Tournament-tested Miller brings Irish to Sweet success
Andrew Soukup
Sports Columnist
INDIANAPOLIS
In a room in an Indianapolis hotel, one senior starter turned to another to ask for help.
Matt Carroll was nursing a sore right ankle — an injury that might have kept lesser men from playing —and trying to do something he'd never done in his college career. Carroll wanted to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
So he talked to the one player on Notre Dame's team who had.
On the eve of Notre Dame's second-round game against Illinois, Carroll looked at Dan Miller, his roommate on the road, and said, "I've never been there, man. I want to get there so bad."
Miller simply responded, "I'm going to get you there, man."
Games like Saturday's are why Mike Brey originally accepted a senior transfer two years ago, a player who could help fill the leadership void the Irish would suddenly have. This is why Brey said Miller, who has played in 12 NCAA Tournament games and a Final Four, could help the Irish make a run in March.
But could even Brey have imagined how much Miller would have provided the late-season leadership the Irish would need to enter the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1987?
Known more for his scowl than his smile on the basketball court, a player who operates in the shadow of the more prolific Carroll and Chris Thomas, Miller all but carried Notre Dame to its biggest win in a decade by scoring a career-high 23 points.
And he did it in his customary act first, talk later manner.
"It was fitting that the oldest guy led us," Brey said.
When Torin Francis tumbled to the ground in the first half after battling for a rebound, Miller reached down to pull the freshman to his feet. When the Irish needed an offensive lift, Miller loosed 3-pointers with deadly accuracy. When Carroll drained a 3-poiner from the corner, Miller simply raised his hands in celebration as he walked backward.
When the Irish dropped out of the Big East, the Irish spent a week trying to figure out how to fix things. In that span, Brey turned to Miller and had the only player on his team who had played more than one weekend in the NCAA Tournament explain what it took to make it to the next level.
Miller might have talked about what it took, but his teammates probably remembered his actions on the floor Saturday a little better.
With Carroll hobbled by a sore ankle and the Irish getting relatively little offensive production from their post players, Miller decided to take over.
A few weeks ago, Brey told Miller not to "hang his hat" on his jump shot. But after Miller drained 5-of-5 3-pointers in a first-half shooting clinic, the Irish coach could only shake his head in disbelief.
Even Miller wasn't quite sure what to think when his fifth 3-pointer sailed through the net with 48 seconds to play in the first half, giving the Irish a 45-34 lead. But as he ran back toward midcourt, he shimmied his arms a little bit and a smile briefly crossed his face — a huge display of emotion for a player who sometimes looks like he'd rather be having a root canal instead of playing basketball.
They say experience is one of the most valuable things in the NCAA Tournament, with the last few national champions having teams loaded with senior leaders. They say a talented, youthful team can tumble to a team more accustomed to playing in March.
That might have been true in Notre Dame's game against Illinois, where the Illini started just one senior and the Irish started two, including one with Final Four experience and one with a burning desire to reach the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in his career.
But after the game, as the final seconds ran down while Brey excitedly pumped his fist and the Irish hopped around the court in a mass bear hug, Miller simply stood by himself, staring at the ceiling, thinking thoughts that nobody else could know.
In short, while the rest of the Irish celebrated, Miller looked like a man who had been there before.
And a man who isn't contented just by making the second weekend of the tournament.
The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer. Contact Andrew Soukup at asoukup@nd.edu
All Sports Stories for Monday, March 24, 2003
