North Carolina State University Athletics
Miller Returns to Practice
2/13/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Tony Haynes
RALEIGH, N.C. -- It would appear that NC State guard Archie Miller's long recovery from a stress fracture in his left leg is nearly complete. Now the question is how long will it be before he's ready to contribute again.The 5-10 redshirt junior, who hasn't played in a game since seeing just five minutes of playing time against Duke on January 10, made a brief return to the practice floor on Monday. But it's still unknown whether Miller will be far enough along to help the Wolfpack when it hosts Clemson on Wednesday night.
"I really can't say for sure," said Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek. "He's in the very first stages of trying to come back. He worked for about 20 minutes [on Monday] and he has a real comeback trail in front of him. He was able to shoot a little bit and we put him in a five on five situation just for a few minutes. It was really an abbreviated session for him."
When he left the lineup, Miller was converting on 62 percent of his three-point shots to lead the nation in that category. He was also sharing the point guard duties with sophomore Cliff Crawford. With Miller out, shooting guard Anthony Grundy has been asked to slide over and give the Pack some minutes at the point. During that same period, Grundy's offensive production has tailed off somewhat.
"A scoring role for the point guard on our team is definitely a secondary option," Miller said. "The point guard on our team has to run the show and get guys involved. When Anthony is at the point, he has to sacrifice some of his scoring to make other guys better. But for him to go strong down the stretch, he needs to be at the off-guard position where he can make plays for us."
Obviously, Miller's absence has hurt the Pack, and in no game was he missed more than during NC State's 72-69 loss at Clemson one month ago. Without Miller's three-point shooting to worry about, the Tigers dared the Wolfpack to knock down perimeter shots by employing a sagging man-to-man defense. The strategy worked as NC State made just eight of 32 from the arc.
"They really do employ a different strategy than other teams in the league," Miller said. "They kind of clog everything up and say shoot it. In a way, if you're a shooter, it's kind of insulting."
As much as Sendek would love to be able to use Miller against Clemson the second time around, he's prepared to resist the temptation if its obvious Miller isn't ready to go.
"The only imperative thing is that we do what's best for Archie," Sendek said. "Obviously, we're a better shooting team when we have his gun in the lineup, but we would have liked to have had him all along. With this just being the first stages of him coming back, we just have to do what's best for him."
Prior to being diagnosed with the injury, Miller was averaging 11.8 points and 2.6 assists per game. He had made nine straight starts before going to the sidelines.
