GREENSBORO, N.C. – Doing it was easier than describing it for UNC Greensboro (UNCG) senior guard Isaiah Miller.
During UNCG's 86-65 road victory over rival North Carolina A&T Tuesday night, Miller rocked the Corbett Center Tuesday night with a dunk. This was no ordinary throwdown. With the Spartans comfortably ahead and six minutes, five seconds remaining, Miller stole a pass and saw he had a clear path to the basket.
Miller took off like an airplane.
"I got the steal on Kameron (Langley)," Miller said. "I saw I had an open lane and I saw everybody just stop. I was getting tired of the windmill phase, so I was like let me try something new here. So, I just threw it off the backboard and put it in there."
The nonchalant description doesn't quite do justice to the epic highlight Miller created. At a shade over 6 feet, 1 inch, Miller has rocket boosters for calves that enable him to soar to stratospheric levels that are just amazing.
Miller's dunk was worthy of an entry in a slam-dunk contest. With full speed, Miller rose from just inside of the free-throw line, just above the "MEAC" in the lane, and tossed the ball on the backboard where it perfectly ricocheted to him. He caught the ball in one motion and flushed it stern finality.
Miller's teammates were impressed, which is saying something because he does astonishing things during practices and pregame warmups all the time.
"Crazy," Keyshaun Langley said when asked what he thought about Miller's dunk. "Insane. I didn't know he was going to do that. I probably could've done that but I wasn't in at the right time, but Zay does the most explosive stuff I've ever seen. That was a great dunk."
In the pantheon of Miller dunks during his UNCG career, this is probably a top-three moment, which is saying something. Especially since he posterizes defenders regularly.
Miller takes steals in the backcourt and soars in to dunk with authority. In the Spartans' last game against Elon, Miller drove the baseline and flushed it in the face of a defender, which brought energized UNCG.
Not that he can ever predict what dunks he'll execute during a game, Miller's confidence was high that he would finish this particular move.
"I mean, I do it all the time in warmups and I was like I might as well try it now," Miller said. "I wanted to try and do something off the backboard like a reverse windmill. I didn't have enough time for that one. But yeah, I came through with that one today."
More important, for Miller was the fact that the Spartans won their fourth consecutive contest with a balanced performance that featured six players in double figures, a season-high 22 assists, and a school-record 63 rebounds.
Not that he's concerned with individual statistics, but Miller moved into a tie for sixth place on UNCG's all-time scoring list with Scott Hartzell. They each have scored 1,539 points. He cherishes the opportunity to spend time with his teammates, wear the revered blue-and-gold UNCG jersey, and impact the game on both ends of the floor.
"It's exciting to be able to get our team going," Miller said. "God gave me that ability, and I am very blessed and use it to the best of my ability as we keep going. It was fun tonight to see everybody do their job and get a win."
