Column: Were the expectations in Adam Miller too high?

HENRY HUBER @HenryHuber_

Following LSU’s win over the Razorbacks in late December, sophomore guard Adam Miller posted a now-infamous tweet telling them to be prepared for their next matchup in Fayetteville, which he implied would be a sure win.

Arkansas fans were quick to call him out on it, both after a poor performance in the December win and a 20-point loss in the follow up, one that once again wasn’t helped by poor shooting from the presumed star.

At the time of the tweet, it didn’t look quite as bad as it does now. The excitement surrounding the guard was still palpable despite a five-game shooting slump, as fans weren’t too far removed from a promising first month of action from Miller.

Through his first eight games of the season, he averaged nearly 17 points per game and shot 47% from the field and 40% from threepoint range, solid splits which came under the impression he was still shaking off the rust from having not played all of last season. Those strong averages were partially thanks to LSU’s easy nonconference schedule, with Miller’s best performances of the season coming against Wofford, Akron and Arkansas State, but fans were optimistic that production would transfer to SEC play.

Those same fans weren’t aware that the cracks had already begun to show. In his only two performances against the Power 6 heading into conference play, he shot a combined 5 of 22 from the field and 3 of 14 from threepoint range. While it’s natural to struggle when adjusting to a higher level of play, to say Miller’s ad-

RALLY, from page 9 rowed their deficit down to 11 with just under 15 minutes remaining. justment period has been drawn out would be an understatement.

But again, after such a strong start to the period, the bottom of the net seemed foreign to Matt McMahon’s squad. It put up more points in the first five minutes and four seconds of the second half than it did in the entire first, only to follow it up by scoring two points within the next five-minute increment. By the time the game concluded, 37% of LSU’s scoring had come within that single rally, as it finished another tough-to-watch stinker with just 40 points and another double-digit loss.

While its upcoming stretch is slightly more forgiving than the previous one, the team’s tournament outlook isn’t looking amazing. Its upcoming matchup with Texas Tech is important, but it likely needs a win over No. 2 Alabama next weekend if it wants to have a chance to succeed come March.

Through his now 12-game slump, he has shot 25% from the field, 28% from two-point range and 24% from three-point range. With each game, LSU’s excitement regarding the guard diminished, and concern and confusion began to take its place.

Now, Miller’s preseason expectations were all over the place. It was impossible to determine how he would bounce back from injury and adjust to a heightened role at LSU, on top of being one of the centerpieces of a completely new team with a lot of question marks. But on the high end, he was expected to at least compete with KJ Williams for LSU’s top scorer.

So, why were his expectations so high? And were those expectations warranted?

Miller came into his freshman season with Illinois as one of the best shooting guard prospects in the country and played a solid role on that Fighting Illini squad, one that ultimately won the Big 10 tournament and entered March Madness as a one seed. He finished the season as the team’s fifth highest scorer, putting up 8.3 points per game on 39% shooting from the field and 34% from three.

In a stacked backcourt featuring Ayo Dosunmu and Trent Frazier, coupled with a dominant big man in Kofi Cockburn, Miller still found a way to make a name for himself in the Big 10 and averaged the fourth most minutes on the team. He finished the season leading the Big 10 in three-pointers made, but there were a few negatives within his statistics that could be indicative of his struggles this season.

As you would expect from a freshman, his efficiency dropped when competition picked up, and it was inconsistent throughout the season. Apart from his first matchup with Ohio State, his best games came against bottom-tier Big 10 teams in Nebraska, Northwestern and Minnesota, and he failed to crack 40% on field goals in 12 of Illinois’s 20 conference games in the regular season.

With him being a freshman and the Fighting Illini offense being as potent as it was, that inefficiency wasn’t detrimental to the team’s overall success and wasn’t a sign he’d be a bust. He still managed an impressive three-point percentage on 153 attempts and proved to be effective not only in catch-and-shoot situations but also off the dribble and driving to the basket.

He just hadn’t proven himself capable of taking over a game at the college level. There were multiple players on Illinois that played more critical roles than him. That’s one of the primary reasons he entered the transfer portal in the first place.

Transitioning from the fourth best scorer on a team to one that’s expected to carry the offense is a tall task to say the least. And Miller had to do it after not playing competitively for over a year and a half.

Not only that, he also went from playing on one of the best offensive units in the nation two seasons ago to one of the worst. With a dominant force in the paint and one of the best point guards in the country distributing the ball, it was much easier for Miller to find open space on the floor and build confidence throughout a game.

Opposing defenses in the SEC know to watch out for Miller on the perimeter, and there isn’t much to keep them from keying on him, especially from behind the arc. KJ Williams and Cam

Hayes are the only two key contributors on the team shooting above 30% in the category besides Miller.

The point is, this shooting slump, as long as it has been, isn’t the end of the world and doesn’t prove Miller is incapable of becoming the star we expected him to be. It’s still concerning, being that he has rarely shown progress through the last 12 games and McMahon’s adjustments have done little to help him, but there’s still plenty of time for his trajectory to change.

He’s displayed flashes of what he can do, whether it be in full games like the one against Wofford or in spurts like the ones against Auburn, Arkansas and Texas A&M. He’s a sophomore and this season is far from over, so don’t label him as a bust just yet.

HEART, from page 10 sport? Most fans would prefer to let the game play out and stop taking passion out of the game.

For some reason, when it comes to Reese, the attitude shifts. People suddenly assume the same authority they criticize when used by referees. The same fans who love a good post-dunk staredown want Reese to be more reserved when she drops 30 and 10.

This attitude is an example of the sexism present in sports, with a double standard for how male and female athletes are perceived and what’s considered appropriate for them to do. The emotion Reese showed against Arkansas and has shown all season is commonplace at all levels of every sport, and it’s usually not regarded with as much criticism as it is with Reese and other female athletes.

For fans, the lesson may be to celebrate greatness regardless of gender–and let greatness celebrate itself. If you were as unstoppable as Angel Reese, you’d want to show off, too.