Miller Enjoys Ride With Surging Irish

The night of the NCAA title game last April, Dan Miller was driving back to South Bend, Ind., after Easter break.

In Atlanta, his former Maryland teammates were winning a national championship.

“I was calling back and forth, checking the score,” he said.

Miller was a onetime Maryland starter who transferred to Notre Dame after reaching the Final Four in 2001, knowing full well the Terrapins could go back the next year.

They did, and won the title without him.

“My basic reaction was that I was happy for all my friends there,” he said.

But Miller -- known as Danny when he played at Maryland -- got a measure of satisfaction Saturday when he scored 17 points as Notre Dame upset the defending champions, one in a remarkable run of three victories in eight days over top-15 teams.

By beating Marquette, Maryland and then-No. 2 Texas, Notre Dame (8-1) vaulted to No. 10 in the Associated Press poll, a small salve for a campus still reeling over being bounced in football from the bowl championship series to the Gator Bowl.

“It was a great week for us,” said Miller, who was taunted by some Maryland fans at MCI Center in Washington, D.C., with “Where’s your ring?”

Basically, he traded a ring for playing time.

“I knew that team had a great chance to win the national championship,” Miller said. “In my opinion, we should have won it the year before. We choked when we had the big lead.” Maryland blew a 22-point lead to Duke in the 2001 semifinals.

But after starting every game as a sophomore, Miller was a reserve as a junior, and he decided to leave, Final Four prospects or not.

“I would have loved to have been there for that game and the whole month of March. I just didn’t want to be there from October to February,” he said. “I weighed my position and I felt transferring would be more positive.”

A 6-foot-8 senior forward with an outside shooting touch, Miller is not Notre Dame’s best player -- that would be point guard Chris Thomas, with freshman forward Torin Francis next.

But he is one element of a very efficient offense for the Irish, whose loss was to No. 23 Creighton, a game Miller says helped spur the team to improve.

During last week’s run against three solid defensive teams -- none of them allowing more than 65 points a game -- Notre Dame scored 92, 79 and 98 points. The Irish are shooting almost 48%, including more than 41% from three-point range.

“I think we have a lot of interchangeable parts in our offense, and people who can do a lot of different things,” Miller said. “We can spread it out and open up the floor. That’s what happened this weekend, and Torin took advantage of it inside. We can spread it out and isolate different players.”

It starts with Thomas, who had 32 points and 10 assists against Marquette and held his own in a battle of premier point guards with T.J. Ford of Texas with 19 points, six rebounds and eight assists. Ford had 21, three and 12.

When the three-point shooters spread the floor, Francis can take advantage of space inside. He scored 20 against Maryland and 21 against Texas and has five double-doubles in his first nine college games.

Still, Miller is mindful of how much early-season victories mean. Not much, if you don’t back them up.

Remember Ball State, which upset Kansas and UCLA last season -- eventual Final Four and Sweet 16 teams -- then failed to make the NCAA tournament?

“I think we’re capable of being a really great team, but we have to maintain it,” Miller said. “We had a great week early. [But what happened to Ball State] can happen to anybody.”

Evan Burns’ Debut

Whether he could have kept UCLA from a 1-2 start is doubtful, but Evan Burns is easing into his college career at San Diego State after failing to gain admission at UCLA, where he originally signed out of Fairfax High.

Burns chose San Diego State after UCLA -- which does not accept partial qualifiers -- declined to admit him when the NCAA didn’t certify his high school transcript, questioning some required “core” classes.

Burns recently won an NCAA appeal, becoming eligible before Saturday’s game against Arizona, when he scored seven points off the bench, and playing his second game Tuesday against Long Beach State, when he contributed 10.

Burns could have delayed enrolling in college and sought to win an appeal to gain admission to UCLA, but chose to go ahead and enroll at San Diego State.

“That was my first choice, San Diego State,” he said. “But after meeting a few times with [Coach Steve] Lavin, I thought I’d stay closer to home. That didn’t work out, and that’s why I’m at San Diego State.”

Burns said he doesn’t spend much time looking back, but he has noticed the Bruins’ start.

“I don’t really know what’s getting into those guys,” he said. “They’ve played a couple of games where it seemed like they were thinking about something else. They’ll get it together.”

A 6-8 forward, Burns is one of six players on Coach Steve Fisher’s team who initially signed with another Div. I school.

The one who might prove to be the team’s best -- Travis Hanour, an Arizona transfer from Laguna Beach -- becomes eligible Saturday against Hawaii.

Ducks Fly South

There will be at least 17,000 fewer fans on hand Saturday night for No. 5 Oregon’s game at Pepperdine than there were for the Ducks’ revenge over Kansas on Saturday in Portland. (The crowd of 20,762 at the Rose Garden was the largest ever to witness a college basketball game in Oregon.)

Think of it as a chance to see a top five team in the intimacy of 3,104-seat Firestone Fieldhouse, though Pepperdine’s injury trouble means it probably will be a far less competitive game than it once appeared.

The Kansas game was Ore- gon’s vengeance for the 104-86 loss that stopped the Ducks a step shy of the Final Four in the Midwest Regional Final last season.

Key statistics in Oregon’s 84-78 victory Saturday: The Ducks held Kansas to two fastbreak points, and lost the rebounding battle by only six after being outrebounded by 29 in the NCAA tournament game.

Sure, Kansas doesn’t have Drew Gooden anymore, but Ore- gon doesn’t have Freddie Jones.

The differences were the performances of Oregon forward Luke Jackson and Kansas forward Nick Collison.

Collison did in the Ducks last March with 25 points and 15 rebounds. This time, he was held to seven points and eight rebounds.

Jackson was four for 16 last season and scored 10 points. This time, he scored 26.

Carey’s Recovery

Senque Carey, the New Mexico guard who started his career at Washington, has made considerable progress since a spinal cord injury left him partially paralyzed Nov. 25 when he fell to the floor after taking a charge against Northwestern State.

Carey left his wheelchair Sunday and took about 10 slow, stiff-legged steps and shot some three-pointers, school officials said.

“Our program is rejoicing at the fact that ‘Q’ is taking steps,” Coach Ritchie McKay said. “It’s an answer to the prayers of many. The outcry of support for ‘Q’ and our program has been overwhelming.”

Carey regained some feeling for the first time Saturday and still can move his legs only slightly, but is continuing physical therapy about three hours a day. Doctors remain uncertain how much use he will regain.

Carey says he has not given up the possibility of playing again, but he would require an extra year of eligibility from the NCAA to return next season.