Head coach Bill Herrion confirmed that Matt Miller, who had applied for a sixth year of eligibility, has been denied a waiver by the NCAA and exhausted his eligibility.
Miller, the cousin of Arizona head coach Sean Miller and Dayton head coach Archie Miller, will join the Wildcats coaching staff as Director of Basketball Operations. He replaces Herrion’s son Ryan who left the position to become an assistant coach at Division II Stonehill in June.
In his only season with the Wildcats, Miller averaged 9.9 ppg and made 47.7% of his three-pointers, good for 10th in the country according to KenPom.com’s individual player statistics. Miller made 53.3% of his three point attempts in America East play, best in the conference according to KenPom.com.
Prior to the start of last season, Herrion and his staff planned to apply for a waiver for Miller, which was initially denied from the NCAA over the summer. They recently were denied upon appeal for Miller’s a possible sixth year.
The 6’4” Miller transferred from Division II Seton Hill in 2012, which meant he had to redshirt the 2012-13 season. Prior to the start of the 2013-14 season, Miller tore his ACL which required him to miss what would have been his redshirt junior season. He played his only season for the Wildcats as a redshirt senior.
Despite losing Miller, New Hampshire will return plenty of talent from a team that reached the America East Playoff semifinals last season. They also return America East Rookie of the Year Tanner Leissner, who led the team in scoring (12.3 ppg), rebounding (7.2 rpg) and blocks (0.6 bpg), but missed their playoff run last March because of a season-ending ankle injury.
Ryan Restivo wrote the America East conference preview for the 2015-16 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook. He covers the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the America East conference among others for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo or contact Ryan at rrestivo[at]nycbuckets.com.
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