It's Florida State over Gonzaga for Spanish prospect Baba Miller
Miller played for Real Madrid and Spain's U18 national team over the past year (photo courtesy of Baba Miller's Twitter)
Gonzaga men’s basketball will again feature a deep roster next season, but it won’t include Spanish prospect Baba Miller. After Miller announced June 3 that he would be choosing between the Zags and the Florida State Seminoles at the start of this week, he has since committed to the latter university as the young wing announced on his Twitter Monday.
Miller is as big a name of an overseas prospect as college basketball could find, and landing Miller would’ve been a huge get for a Gonzaga program that has seen its international pipeline diminish greatly in the wake of Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd’s departure. Instead, Miller now joins an FSU recruiting class that features three four-star domestic products in Cameron Cohner, De’Ante Green and Chandler Jackson, as well as two transfers with Darin Green from Central Florida and Jaylan Gainey from Brown.
At 6-foot-10 and 179 pounds with a 7-foot-1.5 wingspan, Miller is a rangy and fluid wing who can stretch the floor with his shooting and can repair damages on the glass. This past season, he played for Real Madrid in the Liga EBA, where at 17, he averaged 11.3 points and 5.3 rebounds in 24 minutes a game, while shooting 69% from 2-point range and 35% beyond the arc.
The newest Seminole was also a force on the world stage for Spain’s U18 national squad. He put up 11.8 points, 4.4 boards and almost two steals in each of his contests for a Spanish team that went undefeated in the FIBA European Challengers tournament.
He toured both Tallahassee, Florida and Spokane on the same trip last month and then announced that the two programs in each city were among his final two choices.
Without Miller, the Zags are still adding incoming freshman Braden Huff from Illinois next season to expand the team’s forward room. Gonzaga will have Huff, Anton Watson, Julian Strawther, Kaden Perry and Ben Gregg to take up the 3 and the 4 when the team hits the hardwood next season.
