The Duke Miles Effect
December 18, 2023
Duke Miles has been nothing short of spectacular to start the season for
Head Coach Alan Huss and the High Point University Panthers. Duke’s
playmaking and flashy scoring ability on the offensive side of the ball has
been a massive energy boost for the rest of the team. Duke is hoping that
energy boost will help the Panthers win the Big South Conference tournament
for the first time in program history.
Born and raised in Montgomery, Ala., the 6’3” redshirt junior guard spent his
first three seasons at Troy University, located 43 miles from his hometown,
before transferring to High Point University.
From the very first moment Duke visited HPU and stepped foot on campus, he knew he felt at home. “Well when I first took my visit, I just instantly knew that this was going to be a better experience and a better environment for me. The coaches and everybody just made me feel like home because feeling like home is really important to me,” said Duke.
The adjustment was difficult for Duke, leaving the city he has known his entire life to travel 477.5 miles away to High Point, N.C., “It was a big adjustment simply because I have been an Alabama native my whole life. I have never been outside of Alabama really too much and coming up here to North Carolina like I said I am big on family and support so not having my family here was a big adjustment for me,” said Duke.
The bond that Duke built with his teammates as soon as he stepped foot on campus helped that adjustment be a little less difficult, “The bond here just instantly connected. It was crazy because we all came from different places. We got people coming from Cameroon, Canada, France, deep south, up north, so it was just different and it is crazy how we all connected and loved each other for one and all,” said Duke.
Duke’s adjustment to his new home as a Panther has been a positive one as Duke currently leads the Big South Conference in points at 19.1 a game, field goal percentage at 58.8 percent, and free throw percentage at 90.9 percent.
Duke has been shooting the ball at an extremely high-level thus far this season especially for a 6’3” guard. He is currently 7th in the entire country at the guard position in field goal percentage.
The numbers Duke is putting up this season are a big increase from the 9.2 points per game, 44.5 percent shooting, and the 73.5 percentage from the free throw line that Duke averaged in his 49 games played at Troy University.
The trust that the HPU coaching staff and the rest of the players have put into Duke leading the team has been a huge reason for the increase and outstanding numbers he has put up thus far this season, “Opportunity and coaches believing in me, and not only coaches but my teammates. They see me putting the extra work in, and they trust me to go out there and make plays for them and set them up,” said Duke.
While Duke has been scoring the ball at an elite level this season, he has also found a way to get all of his teammates around him involved. Duke is averaging 4.2 assists per game which is third in the Big South Conference with an assist to turnover ratio of 2.8 which is second in the conference.
Duke knows that getting his teammates involved will be the key to HPU’s success going forward the rest of the season, “offensively just moving, sharing the ball, and making sure we get everyone the ball because being a team is big on that. When everybody shares, everybody gets love, so that is the biggest thing for us,” said Duke.
HPU started the season off with a 3-3 record, but have since played some of their best basketball as HPU has won five out of their last six outings including wins over Morgan State, North Florida and Western Carolina. HPU’s only loss in their last six outings came to Georgia (7-3).
“After we had the losses early in the season, we came together and we all talked as a team. We just do not want to have that losing feeling anymore. We all came together and we started communicating better and everybody has just been playing hard,” said Duke.
HPU currently stands at 8-4, with their last game resulting in a loss to Georgia, 66-58, as Duke contributed 15 points and three rebounds. The road ahead for the Panthers will not be getting any easier the next couple weeks and heading into the new year. The difficult road ahead starts in their next contest against UNC Greensboro (8-2), Tuesday. Dec. 19 at 7:00 p.m. ET.
Big South Conference play begins Jan. 3 for the Panthers as they take on Radford on the road.
These next few weeks are crucial for the Panthers and their goal to win the Big South Conference Tournament, and make it to the NCAA Tournament in March which the Panthers have yet to do in program history.
“My expectation is we are going to win the conference and make a big appearance in the dance. I feel like as long as we stay the course, trust the process, and do everything we are going to do, everything should work out,” said Duke.
Duke and the rest of the players know that without hard work, none of their team goals for this season will be accomplished, “Having grit. Every day we’re going to have grit. We’re going to go to practice, we’re going to attack recovery, weights, everything, we’re going to attack everything like we never had anything, that’s the biggest thing,” said Duke.
That hard work has shown especially as of recent as Duke has scored 20 points in five out of his past seven games including 25 points in two out of his last three contests against Western Carolina and NC A&T. Duke will be looking to put up similar numbers against UNC Greensboro and every opponent going forward the rest of the season as he and the Panthers look to do what no other HPU men’s basketball team has done in program history: make it to the NCAA tournament.