Fall Offseason Brings Good, Bad News For Harvard

Harvard men’s basketball coach Tommy Amaker has added a third player to his latest recruiting class.

Corbin Miller, a senior at Brighton High School (Salt Lake City, Utah) made a verbal commitment to the Crimson while on a visit to campus Saturday evening.

“Obviously, the academics were part of it. Also, I felt really good with the basketball program. It just fit me,” Miller said of the reasons for his decision.

“The bottom line is, he loves the way that Tommy Amaker plays out there,” added his father, Bret Miller, who is also an AAU coach. “From a basketball standpoint, coach Amaker was kind of the turning point, and then Harvard speaks for itself.”

The 6’2”, 175-lb. guard had been considering offers from Stanford, Boston College, Arizona State, Gonzaga, Utah, Utah State, BYU, and UNLV, among others. Vanderbilt had been recruiting him heavily but had not yet given him an offer.

Miller carries a rating of 90 by ESPN, which ranks him the No. 56 shooting guard nationally, and the Intermountain Hoops Scouting Service places him among the top five members of Utah’s class of 2011.

Though not the quickest player, Miller is a prolific shooter who averaged 16.1 points and 2.7 three-pointers per game as a junior last season.

“He’s a big-time shooter—he can shoot off the dribble; he can catch and shoot,” the elder Miller said. “He’s got NBA range...he has a high basketball IQ.”

It currently appears that Harvard will have the marksman’s services on the court for only a year before he takes time off from school.

“I’m thinking I’ll play a year, and then go on a [Church of Latter-day Saints] mission, so I”ll be gone for two years,” Miller said. “And then I”ll come back to Harvard.”

A 4.0 GPA-student, Miller will play both point guard and off the ball for an up-tempo Crimson team.

“I”m more than just a shooter,” said Miller, who joins Jonah Travis (Minneapolis, Minn.) and Kenyatta Smith (Brea, Calif.) in Harvard’s future class of 2015.

Miller was accompanied by two other high school seniors during his weekend trip to Cambridge.

One such visitor was Wesley Saunders, a 6’6”, 205-lb. small forward at Windward High School (Los Angeles, Calif.) ranked No. 20 at his position and No. 80 overall in the nation by Rivals. Saunders confirmed yesterday that he is down to five schools: Colorado, Harvard, Penn, Loyola Marymount, and USC.

“I’ve taken all my officials—I visited Penn, Colorado, Harvard and went on unofficials to USC and LMU,” Saunders said. “I’m just going to sit down with my parents and try to figure out which school I’ll be spending the next four years at.”

Saunders said all his options are pretty much even at this point and that his decision will be coming some time soon after this week.

“I really liked it,” the talented wing said of his most recent visit. “I got to see all Harvard had to offer, and I was really impressed by it.”

Saunders brought up a number of similarities and differences when asked to compare the two Ivies on his list.

“I felt like there was a better connection with the players; I thought the talent level was a little higher at Harvard,” Saunders said. “I thought that Penn had more of a social environment than Harvard did, just a more social school. Obviously the academics are really good at both schools.”

The final player welcomed by Amaker and his staff was Mike Turner. A 6’8”, 205-lb. combo forward at Chicago University High, Turner is currently evaluating his options, according to Troy Caldwell, his high school coach.

“Our goal and plan is to have him sign in the early signing period in November,” Caldwell said.

Turner’s top six is currently Penn, Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, Valparaiso, and UIC. The major players are currently Penn and Harvard, Caldwell confirmed.

“He had a great visit down at Harvard,” Caldwell said.

Ranked in the top 30 in the state by several writers, Turner is “a highly mobile and active post who has the ability to take command on the floor, both with his scoring inside and his ability to rebound,” according to ChicagoHoops.com.

—Staff writer Dennis J. Zheng can be reached at dzheng12@college.harvard.edu.