Names to know for March: Maci Morris and Macy Miller
Way to shoot!
If you’re looking for a player who could bust some brackets in March, you might want to bet on Maci. Or Macy.
Maci Morris and Macy Miller are both 6-foot senior guards on teams that have Sweet-16 level talent. Morris’s Kentucky Wildcats are 15-3 with wins over Tennessee, UCLA, and UNC. Miller’s South Dakota State Jackrabbits are 12-6 and have beaten Drake, Central Michigan, and Green Bay. Kentucky is currently ranked 16th in the AP Poll and 15th in Her Hoop Stats rating, while South Dakota State has received votes in the AP Poll and is rated 26th by Her Hoop Stats.
Morris is Kentucky’s second-leading scorer this season with 16.8 points in 27.3 minutes per game. She also adds 3.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 47 percent from behind the arc. Despite being the Wildcats’ leader in usage rate—28% of the team’s possessions end with her shooting a field goal or free throw or turning the ball over—she has scored an efficient 1.15 points per scoring attempt. She has led her team from unranked to start the season to three straight weeks of being ranked 16th. Last week, in Kentucky’s win at then-No. 13 Tennessee, Morris had 27 points and moved into tenth place on Kentucky’s all-time scoring list.
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Miller was South Dakota State’s leading scorer last season and is again this season, averaging 17.1 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. She uses just under 25% of South Dakota State’s possessions, second-most on the team, but still manages to score 1.29 points per scoring attempt and make nearly 46 percent of her 3-pointers. In an overtime loss to rival South Dakota on January 6, Miller poured in a season-high 31 points on 11-17 shooting and added 6 rebounds and 5 assists. (Coincidentally, Morris’s season-high in points is also 31, apparently fueled by a pregame breakfast of biscuits and gravy.)
Their similarities continue beyond their names and scoring prowess. Both players come from basketball families: Miller is the daughter of former Dakota Wesleyan great Alan Miller and the cousin of former Florida Gator and NBA player Mike Miller, while Morris is part of a family that has collectively scored an estimated 20,000 points. And they’ve both faced adversity on their way up the scoring charts at their in-state schools. Morris told LEX 18 News that, growing up in Eastern Kentucky, “people doubted me like crazy and said I would never be able to play [at UK].” In Miller’s case, two ACL tears—in her left knee in high school and right knee as a college junior in December 2016—left her facing months of arduous rehab and forced her to redshirt the 2016-17 season.
Through all of that, the two players have ended up in a similar place: it’s January of their final collegiate seasons, and as both of their teams begin conference play, they’re chasing down not only conference titles and favorable NCAA tournament seeds, but also individual history. Morris is eight points away from ninth place on Kentucky’s all-time scoring list, while Miller became SDSU’s career scoring leader in December and could set the Summit League record by the end of the season.
With all of these similarities, it may be difficult to keep these two elite scorers straight. But whichever way you spell Macy, their presence often results in a W-I-N for their teams. It’d be wise to get to know them now rather than being caught off-guard if they continue their winning ways in March.
(All statistics are courtesy of Her Hoop Stats unless otherwise specified and represent games through January 15.)