miller will return for the 2014-2015 season and will have three more years of eligibility.

“I hope he’s doing well and doing everything he needs to do on his mission, and we can’t wait to get him back because he’s definitely a great addition to our team and a great shooter,” Saunders said. “Whenever he gets back we’re going to accept him back with open arms.”

—Staff writer Hope Schwartz can be reached at hschwartz@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @HopeSchwartz16.