It’s Miller time for the Kansas men’s basketball program this weekend, as top-12 prospect Brandon Miller and his family are slated to make an official visit to KU.
The 6-foot-7, 190-pound, five-star small forward is ranked 12th in the Class of 2022 by Rivals.com.
After initially cutting Kansas from his final eight in early September, Miller added the Jayhawks back to his list of finalists, which now consists of KU, Alabama, Tennessee State, the NBA’s G League and Australia’s NBL.
As the lone blue blood program on his list of finalists, KU has a chance to set itself apart this weekend. Miller’s final eight also included Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida.
Miller recently took a closer look at the G League and he is expected to arrive in Lawrence today.
“He really wants to see how Coach (Bill) Self and the staff interacts with the players,” Miller’s father, Darrell Miller, recently told Shay Wildeboor of JayhawkSlant.com. “I think we’re going to check out the football game, too. Brandon can maybe get a feel for the student life a bit.”
That last part — for KU’s Homecoming game — could be particularly important, given Miller’s potential to skip college altogether and jump straight to the pro ranks. Some recruiting analysts believed that was his preference for most of the summer, but a few, including Joe Tipton of On3.com, are now saying they expect Miller to play college basketball.
The fact that Kansas appears to be the only new addition to his list of finalists and Miller’s desire to visit KU this weekend puts KU in a favorable position entering the weekend.
“Bringing Kansas back in was a long, thought-out process,” Darrell Miller told Wildeboor. “We could have easily reopened recruiting, but we only wanted to learn more about Kansas.”
According to the Rivals.com data base, the Millers visited Alabama in early June. All five of the current Rivals.com FutureCast projections belong to Bama. All of them were entered in September.
Known as a high-upside defender with length, fluid athleticism and natural scoring ability, Miller can guard multiple positions on defense and has proven to be best in transition and while attacking the rim on offense.
As a junior at Cane Ridge High in Antioch, Tenn., last season, Miller averaged 23 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals per game while making 47% of his 3-point attempts.