Darius Miller, left, never had more fun playing basketball than what he had at Kentucky. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Darius Miller won a state championship at Mason County when he was also named Mr. Basketball. He was on Kentucky’s 2012 national championship team and has played in more games than any other Kentucky player.
Miller also had a successful NBA career before retiring after the 2021 season. He now lives in Lexington and obviously still follows Kentucky basketball.
He joined us on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk and producer Beau Robinson asked him what advice he would have for coach Mark Pope’s new players. Miller immediately said he would tell them to stay in the present and embrace the opportunities they had.
“The University of Kentucky is one of the best, if not the best, universities in the world. You know, so just come in and have fun,” Miller said. “It’s gonna feel like a lot of pressure at times, especially this team. I feel like they have a great team and talent. There’s gonna be expectations put on you, but it’s still basketball.
“I feel like you have great leadership and coach (Mark) Pope is gonna put them in a situation where they can be successful. So go in every day, try to get better, figure out whatever your process is to where you can get better every single day, and embrace it.
“And like I said, just have fun. At the University of Kentucky, it’s some of the best basketball that I’ve ever got to play, some of the best experiences on the basketball court that I’ve ever had and some of the best fans that I’ve ever been able to play in front of. It’s just an amazing experience.”
3 Responses
Darius Miller is the ONLY player to do all 3…
• state championship at Mason County
• KY HS Mr. Basketball.
• on UK’s 2012 national championship team
AND has played in more games than any other Kentucky player.
He is also the last genuine KY HS player to be a key player in a National Champ Team. There has NEVER been a National Champ won without a key player bring a native Kentuckian who played KY HS BB.
And there won’t be #9 until it happens again. Too bad UK did not play Perry and Noah a LOT the first 10 to 12 games a year ago to prepare them to play a lot all season so that UK would have had 2 players 100% FOR UK & not trying to impress pro scouts. Those 2 were the missing keys for.#9. Historical statistical facts do hold significant hints.
You sure don’t know basketball if you think Noah and Perry are the keys to another title. Any UK title team has possessed elite talented teams and those two aren’t elite. It was a well known basketball analyst made a statement to me in regard to Kentucky fans. He said they seem to be the most passionate but at the same time not the most most knowledgeable of the sport. He asked for my thoughts and I totally agreed with him. Your statement can be easily used to support his statements. 💯
Hopefully, Pope will give Noah plenty of minutes in the pre-conference slate of games. The incoming freshmen need to wait their turn on a team loaded with seasoned veterans. I am not sure Perry’s defense will ever rise to an SEC level. He did the right thing for himself, but I hope he didn’t jump out of the pan and into the fire. I was hoping he would go to a mid major, improve his defense and offense, and then come back to a power 5 school. Beard is a defensive coach…maybe he can coach Perry up.
Noah and Chandler are poised to make big leaps in their game…IF they get the PT. I hope it doesn’t come due to injuries, but let them compete and have the minutes fall where they will. Aberdeen, Dioubate, and Quaintance will demand and deserve significant minutes. Jelavic, if he ever gets cleared to play, will be in that group too. Williams will be pushing to be in that group as well Garrison, Oweh, and Lowe. As you can see, there won’t be that many minutes left and I think they should go to Noah and Chandler…if winning No. 9 is the ultimate goal.