Lost ring, found opportunity

Sporting News, The, May 13, 2002 by Mike DeCourcy

Although he did not play a minute for Notre Dame this past season, Danny Miller was entitled to one of the watches awarded by the NCAA to commemorate the Irish's tournament appearance. He considers it a welcome substitute for the championship ring he might have earned by sticking around Maryland another year.

You are not alone if you think Miller is a fool for walking away from a team with Final Four talent and national championship aspirations--a team that fulfilled that goal to spend one year practicing and one playing with Notre Dame. There are plenty who suspect he is among the many self-deluded, self-interested players transferring because they're being held back in their current circumstances.

It's not easy to locate the logic in the decision of wing Scooter McFadgon to leave Memphis after ranking second on the team in shots and minutes or in guard Orien Greene's departure from Florida after starting 30 games for his hometown school.

You would be wrong to lump Miller in with that trend. Miller did the right thing: for Maryland, for Notre Dame, for himself. He understood the Terps were in position to win it all. But he also recognized a responsibility to his talent. "At Maryland, I was really underachieving," he says. "I was a better player than what I showed on the court there."

Transferring to Notre Dame provides Miller with an opportunity to start in a system that could prove to be better suited to his game. It allows Notre Dame to correct a roster imbalance that developed as three different head coaches ran the program from 1998-99 to 2000-01. The move also eliminated a potential distraction for Maryland coach Gary Williams, who would have been challenged to fit Miller into a rotation that no longer required his services.

"It wasn't the type of situation where I was bitter," Miller says. "Even when I did lose my starting role, I was still playing big minutes at the end of the game. It was just that I wasn't the player I know I am. I was happy winning games with those guys, but when I look at myself as a player, I wasn't happy there. You've got to be happy playing."

A 6-8 small forward from Mt. Holly, N.J., Miller was a McDonald's All-American in high school but never completely found his game with the Terps. His shooting ability and innate toughness figured to make him indispensable, but he lost confidence in his touch and hit only 33 percent of his 3-point attempts. Without his shot as an advantage, Miller could not stay ahead of Byron Mouton, who was more athletic and energetic.

With the Irish, Miller will move directly into the lineup next to shooting guard Matt Carroll and elite point guard Chris Thomas. Miller expects his new team's free-flowing offense will work better for him than the more structured, Flex-based system that delivered Maryland a championship. He can see opportunity in the 374 shots launched last year by his predecessor, David Graves. That's nearly as many as Miller got in his sophomore and junior seasons combined.

"He's a little crazy, and I mean that in a good way," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey says of Miller. "He's got that Laettner look in his eye when he's competing. I think he'll make us a little tougher mentally and physically."

As the Terps reached the 2001 Final Four, Miller averaged 18.8 minutes and 4.8 points. He was among the most important players in Maryland's tournament run, ranking third in assists, second in shooting percentage and fifth in minutes.

Miller knew the better part--the best part--of that team was returning with an excellent shot to claim the school's first NCAA title. But he already had made up his mind to leave.

Though he does not feign great affection for Williams, Miller is not eager to place blame for his periodic struggles with the Terps. Sometimes, a talented player and a championship-caliber program do not suit one another.

"I've gained back a lot of confidence in my game," he says. "When you get in a slump and you're only getting two or three shots a game, it kind of hurts when you miss your first shot. You've got to go into a game knowing you're a good shooter. I'm a very good shooter. I know that."

Miller contends his role with the 2002 Terps would have been no less prominent, but his minutes probably would have declined. With power forward Terence Morris gone, the Terps shifted to a bigger lineup pairing wide-bodies Chris Wilcox, Tahj Holden and Ryan Randle with veteran center Lonny Baxter. There would have been small forward minutes available, and Miller would have been a handy choice to defend Duke's Mike Dunleavy, but it's apparent his importance would have diminished. The decision to leave not only was rational, it was necessary.

Had Miller been a part of the Terps' mix, there is no guarantee Maryland would have won the NCAA title. If the New England Patriots did not prove championship chemistry is a mysterious force, it's a lesson we'll never learn.

"I got that question asked me every day: Do you regret it?" Miller says. "I would have liked to have been there for that championship. I would have liked to be there through March. I don't know how I would have felt through that whole year, the whole process. It's just something you never know."