Matt McMahon raves about return of Adam Miller after knee injury

LSU guard Adam Miller is getting closer and closer to his debut for the Tigers with the season right around the corner. Miller transferred from LSU after an impressive freshman season at Illinois, but missed the entirety of the 2020-2021 season after suffering a torn ACL. Tigers head coach Matt McMahon spoke about Miller’s return to play and the excitement around him finally suiting up for LSU soon.

“Adam has been awesome. Only been with him seven months now. Relentless competitor. Very tough. I have great admiration for his work ethic and commitment and discipline to get back from the devastating knee injury he suffered about this time a year ago,” McMahon said.

After months of rehab, Miller was cleared for full contact and live play a few months ago, and participated in the team’s most recent scrimmage this weekend.

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“First inter-squad scrimmage this past weekend with officials. He’s only been cleared for live play for about nine weeks now, but I think his progress has been off the charts,” McMahon said. “And I think that’s a great credit to Shawn Eddy, our trainer, and medical staff, and even more importantly, Adam’s commitment to do the work to get back.”

Miller was a highly touted recruit out of high school, named Illinois Mr.Basketball and ranked the No. 2 player in the state and the No. 8 point guard in the country in his 2020 class according to On3 Consensus. In his freshman season with the Fighting Illini, he started in all 31 games averaging 8.1 points per game, which ranked fifth amongst Big Ten freshman, and also led all conference freshman with 52 made three-pointers.

“But I’m really excited about him. An absolute joy to get to coach him. Incredibly smart, high basketball IQ. Really analyzes every aspect of the game.” McMahon explained. “So it’s good for me as a coach because you have to make sure you know what you’re talking about and you’re prepared because he’s going to have great questions every day. He wants to get better every day.”

McMahon and the Tigers are hoping that Miller comes back from his injury healthy and ready to contribute and make an immediate impact for them not only on the court, but off the court as well.

“I think the next step for him, similar to what I just said about Justice, is taking a step forward as a leader of our team. I think he has great respect and credibility in our locker room because he is such a high-level player and because of his work ethic. And now for us as a team, we need some guys to step forward into that leadership role, and I think he’s a great candidate there,” McMahon said.