On the Rise: Analysts rave about the skills of Quality Education's Miller

One of the best high-school basketball players in the nation took a circuitous route to Winston-Salem, traveling from the fast lanes of North Chicago, Ill., to the tobacco fields of Fairmont.

But that player, Quincy Miller, is here. And he's the crown jewel of a Quality Education Academy team chock full of gems.

If QEA, a program in only its second season, continues to build its reputation as a national basketball powerhouse, Miller will be recognized as the foundation.

A 16-year-old, reed-thin junior, Miller has sprouted in the past year to reach 6 feet, 10 inches. The growth spurt hasn't cost him his athleticism, and it has enhanced his profile.

"The guy is a talent; he keeps growing," said Dave Telep, the national basketball-recruiting director for Scout.com. "He is getting bigger, and he has all kinds of doses of athleticism. If he plays with intensity 100 percent of the time and commits himself to being a guy that plays as much behind the (3-point) line as he does in the lane, then he has a chance to be special."

Special is the word often used to describe Miller, who has become one of the nation's most coveted college-basketball prospects. Yet Miller -- say those close to him -- has managed to remain grounded.

Miller started his meteoric rise in the summer of 2008, before he enrolled at QEA. That also was when Isaac Pitts -- QEA's coach and athletics director -- got his first look at him, at a 5-Star Basketball Camp in Virginia. Miller, then 15, was 6-5. Pitts was in the process of building QEA's first team.

"I saw him for five minutes and thought, ‘This kid could be No. 1 in the country when he's a senior,' " Pitts said. "And he's No. 2 right now (according to one recruiting analyst)."

During his rapid growth, Miller lost none of his coordination. He can take his defender off the dribble, fire 3-point shots with a surprisingly quick trigger or post up smaller players in the lane.

Miller's wingspan, measured at 7 feet, 2 inches, causes all kinds of shot-swatting, shot-averting trouble.

In fact, about the only thing longer than Miller's arms is his list of college scholarship offers, which reads like a who's who of the nation's top programs.

"Everybody," Miller said when asked who had offered a scholarship. "Everybody except (North) Carolina."

Time for change

Miller was raised in the city of North Chicago and in 2007 was about to enter high school. He said that also was about the time he started to get into trouble.

So Miller called an uncle, Lamont Taylor, who lives in Lumberton, coaches AAU basketball and had remained close to Miller and his family even after his divorce from Miller's aunt.

"What had happened was Quincy called me, he was having some troubles up in Chicago," Taylor said. "He called me saying a lot of his friends were doing, selling drugs, and he just wanted to play basketball. At the time I had never seen him play.

"So I talked with his mother, and two weeks later, he was on a plane coming here."

Taylor enrolled Miller at Class 2-A Fairmont High in Robeson County, an experience that was a little shocking.

"Everything is fast in Chicago, and down here everything is real slow and people are different," Miller said. "I hated it. But then I started getting used to everything. But it was a little country."

Miller established himself as "a talent that was rare," according to Taylor, who said he used his last little bit of money to enroll Miller at 5-Star. It was there that Taylor talked to Pitts about QEA, and Taylor -- who knew Pitts through AAU coaching -- said he felt comfortable enough to enroll his nephew.

Taylor also facilitated the move of Stargell Love, then a budding star, from Lumberton High to QEA. Love, a tough 6-2 point guard, is a senior at QEA and has committed to Baylor.

"I told him if he went to Winston and didn't stay on his books, I was pulling him out and bringing him back to Fairmont," Taylor said. "I am proud to say that since he has been up there, nothing but A's and B's."

Miller, as if he needed more incentive to study, now lives with Tamara Turner, QEA's chief academics officer. Turner said she spends far less time worrying about Miller staying on top of his studies than she does being "extremely vigilant" about those who try to get close to him.

"I never really was into sports," Turner said. "I had no clue the extent people will go. I think he's just a baby and has time before that onslaught. It has just astounded me. The way people are pursuing him. It's a little scary if he didn't have me, or Coach Pitts, who is pretty much like a dad on site, and we are extremely protective.

"He has been good. He is a rare kid who is able to take all of this in stride without getting too caught up in it. He could be like, ‘Hey, I am going to make millions in a little while.' "

Confident yet grounded

Miller doesn't think so much of himself that he feels he is beyond improvement. "Everybody can get better at something," he said.

But he has enough confidence to think he won't get shown up by any high-school player. Telep ranks him as one of the top 10 players in the nation in the class of 2011.

Miller also seems as if he's always having fun. And more than one person, including Taylor, labeled him a "clown."

While playing against Oak Ridge Military Academy last week, Miller smiled his way through the game, barely shutting it down even after being whistled for a technical foul.

On his Twitter account, nearly every entry is basketball related, upbeat and often sprinkled with humor.

"Is UNC really that sorry or is my mind playing tricks on me? Hahaha," he posted Wednesday night.

Miller hasn't narrowed his college choices much, if at all, and he didn't give a direct answer when asked about his plans to reach the NBA.

"However long it takes me to develop," he said. "If it takes a year, I stay a year. If it takes two, you know?

"Some players think about it and get the big head like they are going to the NBA. I don't think about it too much, but it does cross my mind sometimes."

mlinker@wsjournal.com | 727-7324