WEST LONG BRANCH – It was just a few miles away from OceanFirst Bank Center that Jack Miller and his younger brother, Corey, combined to score 1,551 points in two seasons playing basketball together at Ocean Township High School.
And on Saturday they’ll be part of a unique homecoming when Monmouth University hosts Charleston.
Jack Miller returns to the area with Charleston, where he’s now a senior guard after being a walk-on who earned a scholarship with the Cougars. Corey Miller is a sophomore walk-on at Monmouth trying to win a similar promotion.
And in the stands will be their father, also Jack, a former assistant coach with the Monmouth women’s basketball program, and mom, Kathleen, who played soccer at Monmouth.
“It should be awesome. My mom played there, dad coached there, brother plays there, so I’m kind of like the only one that didn’t go there,” Jack Miller said. “It should be really good to play him one more time.”
The two actually got on the court against each other twice last season, including the final 1:14 of Charleston’s win in the CAA Tournament quarterfinals last March in Washington, D.C., and for the final 37 seconds of Charleston’s home win over Monmouth during the regular season.
More:Former Ocean basketball star Jack Miller gets surprise Division 1 scholarship
“Last year nobody scored on each other, so the family joke the past year was who is going to finally score if we get in the game together,” Corey Miller said.
Now they’ll do it one more time, with a lot less traveling involved for their parents.
‘We got a lot of buckets together’
By the time his career ended at Ocean, Jack Miller was No. 2 on the Spartans’ all-time scoring list with 1,532 points, behind only Mark Hlatky, and had a program record 243 three-pointers. After his brother graduated, Corey Miller played his final two season at the Pennington School, finishing with 1,441 career points.
More:Monmouth’s 15-game home winning streak snapped by UNC Wilmington: 3 takeaways from 64-55 loss
“It was really cool because playing with your brother you have a different connection. You know where he’s at all the time,” Jack Miller said. “I’d already spent every day of my life with him and so we just paired basketball to that and had that brotherly connection on the court.
“We got a lot of buckets together. I was the first option, he was the second option coming in.”
Corey Miller – who hit both his shots, including a 3-pointer, in Saturday’s game at Delaware – scored 720 points during his freshman and sophomore seasons at Ocean.
“It was great playing with my brother,” Corey Miller said. “That was why I chose to stay home and play at a public school my first two years, to play with him. It was amazing. I’m sure we would both say the same thing. We won’t forget it for the rest of our lives. It was good.”
It was during the summer prior to his junior season at Charleston that coach Pat Kelsey decided to put Jack on scholarship. Now he’s sharing everything he learned as his his brother is trying to do the same thing at Monmouth.
“I was kind of telling him the path that I have been on and what it takes to earn a scholarship,” Jack Miller said. “It’s always being ready for the opportunity that might come. My dad always told us when we were younger, ‘better to be ready for the opportunity, even if it doesn’t come, then to be unprepared when it does come.’ “
Added Corey Miller: “He would just say it was a daily grind, some days are better than others but we know what we signed up for. You have to be that one teammate that shows up at practice every day, shows up at games every day. You might not be doing as much as you like, some days are rough but you’ve got to show up every day and be that one teammate everyone can count on.”
Living the dream
For Jack Miller, who wants to follow his father into coaching, the past four seasons have been nothing short of master class on the subject. He soaked up everything he could as Kelsey led Charleston to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, before leaving for the Louisville job.
Now he’s watching and learning from the former Louisville coach now at Charleston – Chris Mack, who took Xavier to the Sweet 16 three times and was a national coach of the year. He coached Louisville for four seasons.
Mack and Louisville were No. 1 in the nation for two weeks during the 2019-20 season
“I think it’s been great, and it’s good for me to get have a new coach, a different feel and learn a whole new system, just to have a feel of what other coaches like to do,” Jack Miller said. “And just to be around a coach who has been No. 1 in the country and has made deep runs in March Madness. He has been at the highest levels so it has been kind of a blessing.”
Charleston comes in with a 12-3 record and is 71-15 over the past three seasons.
“He’s living my dream,” the elder Miller said. “I was a coach at Monmouth, Seton Hall and Rider for 13 years, but I started late. I started at 28. He’s 23 and he has Mack and Kelsey on his resume. We text every day and I talk to Corey every day, and their basketball knowledge is incredible. They’re teaching me new stuff now.”
Miller was also the head coach at Ocean when his kids were young. He teaches at the Ocean Township Intermediate School, where he jumped in this winter to coach the girls’ basketball team.
“My dad loves talking about our experiences,” Jack Miller said. “He likes to pick our brains…we exchange texts every night.”
As for Saturday’s game, what’s certain is that the Miller family will be a winner, regardless of the final score.
Stephen Edelson is a USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey sports columnist who has been covering athletics in the state and at the Jersey Shore for over 35 years. Contact him at: @SteveEdelsonAPP; sedelson@gannettnj.com.
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