The View From a No. 2 Seed

Like a lot of college basketball players, the dominoes for Alec Millender fell pretty quickly last spring. On May 13, his IU Indianapolis coach Paul Corsaro lost his job, and by the next day, Millender’s name was in the portal — nothing terribly surprising.

The real stunner actually came on X, two days later, with a tweet from @portal_updates, with the news about his suitors. The list of interested schools in a guy who started his college basketball career at Division II Wayne State? Well, there was Arkansas State, Samford, West Georgia, Indiana State, Cleveland State, Florida A&M, Southeast Missouri State, Houston Christian, Elon and Temple.

Temple would seem like a nice step up. But there was one more school on the list — Connecticut. Yes, that Connecticut.

A week or so later, the announcement came in the form of an Instagram post with one word — “COMMITTED.” Three different photos of Millender in a UConn jersey, the central one being of him with a basketball in his hands and a look of elation on his face. Screaming like someone who couldn’t believe his luck. Like someone who made his luck.

Scroll through the other videos and pictures that are part of the post, and you’ll find a montage that includes Millender holding on to a national championship trophy, which Dan Hurley’s teams have earned in two of the past three seasons.

Now I wasn’t sad at all, only thrilled for the young man. Someone who’s going places in life and has the work ethic and attitude to ensure that his goals happen.

If I was surprised by an outcome this extreme, it certainly wasn’t because Millender had been bad in Indianapolis. Perhaps he was a little overlooked on a team that won 10 games and went 6-14 in the Horizon League. Those numbers in and of themselves don’t sound great, but it was the most wins the program had achieved since 2018-19, which also happened to be former Arizona point guard Jason Gardner’s last season at the helm.

Millender had started 27 of his 32 games in Indianapolis and averaged just over eight points a game while shooting just under 44% from the three-point line. His assist-to-turnover ranked 12th in the country.

If he didn’t get that much attention for his efforts, perhaps it was because his two teammates, veterans Paul Zilinskas and Jarvis Walker, were doing most of the scoring (18 and 16 points per game, respectively), and youngsters Keenan Garner (8 points and 6 rebounds this season at Central Michigan) and DeSean Goode (who led the Horizon League in field goal percentage this year at Robert Morris) were showing glimpses of what the program’s future might look like, had they stayed.

One person who didn’t sleep on what Millender brought to IU Indy’s team last season was Reese McGinsie, the program’s Director of Basketball Operations for Millender’s lone season in Indianapolis.  

“I personally believe that Alec Millender was a Power [Four] point guard. His IQ of the game, he was the smartest basketball player on the floor. Every day of practice, he gave the best energy … I just didn’t think he got enough shots.”

McGinsie said Millender also brought an intangible that doesn’t show up in box scores: his humor. A guy who lightens the mood when it needs to be lightened.

Power Four is one thing, but UConn is quite another.

Millender’s sister, Ashton Millender, is on the women’s coaching staff at DePaul. Alec recalls being in her office when he first learned that UConn had reached out.

“We basically went silent,” he said. “But we were jumping around. Like it was one of those silent, type of, almost, ‘what is going on?!’ feelings.”

Millender has since had a great view of the Huskies’ 18-game winning streak earlier this season, playing in 16 games for his final collegiate team, scoring nine total points and making one three-pointer. Obviously his role was a little different with UConn than it was at IU Indy. So was it worth it?

 ”I knew there would be a trade off,” Millender admitted. “I took my visit and when recruiting was going on, they let me know, like, ‘We’re not promising anything. The opportunity is there, but it’s gonna be hard for you to get on the court and, you know, earn playing time.’ But UConn, it’s an opportunity of a lifetime. It really is. And I knew, like I could go somewhere, another mid-major, small college and be the man. But what goals were was I trying to reach? I thought UConn were national championship contenders, and ultimately I wanted to experience a high-major level of basketball. I felt like, in the long run, UConn would suit me better in life. I thought it would open doors for me outside of basketball and within basketball, you know, just being around great coaches and great other players, and seeing that stage and being on that stage.”

Per the NCAA Tournament bracket that was released last night, Millender and the Huskies secured the No. 2 seed in the East and will take on No. 15 Furman late on Friday, March 20.

To get Millender back to Indianapolis for this year’s Final Four, UConn would need to get through a part of the bracket that includes No. 1 seeded Duke, No. 3 Michigan State, No. 4 Kansas, No. 5 St. John’s, who beat UConn two out of three times this season, No. 6 Louisville and No. 7 UCLA.

There’s nothing easy about that path, but easy isn’t why Millender went to UConn.

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