Alec Millender continues to uplift UConn men, this time with his own March Madness moment
PHILADELPHIA – Furman guard Eddrin Bronson was doing anything he could to create separation with the ball and set up the Paladins’ offense in the first half of Friday’s NCAA Tournament opener against UConn, but Alec Millender wouldn’t give him any breathing room. Bronson had no choice but to give the ball up near half court and Jayden Ross read it like a book, reaching into the passing lane and knocking the ball free. In one motion he went to the floor, collected the ball, rolled over and tossed it up to Millender to start an opportunity in transition.
The little-used, third-string point guard went straight to the basket, drew a bump from Bronson and flicked the ball toward the hoop. The ball hit off the very top of the backboard, came down off the front of the rim and bounced straight through the net. “Special moment,” Ross said.
“Credit to him, I saw he was pressuring heavy by half court, so I was like, ‘Let me feed off that energy a little bit. ’ Was able to get into the passing lane, got tripped up, thought I was gonna have an open court, wasn’t the case, kind of lost it again, dove on it and found Alec immediately… He was able to go finish the play through contact. It was an amazing moment for a guy like that, man, he’s put his heart and soul into this program for us and it doesn’t always get recognized.
So for him to be able to have that moment, it meant a lot for us. I would say it gave us a little bit of momentum in the game, it was definitely a cool moment. ” Millender played in 104 college basketball games and scored 1,082 career points at Wayne State (Mich.
) and IU Indianapolis before he came to UConn and accepted a role that wouldn’t involve much game action. He played in the Division II NCAA Tournament once as a freshman at Wayne State, scoring 15 points in a first-round loss to Minnesota State-Moorhead , but he joined the Huskies with a goal to win, to experience the Big Dance on a contending team. An end-of-the-bench, culture piece with a hilarious personality, Millender didn’t expect that he would see meaningful minutes in a win-or-go-home game.