Kentucky’s next five-star visitor is ‘Mr. Everything’ on the basketball court
The revolving door of recruits on official visits to Kentucky continues this weekend with one of the most intriguing talents in high school basketball.
Brandon Miller — a 6-foot-8 forward from the Nashville area — is already an accomplished player. He averaged 24.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 2.6 blocks and 2.3 steals per game as a junior this past season, leading Cane Ridge (Tenn.) on a postseason run that ended with a trip to the state title game. Miller was named the Gatorade player of the year in Tennessee, and he already has scholarship offers from several top programs, including UK.
“He can really shoot the basketball. He’s really skilled,” Cane Ridge Coach Marlin Simms told the Herald-Leader. “He can handle the basketball — he’s our quasi-point guard at times, you could say. We run our offense through Brandon. He’s a complete player right now for us. He’s our best defender. He’s a shot-blocker, at times. He’s a rebounder. He’s our Mr. Everything.”
He’s also just scratching the surface of what he can become.
“At the end of the day, Brandon’s potential is off the charts,” Simms said.
Miller — now ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 10 overall recruit in the rising senior class — will be the fifth top-15 national prospect to set foot on UK’s campus this month when he arrives for his official visit this weekend.
Few in that 2022 class have the upside that Miller possesses.
He already has the height and length — along with his ability to play facing the basket — to be a handful for opposing defenses. The next crucial step in his development will be adding weight and strength. As of now, he’s still a bit shy of 200 pounds, and that affects his game when trying to play inside.
Simms noted that teams in the state tournament started double- and triple-teaming Miller, often playing a more physical brand of basketball than he was used to seeing earlier in the season.
Rivals.com national analyst Rob Cassidy is high on Miller’s game and his future, though he said he views him as “a little bit more of a project” than many of the other players at the top of the 2022 rankings. He also mentioned added strength as a way for Miller to move forward as a player, especially around the basket.
“He’s still pretty thin,” Cassidy told the Herald-Leader. “And that’s another thing — when you’re projecting prospects down the road, you always kind of have to play that guessing game. Does he have the shoulders to add the size? And I think he does. But at some point, you have to rank the prospect that he is now. So hopefully in the next year ahead, he starts to bulk up a little bit.
“He has the touch around the basket to finish, but it’s going to be about how much muscle he’s able to add, on how effective he is down there. I think that’s going to determine how far he goes and what he becomes. Because he does have that length. He can step out and shoot it. He can handle the ball well. He can pass. I think that’s really the last piece of his game, to be able to muscle up and score on the inside.”
Kentucky recruiting Brandon Miller
Simms has watched Miller progress on and off the court during his time at Cane Ridge.
The coach saw a player who actually flourished in his development amid the COVID-19 pandemic, someone who fell even more in love with the game and concentrated even more of his efforts toward the basketball court during the uncertainty of the past year.
Same as his peers in the 2022 class — players who haven’t been able to be properly recruited for more than a year — Miller is looking forward to getting on college campuses and going through the full process of choosing a school.
Immediately after the NCAA lifted its dead period on recruiting travel at the start of this month, Miller popped up on Auburn’s campus for an official visit. Last week, he took an official visit to Alabama, where his father played college football. Kentucky will be No. 3 on the visit list.
Simms said his star player has been eager to get to know, face to face, the head coaches who have been recruiting him and get a better look at their campuses and facilities in person. Miller doesn’t talk much about the recruiting process, however. “I think he doesn’t want to come across as bragging,” his coach said.
There’d be plenty to boast about, if he were so inclined.
Miller has scholarship offers from all the heavy hitters in the Southeastern Conference, and he’s actually been on Kentucky’s radar since his early high school days. He was one of several visitors for Big Blue Madness in 2019, though UK’s coaching staff has obviously gone through major changes since then. (New UK assistant Chin Coleman extended Miller a scholarship offer last year at Illinois, it’s worth noting).
The skinny kid from Nashville was one of many recruits on that first Kentucky trip. Since then, he’s emerged as one of John Calipari’s top targets, one of the handful of 2022 prospects with a UK scholarship offer, and one of the first players from his class to be invited to take an official visit.
There’s plenty of interest on both sides.
“It’s Kentucky,” Simms said. “So that’s like asking about UCLA or Kansas or Duke or Carolina — it’s a blue blood. Anytime a kid gets a phone call from Coach Calipari — or any of those blue bloods — they get excited. I’m pretty sure it’s something he’s really excited about, and I know he wants to go up there and see what it’s about. See how Kentucky fits him and see how he can help Kentucky.”
