Quay Miller and Colorado basketball: “A match made in heaven”
Perfect matches don’t happen often, but when they do, it can lead to near unprecedented success.
Yet, that’s exactly what Colorado has been for junior center Quay Miller. Coming out of Renton, WA, Miller has been an integral part of a CU team in the midst of their most successful season in years. The Buffs locked in their spot at the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013 when the official bracket was announced on Sunday, March 13.
Miller’s road to CU was not a straightforward one. Miller’s dad, Eddie JaQuay Miller, was a standout forward at Washington State from 1998-00, but that didn’t have the same impact on Miller as some father-daughter basketball relationships.
“Actually, it drew me away from (the game),” Miller said. “I looked at it as something that was taking me and my dad’s time away from us. So I never really wanted to play and when he came home from practice, I didn’t want to look at a basketball. I would go to the tournaments and practice with him, but the hours we spent in the gym were so long, I just knew I didn’t want to do this.”
In fact, it was Miller’s mom who got her into the game in the seventh grade when the family moved back to Washington after a short stint living in Los Angeles. Miller starred on her high school team at Kentridge, winning a state championship and heading into college as a three-star prospect. She then committed to the University of Washington in order to stay close to home and close to her mom.
At Washington, however, Miller quickly discovered that everything wasn’t going to be easy on the floor. The growing pains of moving from high school straight into power conference basketball were showing. She was coming off the bench, playing only around 15 minutes per game, and her shots were not falling. She finished the season shooting south of 35% from the field and around 17% from three-point range.
“When I got there, it was nothing like I expected it to be,” Miller said. “I thought I was going to be the best one there, and it was sort of like a culture shock, I guess. I went from being one of the best high school players to playing in the Pac-12, one of the best conferences, and it was a rude awakening.”
Miller pushed through, finding her footing heading into her sophomore season. She found significantly more playing time, even starting in 18 games for the Huskies, and bumping up her statistical production across the board.
Miller’s increased individual success didn’t lead to wins in Seattle though. Washington finished the 2020-21 season just 3-13 in conference play, after finishing 5-13 in the Pac-12 the year prior.
She knew that she wanted more. She needed a new culture, a winning culture. A culture that feared nobody and expected to win every single time they stepped on the court.
That’s how she found out about the Colorado Buffaloes.
“When we played Stanford, we always looked at it like ‘Oh, here we go. This is about to be a long night,’” said Miller. “But the approach that Colorado had, there was no losing to Stanford… At Colorado we’re looking to blow people out and get a good win.”
That fearless approach from the Buffs was exactly what Miller had been looking for, and made her a seamless fit in head coach JR Payne’s rotation. Miller along with fellow Washington transfer Tameiya Sadler have been exactly the impact players that CU needed to add to push them over the hump and into the NCAA Tournament.
“(Miller and Sadler) have the same kind of personality as the rest of the players,” said Cory Lopez, the head play-by-play announcer for the team. “Always positive, always pushing each other, but in a positive way. They just fit right in. It was a match made in heaven.”
Miller has seamlessly handled every obstacle to come her way during her time at CU. A crowded Buffs frontcourt? No problem. Coming off the bench and taking less minutes? No problem. Not only has Miller’s “infectious” personality rubbed off on her teammates, but her skill set on the court has propelled the Buffs to new heights as well.
“She’s brought so much to us on the court,” said CU guard Frida Formann. “She’s a really talented player. She’s a great post player that works really well in our system, and she’s very versatile.”
The addition of Miller has given the Buffs the necessary depth that a team needs, not only to make it into the NCAA Tournament, but to make a run deep into March. If she needed any validation for that, she got it last week.
Ahead of the Pac-12 Tournament, Miller was named Pac-12 Sixth Player of the Year, an honor given to the best bench player in the conference each year. She is the first Colorado player to win this award since the Buffs made the switch to the Pac-12 in 2011.
However, Miller isn’t focused on awards, accolades, or anything from this past regular season. She is focused on one thing: winning in March. It’s the same thing that brought her here. The culture of winning, the culture of fearlessness, of never being afraid of what’s in front of you. The expectation of success.
“For me, it’s about how far we’re gonna go,” said Miller ahead of selection Sunday. “We won’t know until Sunday, but we’re projected to be in… It’s about what we do with it from there.
Add social caption here: Last offseason, Quay Miller was seeking a change of scenery. Almost a year later, it’s clear that she has found a perfect match in Boulder.
