Miami Hurricanes center Rodney Miller to redshirt 2018-19

Miami Hurricanes Junior Center Rodney Miller who has been used sparingly during his first two seasons in Coral Gables will redshirt the 2018-19 season according to Head Basketball Coach Jim Larranaga.

Miller was expected to be behind Senior center Ebuka Izundu and Junior forward-center Dewan Hernandez this season. After declaring for the 2018 NBA draft, Hernandez returned to the Miami Hurricanes for the 2018-19 season. Hernandez is a strong candidate to leave early for next year’s draft.

Miller was a three-star recruit in the Class of 2016 from New York who played in high school at the prestigious Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. He was the 150th ranked player and 18th ranked center in the Class of 2016.

In two seasons with the Miami Hurricanes, Miller has played only 109 minutes scoring 32 points and grabbing 18 rebounds. He was in the best shape of his career. Larranaga said Miller was down to 250 pounds. He had been as high as 275 in previous seasons.

As it stands now Miller will have a chance to challenge to be the starting center in 2019-20. He will battle with 6’10 Redshirt Freshman Deng Gak. Miami could also decide with a more perimeter oriented attack with stretch four Sam Waardenburg playing center.

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Generated 11/1/2018.

Miami brings in three-star power forward Anthony Walker. They are heavily recruiting 6’10 center Vernon Carey Jr, the nation’s number two ranked recruit in the Class of 2019. Carey’s father was an offensive lineman on the 2001 Miami National Championship team. Duke is the favorite to sign Carey.

Miller had gotten off to a good start during practice this month but with his playing time limited Larranaga spoke to Miller about redshirting this season. The Hurricanes Head Coach discussed the decision to redshirt Miller during media day on Thursday.

"“Rodney Miller was practicing great had a long talk with them and decided that the best for his long-term productivity was to redshirt him this year with Dewan and Buka basically sharing the five position that would have put Rodney as the third string back up Center.We felt like with another year of improvement he’s gotten stronger, he’s lost weight, his free throws are improving a lot of different areas of his game that he can concentrate on so he can be much more of a contributor next season and the year after… I think he’ll certainly be one of our better players.”"

With Walker and combo guard Isaiah Wong already committed for 2019-20 the future for Miami basketball looks good. The future of the Miami frontcourt beyond this season will rest with Miller, Waardenburg, Gak and Walker.

If Hernandez returns and/or Miami signs Carey for next season the Hurricanes could have one of the best frontcourts in the country. The Hurricanes are likely to add one or more players to Wong and Walker to the 2019 signing class.

With Johnson, Izundu and Lawrence graduating and Hernandez a strong possibility to move on, Miami has at least one more scholarship open for the 2019-20 basketball roster.