Darius Miller Likes What Lamb, Liggins Add to La Familia

DeAndre Liggins with former UK coach John Calipari during the 2011 NCAA Tournament. (UK Athletics Photo)

Darius Miller has fond memories of playing with Doron Lamb and DeAndre Liggins at Kentucky and he’s glad that both of them will be playing for La Familia in The Basketball Tournament that starts next week.

The tourney offers a $1 million purse to the championship team and La Familia will host regional play at Memorial Coliseum.

“Two great players. D Lamb is an incredible scorer, very efficient. He’s a guy that I think can bring a lot of buckets to the team,” Miller, a La Familia advisor, said on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk. “Whenever we need somebody to go out and get a bucket, he’s one of the guys that we can look to do that.”

Lamb played in 78 games during his two seasons at Kentucky and averaged 13.1 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game while shooting 48.5 percent overall from the field, 47.5 percent from 3 and 81.1 percent at the foul line. During UK’s 2012 national championship season, he started 35 of 40 games and averaged 13.7 points per game. He led the Cats with 78 3’s and had a team-high 22 points in the national title game win over Kansas. He was also on the 2011 Elite Eight team.

“Liggins is also skilled offensively and just a dog. He’s one of the best defensive players that I played with in my career,” Miller said.  “I think he’s really good at leading the team, going out and being a glue guy, really giving the team whatever they need at the moment.”

Liggins played in 100 games in his three seasons and averaged 5.76 points, 2.97 rebounds and 2.11 assists per game. He shot 40.6 percent from the field and hit 62 3-pointers. Liggins, 37, has played in a variety of countries during his professional career and at UK was on the 2010 Elite Eight team and 2011 Final Four team.

“Those two guys have had long, long pro careers. They’re pretty old in their journey,” Miller said.  “They are gonna come out and play winning basketball. They know how to hop on a team and add value to it and make them contenders.”