Walker Miller finds familiarity and unique background in new surroundings at Monmouth

Walker Miller goes from role player at North Carolina to considerable size advantage at Monmouth. (Photo by Gary Kowal/Monmouth University Athletics)

When King Rice reached into the transfer portal this offseason to fill the voids on his Monmouth team left by the departures of Deion Hammond and Melik Martin, it sent shockwaves through the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, as the longtime Hawks coach has always been very particular in his recruitments of transfer student-athletes, making sure each is the perfect fit for his program and system.

Monmouth’s two coups in the college basketball equivalent of free agency appear to be just that, landing former Seton Hall guard Shavar Reynolds and Walker Miller, a 6-foot-11 North Carolina expatriate whose common denominator of an alma mater with his new head coach is among the many factors that led him to West Long Branch.

“A big part of it is King and the relationship I have with him,” Miller said of his arrival at Monmouth. “He’s a Carolina guy, I met him when I was there and he has a great relationship with my brother, so I’d talked to him, and I was talking to him throughout the time after I was sure I was going to transfer and use my extra year somewhere else. I like everything about him. I like his honesty, I like how he coaches and interacts with his players, and it’s all come true since I’ve been here. It’s been a great experience and King’s a big reason why I came here, and he’s also a big reason why I’ve enjoyed it so much.”

The brother of Wes Miller, the head coach at the University of Cincinnati, who Monmouth will play later this season, Walker has a background in the game very few players possess. And as his game and career have evolved, he has been able to use his inside knowledge to better not only himself, but his teammates as well.

“I think you learn a lot in those kinds of circumstances,” he said of his lineage. “I saw how Wes built a team at UNCG and got them to be successful, and then you just take those lessons you learn and you think about how you can take it to this level and this team. I’ve been in one role at Carolina for a long time and I got to learn how everything was first-class, so it’s just learning to be successful and taking that to this environment.”

“Here, King does a lot of that same stuff. Some of it is similar, some of the defensive stuff, secondary break, it’s pretty similar so I’ve already learned a lot about what he wants. Luckily, we have the guys here that’ll do all these things, so I’ve been lucky to go to two different places that value the same kind of things.”

“He came in here and everybody’s looking at him like, ‘man, this guy’s from Carolina, he’s probably gonna think this way,’ and it was similar to Shavar,” said Rice, who highlighted Miller’s work with fellow forward Jarvis Vaughan. “He came in, worked out with Jarvis, really helped Jarvis understand some things in the first workout and just tried to show him, ‘hey, man, I’m here to help your game. I’m not here to try to outdo you, I’m here to help you be a better player.’”

“They hit it off early, and I think the guys on the team put their guards down quickly because those guys didn’t come in here acting like, ‘I’m a high-major guy, you guys gotta get in line.’ They came in here saying, ‘I want to be your teammate, you guys have been here. I want to add value to your program.’ And with their actions, they've shown that that’s who they are. It’s been a pretty great addition, both of those guys, to our program.”

Among the biggest adjustments for Miller will be going from a role player to an imposing presence by sheer virtue of his size, something not commonly seen in the MAAC. The fifth-year senior displayed a quiet confidence when asked of his new situation, which he feels could be one with potential to pay off in March.

“There’s good bigs in the MAAC, but it’s definitely a different level of size,” Miller opined. “I’m going to be one of the bigger guys out there, so if I can use it as a weapon, I will. What I’ve learned at Carolina going up against bigger guys, that’s what I’ll have to do, but looking around the MAAC, I’ve been pretty impressed.”

“I want to be able to reach the potential I think I can be, see how the work I’ve done for four years translates to game day. I want to see how successful I can be as a basketball player. I just want to see what the work has led to. I think, from the start of the year, we’ve come a long way. Obviously we still have a little ways to go, but that’s every team in the country right now. Nobody’s a finished product right now, and I think if we keep improving like we have been, then we can be really good.”