Somewhere, Eric Piatkowski is sweating bullets.
His reign as perhaps the greatest basketball player ever to come out of South Dakota appears to be in serious jeopardy.
Outside the Black Hills, Piatkowski is known as the former Nebraska guard who last year became the Los Angeles Clippers’ all-time three-point scoring leader.
It’s not as if Piatkowski should be surprised, though. The way basketball runs in the Miller family of Mitchell, S.D., another star was bound to shoot up out of those cornstalks sooner or later.
Mike Miller is the talented sophomore small forward for the 28-7 Florida Gators, who will take on North Carolina Saturday in the NCAA semifinals in Indianapolis.
Mike’s father, Tom, is an elementary school principal. But in his younger days, Tom was a standout basketball player as well–at Mitchell (S.D.) High and Dakota Wesleyan University. Tom’s younger brother, Alan, also played at Dakota Wesleyan, going on to become the all-time leading collegiate scorer in state history. Mike’s older brother, Ryan, was a Division II All-America at Northern State (S.D.) and his younger brother Jared and sister Chelsey also play the game.
Thanks to the Millers, the game is also huge in Mitchell, a town of 13,798 located 67 miles west of Sioux Falls. “I don’t think outside of South Dakota people have that perception,” said Tom Miller.
“But basketball is big here. Here in Mitchell our high school team won five Class 2A state championships in the ’90s (Mike played on two of them).”
Interest in youth hockey and soccer is growing steadily in Mitchell, but Tom Miller’s son is definitely doing his part to keep basketball No. 1 in his hometown.
Mike Miller is helping to raise South Dakota’s profile more than Mt. Rushmore and the Corn Palace put together. He sank the game-winning, buzzer-beating layup to stun Butler 69-68 in the NCAA tournament opener; added 19 points and nine rebounds in a 93-76 drubbing of Illinois; contributed 10 points and nine rebounds in the Gators’ 87-78 upset of No. 1 seed Duke, and led the way with 14 points, five rebounds and two steals in Sunday’s 77-65 win over Oklahoma State. To top it off, he was named MVP of the East Regional.
The Corn Palace is the odd arena-tourist destination where both Tom and Mike played a lot of their ball. The sides of building are decorated with corn murals, which each year are stripped down and changed. The Corn Palace is a constant source of material within the Gator squad, whenever the city boys–junior forward Brent Wright and sophomore center Udonis Haslem of Miami–decide to give the country boys–Miller, Brett Nelson (of St. Albans, W.Va.) and Matt Bonner (of Concord, N.H.)–a hard time.
“When [Miller] first stepped on campus,” said Wright, “you could tell he wasn’t from the city. City guys talk more. Mike’s a laid-back guy, always smiling and laughing. He likes to talk about the Corn Palace a lot. I saw a picture of it once but to me it looked like a nightclub in Vegas. Very strange.”
Miller takes the razzing in stride because there’s nothing he doesn’t love about Florida–from his teammates, to coach Billy Donovan, to the Gators’ aggressive, press-and-run-the-floor style of play.
Two years ago, Donovan pursued the 6-foot-8-inch, 218-pound Miller, a high school All-America who was considered one of the top five players in the country, like a bloodhound. Or rather, Donovan’s assistant, John Pelphry did, following Miller around in the summer for 24 straight days just to show him how much he was wanted. “Every time I’d turn around he was there,” said Miller with a laugh.
Impressed, Miller picked Florida early–over Kansas, Kentucky and Arizona. He chose it despite the pleas of the townsfolk, who figured he was dumb for not going to big-name power. He chose it over the objections of Jayhawks coach Roy Williams, who asked the NCAA to investigate claims that Miller had been improperly recruited. The NCAA found no wrongdoing.
Quickly, Miller, who averages14 points and six rebounds, became the cornerstone of Florida’s success.
The corn-bred, small-town boy who’d never played a pickup game until his Gator teammates clued him in, and Donovan, a hard-charging, slicked-back, 34-year-old from Long Island, have teamed to put football-mad Florida on the basketball map as never before.
“What attracted me to Coach Donovan is that he’s a real competitive person,” said Miller. “I don’t think he has slept since he got here. He’s a person who wants to win. A person who will do anything it takes to win. I think everyone on this team has a great relationship with him.”
Billy the Kid, in turn, will never forget what Miller meant to Florida when he decided to join blue-chip recruits Haslem and Teddy Dupay and pursue Donovan’s dream.
“Mike’s a different kid,” said Donovan, a former Providence star. “He wanted to go in and have a chance to play immediately as a freshman, help build something. When I recruit I want to find how much a kid loves the game. My first conversation with Mike Miller he said `Coach, what do I have to do to get better?’ A lot of kids don’t want to hear that.”
Sunday night at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., after the victory that secured the Gators’ first trip to the Final Four since 1994, Miller was surrounded by reporters from all over the country.
“Never in my whole entire life have I made a better decision [than coming to Florida],” he told them. “This just goes to show that Coach Donovan has us going in the right direction–just like he said he would.”
