Jordan Miller raves about the bright future for Wooga Poplar

Miami guard Wooga Poplar has already made a big leap in his sophomore season, but teammate Jordan Miller sees him getting even better. After serving in a bench role last season, Poplar has started every game for the Hurricanes in 2022-23 and been an impact player in many of their big wins.

That included Monday night in an 81-59 victory against Duke. Poplar scored 14 points — including this highlight dunk —on an efficient 6-of-8 shooting and a perfect 2-of-2 on his 3-point attempts. It was the second straight game that Poplar scored 14 points and prompted high praise from Miller in a postgame press conference.

“I think we’ve all said it: Wooga’s gonna be a great player,” Miller said. “He’s only a sophomore. He didn’t get to log a ton of minutes last year. So this is really his first year. I think just the way he’s been able to elevate his game throughout this season just shows a lot of promise. It’s gonna be scary when the game continues to slow down for him this year, next year and the years to come. I think he’s going to be a primary player for Miami in the next couple of seasons.”

Wooga Poplar arrived in Miami in 2021 after playing high school basketball for Math, Civics and Sciences Charter School in Philadelphia. He was considered one of the top players in Pennsylvania by many recruiting outlets, but was unranked according to the On3 Consensus.

Poplar went from averaging 8.6 minutes as a freshman to 22.2 this season. He has helped the Hurricanes to a 19-5 record thus far, averaging 7.8 points and 1.3 steals per contest. The 14 points he scored Monday night tied the most for him in an ACC game this season, as he has reached that mark three times in the past five games.

With his play of late, Poplar is starting to show signs of turning another corner. If he can keep it up, he may have a case to be one of Miami’s best players next season. But for now, he’ll focus on making an impact however he can this year as the Hurricanes look to make another deep run in the NCAA Tournament after advancing to the Elite Eight his freshman season.

Next up for Poplar and Miami is a matchup against Louisville at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday.