[dropcap]Brought[/dropcap] in before the 2013-14 season to help solidify the guard court, James Milliken became the rare junior college recruit to redshirt when the Bluejays unexpectedly received an extra year for Grant Gibbs. When he finally took the court a year-and-a-half after setting foot on campus, he struggled initially, had one monster game…and then was suspended before their final non-conference game for an unspecified violation of team rules. The suspension was originally for the remainder of the first semester, or six games, but wound up lasting just two games, as Coach Greg McDermott had a change of heart over the Christmas break and decided to give him another chance as Big East play started.
The caveat: Milliken was now on a zero tolerance plan. One more slip up, and he was gone.
The player that emerged post-suspension was nothing like the one that had played the first two months of the year. He was almost immediately one of their top scoring threats, logging three of their top five scoring games on the year, and leading them in scoring in six of 20 Big East games, including 39 points in the Big East tourney. In conference play, he played the second-most minutes on the team, took the second-most shots, led the team in both total points and points per game, and committed the fewest turnovers of the five players that started the bulk of the games. It was quite a remarkable transformation.
Season in Review:
Milliken blasted out of the gate, scoring 13 points in the season opener against Central Arkansas. Eight mostly forgettable performances followed, and as November turned into December, he saw his minutes decrease until he seemingly hit rock bottom at Nebraska — he played just six minutes, taking one shot and scoring zero points. In their next game against South Dakota, he once again was struggling to see the court, logging six first half minutes.
Then Devin Brooks went out with an injury, didn’t return, and Milliken was given an opportunity. He seized it, scoring 10 second-half points in 18 minutes, but it was in the overtime periods that he really made his presence known. Playing all ten minutes in the two extra periods, he scored on three straight possessions in the second overtime to help the Bluejays put away a pesky Coyote team. From our recap the day after the game:
Larson knocked down two free throws to put South Dakota up 78-77 with 3:12 to go, but James Milliken and Austin Chatman weren’t finished making big plays for Creighton. Chatman assisted on three straight scores for Milliken starting with a 3-pointer from the right wing to put the Bluejays in front 80-78. Then on Milliken’s driving layup on the next possession before the duo finished off the 8-2 run on another three-pointer by Milliken to extend the lead to 85-80 with just over a minute remaining.
“He saved our bacon tonight,” McDermott said of Milliken. “With Devin going down we were done without him if [Milliken] didn’t step up.”
Milliken said after the game that his coaches and teammates remained confident in him despite his inconsistent performances this year, and that allowed him to step up when they needed him to tonight, “It started with Coach telling me to look for my shot more, because they were sagging off of me,” he said. “My teammates made the extra pass. Isaiah passed up two wide open threes just to get me one, so they trusted me to make the shots and I felt comfortable making them.”
He showed up late for shootaround for the next game, was benched for the first half, and played just five ineffective minutes in the second half of a home loss to Saint Mary’s. His problems escalated from there, as the suspension came a couple of days later, and he missed games against UTPA and North Texas.
In the first three games after his suspension was lifted, he scored 6, 5, and 7 points in losses to Providence, Georgetown and DePaul. But when #19 Seton Hall came to Omaha on January 10, once again injuries forced Milliken into a bigger role, and once again he seized the moment. Austin Chatman missed most of the second half with a concussion, Isaiah Zierden missed it too with a reaggrivation of his knee injury, and Milliken took advantage of the increased load by scoring 20 points on 8-16 shooting, connecting on a variety of dribble drives to the rim, mid-range jumpers, and three-point shots. As the Jays went back-and-forth with the Pirates in a hard-fought game, it was Milliken who was the go-to scorer. From our day-after recap:
Upon returning, Milliken has struggled to re-acclimate himself to the rotation, but given a chance to start on Saturday, he took full advantage. Down 14-9 and with Clement now running the show in Chatman’s absence, he sparked the run that changed the game. First, he hit a three to make it 14-12. After the teams traded an Artino layup for a Gibbs three, he hit another trey to make it 18-17. Gibbs made another bucket for Seton Hall on the other end, but no matter — Milliken dished an assist to Rick Kreklow, who drained a three to tie the game at 20. Then after a defensive stop, he drove to the rim and made a tough shot to give the Jays a 22-20 lead.
And at the conclusion of a wild second half, with the Jays trailing 68-67, it was Milliken that the staff diagrammed a play for. Ricky Kreklow inbounded the ball with a baseball-style pass to half court, where Will Artino caught it amidst three defenders and passed it to a wide-open Milliken on the left side. Unfortunately, he fumbled the catch, and by the time he recovered, he could manage only a contested three that hit the front of the rim and bounced away as the horn sounded.
However, this time his big game wouldn’t be a blip, but the start of something bigger. He scored in double figures in 11 of the team’s final 16 games, averaging 12.2 points over that stretch (the only player to average in double figures). He started seven of the final eight games, bowing out of the starting five only on Senior Night to allow Avery Dingman to get the start in his final home game. And at the end of the day, he was the Jays’ best player over the final six weeks of the season, without a doubt.
Next Year:
Milliken is the Jays’ top returning scorer, and the versatility that made him such a threat late in the season should once again be key to his success in 2015-16. Of his 95 made baskets, 45 came from three-point range and 50 came inside the arc, giving him an almost equal distribution of baskets inside and outside. Actually, if you look at attempts, it was an EXACT equal distribution — in a wild statistical oddity, he took exactly 117 shots both inside and outside the arc. Crazy.
As you’d expect, he was better inside the arc (50-117, 42.7%) than outside (45-117, 38.5%), though he was solid from both areas. He was also solid from the free-throw line (62-79, 78.5%). However, he didn’t draw as many fouls as you’d expect from a player who attempted so many shots around the rim, and averaged just 2.5 free throw attempts per game and 3.9 per 40 minutes. Given his shooting percentage at the line, getting to the line more would seem to be a way for him to increase his scoring — perhaps significantly — as a senior.
He should again be among the players with the most minutes played and shot attempts, at least early in the season when the Jays will need to lean on Milliken’s ability to score in a variety of ways while all their newcomers adjust to the college game and his fellow guard, Isaiah Zierden, works back from surgery. Once they do, the outside shooting of Zierden and Cole Huff should open up better shots and driving lanes for Milliken, which in theory should make their offense more powerful than it was in 2014-15.
