Hysier Miller stuck with his hometown Temple Owls when others didn’t — and he’s thriving

After a 2022-23 season that the Temple men’s basketball team wanted to forget, five key players elected to transfer. One player who entered the portal but chose to stay in his hometown was guard Hysier Miller.

Four of those transfers are at programs that will likely be playing in March Madness. Meanwhile, the only way this Owls team will dance in March is with a conference championship. Still, Miller decided to stay home, something he believes will lead him to his goals.

“I feel like it was the best decision for me,” Miller said. “I feel like me and my teammates connect really well. Maybe we’re not getting the results we want early on, but I feel like we’re building and we’re still getting better day by day. So I think this was the best decision for me and it allows me to grow and become a better person.”

Last season under Aaron McKie, the former Neumann Goretti star was used more as a facilitator than in a scoring role. Miller was fifth on the Owls in scoring with 8.6 points per game last season, but he led the team in assists, at nearly four per game.

» READ MORE: Temple’s offense, while resilient, must produce better entering conference play

With all those transfers departing, Miller continues to lead the team in assists (4.4 per game). But now, he is also the team’s clear No. 1 scoring option, leading the Owls at 17.4 points per game.

“It’s a good opportunity because I get to score a little bit, knowing that I’m capable of doing that and still getting guys the ball,” Miller said. “So I just got to find that perfect balance because of course I have to score, but we got a lot of good players around that can make shots and make plays. So if I can just score and still find them and get those guys involved, that will make the game easier for everyone.”

The pressure on Miller to score more has been amplified as he is also averaging nearly 18 shots per game, seven more than the next player. But head coach Adam Fisher has instilled the confidence in all his players to shoot freely when they get an open look.

“Everybody’s got the confidence to take and make shots,” Miller said. ”Of course we want that freedom, but we got to clean it up a little bit and get smarter shots. But it definitely is a great feeling because if you feel like you can make a shot and you got the confidence to shoot it, it’s basketball.”

While Miller has taken the next step in the scoring department, his Owls entered conference play at 7-6 and dropped its AAC opener to South Florida, 76-68, on Thursday night.

Premier programs like Houston and Cincinnati may have moved on to the Big 12, but the AAC welcomed a Florida Atlantic program from Conference USA that is ranked No. 17 and is coming off a Final Four appearance. Another heavyweight of the conference is familiar foe Memphis, which added former Temple forward Nick Jourdain this past offseason from the portal. The No. 15 Tigers are 12-2 with wins over Michigan, Arkansas, Clemson, and Virginia.

In each of the Owls’ three trips to the AAC tournament under McKie, they left Fort Worth winless. Last season, they finished fifth in the conference but lost in the first round to No. 4 seed Cincinnati. Miller and Temple are hoping to show massive improvements over what they showed in non-conference play.

“I feel good heading into conference play and I feel like over the break, we really cleaned a lot of things up, so I’m excited,” Miller said. “The guys are excited. We got a lot of new guys on our team that are new to the American Conference, so I think it is an exciting time of the year when you start conference play.”