TCU wants Miller to shoot more 3s in his 3rd season while going for 3rd NCAA tournament

Updated Oct. 26, 2023 11:55 a.m. ET

Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Emanuel Miller went through the NBA draft process before deciding to return for his senior season at TCU, where his coach wants him to shoot more 3-pointers as the Horned Frogs try to get to their third NCAA Tournament in a row.

“He loves TCU. He’s great,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “I think no student-athlete better recognized that than him at the NCAA Tournament last year about how great his experience has been at TCU and how much TCU means to him because he means a lot to our program and to our school.”

This will be Miller’s third season at TCU since transferring from Texas A&M. The 6-foot-7 forward, who averaged 12.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game last season, is the top returning scorer and rebounder for the Horned Frogs after Mike Miles and Damion Baugh left to pursue pro careers.

Miller was also picked by Big 12 coaches as a one of the five players on their preseason all-conference team.

“E-man is a hard worker. We’ve talked to him about what he needs to do to get to the next level and guarding on the perimeter and shooting 3s at a higher rate,” Dixon said. “He’s a 6-6, 6-7 wing and is getting better and better on the perimeter, both offensively and defensively.”

When Dixon talks about 3-pointers at a higher rate, he means shooting more of them. Miller was the team’s top long-range shooter last season making 39% of his 3s, but that was on only 20-of-51 shots from beyond the arc. He shot 51% overall.

Miles and Baugh combined for half of TCU’s scoring last season, but Miller is among five upperclassmen who have been part of the Horned Frogs making consecutive NCAA Tournaments for the first time since the early 1950s; they have never been to three in a row. Also back are senior guard Micah Peavy, senior forwards Chuck O’Bannon Jr. and Xavier Cork, and junior forward JaKobe Coles.

“Those are five guys that won a lot of games for us and all came in around the same time, and we got better because of them,” Dixon said. “Good group, good core.”

FROM THE LEAGUE

Two of TCU's five Division I transfers came from other Big 12 schools.

Senior guard Avery Anderson averaged 11.1 points and 3.4 assists per game in his 22 starts for Oklahoma State last season before a left wrist injury ended his season in February.

Ernest Udeh Jr., a 6-11, 250-pound center, shot 75.6% from the field in limited action as a freshman for Kansas. He set a Jayhawks record with 21 consecutive made field goals, which came in a span of 17 games over three months.

“Defensively, he’s what we needed,” Dixon said of Udeh. “His energy, his ability to run the floor, those are the things that really stand out, and his improvement in the time that he got there.”

TRANSFER GUARDS

Avery is one of three transfer guards, along with seniors Jameer Nelson from Delaware and Trevian Tennyson after he made a school-record 100 3-pointers while averaging 15.7 points and 3.6 assists a game last season for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Nelson led the Coastal Athletic Association with 20.6 points and 2.4 steals per game last season, then didn’t get to TCU until August after finishing school at Delaware.

“Obviously we’re replacing two really good guards in Damion and Mike Miles, so we need to have great guards. You have to have them in this league to be successful,” Dixon said. “We think with (Nelson), we think with Avery, we think with Tre, we really picked up three really good guards. But getting ready for the Big 12, obviously Avery has been through it. Getting him healthy has been our challenge.”

5 TIMES 1K

TCU has five players on its roster with more than 1,000 career points. That group is made up of Miller, the three incoming transfer guards and 6-9 forward Essam Mostafa, who came from Coastal Carolina, where he averaged 12.4 points and 10 rebounds a game last season and led the Sun Belt with 16 double-doubles.

RUNNING THE COURT

The Horned Frogs, which was ranked as high as 11th last season in the AP Top 25 poll, led the nation with 17.5 fast-break points per game last season.

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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll