Diamond Miller is having a monster senior season for the Maryland women’s basketball team, and she has already authored no shortage of big moments.
Miller hit a buzzer-beating pull-up jumper to beat Notre Dame on Dec. 1, then made a game-sealing 3-pointer against UConn on Dec. 11. So what is going through Miller’s mind when a big shot is looming? At least for her game-winner against the Irish, it was just about making one shot.
“In those last seconds, I was just like, ‘I want the game to be on me, make or miss.’ If I missed, we would’ve gone to overtime. Make it and we end the game. That was all I was thinking about, just making one shot to end the game,” Miller said on Glenn Clark Radio Dec. 9. “I wasn’t thinking about the highlight reel or anything like that. I was just thinking about the game. I just did what I needed to do to help my team win and it obviously worked in our favor because I made the shot. It was just a surreal feeling, honestly.”
Miller is averaging 18.4 points and 7.0 rebounds per game for a 9-3 Maryland team that has one more nonconference date — at Purdue Fort Wayne on Dec. 21 — before the Big Ten grind picks back up against Minnesota on Dec. 30. Other than a bump in the road against Nebraska when the Huskers outscored the Terps, 30-11, in the fourth quarter, Maryland has been trending upward.
Terps head coach Brenda Frese turned over most of her roster this past offseason though she did return three key players from last year’s team in Miller, senior Faith Masonius and sophomore Shyanne Sellers. Frese brought in Lavender Briggs (Florida), Brinae Alexander (Vanderbilt), Abby Meyers (Princeton), Elisa Pinzan (South Florida) and Allie Kubek (Towson) via the transfer portal. All five transfers have contributed except for Kubek, who is out for the season with a knee injury.
But Miller, who has scored 1,237 points during her four-year career in College Park, is the one who makes it all go. She was limited to 22 games and 18 starts last year with a knee issue, but now she looks back to the form she showed as a sophomore, when she averaged 17.3 points per game.
Miller, a 6-foot-3 do-it-all wing, is likely to be one of the first players taken in the 2023 WNBA Draft.
“She’s going to be an unbelievable pro. She understands what it takes. She loves this game. Obviously she has that killer instinct, wants to take over, wants the responsibility, and that’s what all the other greats here have had,” Frese said on GCR Dec. 13. “They want to be the go-to player and take the clutch shots down the stretch. Obviously you see the time that she has put into her game. If anything, I always think she can do more. She’s just so talented and so many skills on both ends of the floor. I’m always continuing to keep pushing for that greatness from her.”
It’s certainly been a memorable start to the season for Miller, even more so since she drew the attention of two of the best basketball players in the world after her game-winner at Notre Dame:
Miller said big moments were what she signed up for when she decided to come to Maryland, but didn’t expect all the attention she received after beating the Irish.
“I didn’t expect it to blow up or anything. It wasn’t my intention. It was just to win the game,” Miller said. “It was great to see all the recognition and stuff, but I’ve been doing this. I just haven’t hit a buzzer-beater. … It was pretty cool to see the recognition, but honestly I don’t care about the recognition and stuff. That’s not why I play basketball. I play basketball because that’s what I love to do.”
Meyers (20 points), Sellers (19), Miller (19) and Alexander (13) led the way in Maryland’s win against UConn, with Miller scoring 15 of her points in the second half. Frese likes the scoring balance she is seeing from her team as the season evolves.
“I’ve always said championship teams — and the ones we’ve had here at Maryland [fit] — you have to have three to five players that can average in double figures a game. Against UConn, we had four,” Frese said. “Their game plan was to really collapse on Diamond and take two at her. I thought she really understood getting the ball to her teammates, and they were able to carry that first half for her when she wasn’t able to get a lot of shots and be a facilitator for us. And then when it was her moment to shine in the second half, she really came through.”
See Also: Q&A With Maryland Women’s Basketball’s Diamond Miller
For more from Miller, listen to the full interview here:
For more from Frese, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics