PHOTOS BY BROOKS NUANEZ & JASON BACAJ
BOISE, Idaho — Jase Coburn was catching up with scores and watching the end of a few games around the Big Sky Conference when he saw something so stunning, he could hardly believe it.
Portland State’s head coach saw Jed Miller standing on the free throw line with a chance to ice a Montana State win over Weber State in Bozeman in January of this season. Four Wildcats lined up on the free throw blocks while Miller’s other four Bobcat teammates were already back on defense.
First, something rare happened. Miller missed a free throw. Prior to that miss, he’d only missed six free throws all season. He entered that game as a 90 percent free throw shooter and ended his senior season at 80 percent.
Next, something rarer happened. Miller scrambled into the fray, beating all four Weber State players to the ball to secure the most unlikely of offensive rebounds.
“I truly couldn’t believe my eyes,” said Coburn, who was named the Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year last week after leading PSU to the outright regular-season league title.
“There’s four dudes in there, not one Montana State guy, he misses the free throw and he somehow gets the rebound. He gets fouled again, makes the two free throws, they ice the game. Just, wow.
“It’s just stuff like that that that kid is better than anybody at. He’s one of the best players in the league.”
For a senior point guard at Montana State to be considered one of the best players in the conference is not rare. Miller is just the latest in a string of stellar floor generals for the Bobcats.
From the year Marcus Colbert earned second-team All-Big Sky honors in 2016 followed by Harald Frey’s run of four straight all-league selections, to Xavier Bishop’s breakout junior & senior season in 2021 and 2022 followed by Darius Brown’s steady senior season the following year, to Robert Ford III’s virtuoso senior campaign in 2024, the Bobcats have had steadying, dynamic presences at point guard for more than a decade straight.
But if anyone outside the Bobcat basketball program told you that the next torch bearer would be Jed Miller, they’re either psychic or lying.
Miller played 815 minutes in his entire career entering his senior season. To put that in perspective, he’s played 1,160 minutes this season, averaging more than 34 minutes per game. He’s scored more points in 18 conference games this season (308) than he did in his entire career (197) entering this season.
He’s gone from a player who didn’t seem to have a chance to be a contributor at the Division I level to a steady backup who might be relegated to role player status and now to one of the best players in the entire Big Sky Conference.
“He’s an unbelievable player,” Coburn said. “The things he’s been able to grow into during his time at Montana State have been awesome. I have nothing but respect for that kid. He plays really hard. He makes the right decisions. His intangibles are off the chart.
“It’s refreshing to see a kid, much like our seniors, to see a kid who grinds it out with a program the whole entire time and to see he can get better and see that he can turn himself into an all-conference player through work ethic. That kid is unbelievable.”
On Friday, Miller stamped his super senior season by earning unanimous first-team all-conference honors. He finished the regular-season averaging 15.2 points per game, including 17.1 in conference play. At 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds, he somehow managed to average 6.2 rebounds per contest, only half a rebound less per game than Portland State 6-foot-8 jumping jack Keyon Kensie for second in the league. Miller ranked eighth in the league in rebounds per game in conference play.
(Portland State senior Tre-Vaughn Minott averaged 9.1 rebounds per game to lead the league and win Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year for the second season in a row).
“Jed Miller! I have a lot of respect for Jed Miller,” Northern Colorado head coach Steve Smiley said excitedly. “He’s been unbelievable. They’ve had a great year. They’ve battled through a lot of great injuries and different things. One of the reasons they’ve continued to move forward is Jed. That guy is a winner.
“You look at the stats and that stuff is all great but his impact is that much deeper. He’s one of those guys who has stayed the course in the program, he’s earned his way through. He wasn’t always the guy playing 35 minutes a game. It probably matters a lot to him. I just think he has a bunch of winning in him and he’s turned into a phenomenal player.”
Miller ranked fourth in the league during conference play in minutes per game (36.7) and he is the only player in the conference that ranked in the top 10 in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage (46.7 percent), 3-point field goal percentage (42.1 percent), 3-pointers per game (2.9), free throw percentage (80 percent), and steals (1.7 per game).
More importantly, a Montana State team that was ravaged by injury and only has seven fully healthy players with the Big Sky Conference tournament starting this weekend found a way to finish 12-6 in conference play, alone in second place. The Bobcats swept the rivalry Montana Grizzlies, split with first-place Portland State, and sit two wins away from a 20-win campaign for the first time in the Matt Logie era.
Fellow senior Patrick McMahon has been solid (13.6 points per game), earning second-team all-league honors on Friday. Jeremiah Davis has been a defensive stopper, evidenced by his presence on the Big Sky’s All-Defensive team. And Washington transfer Christian King (12.3 points per game, 53 made 3-pointers on 35.6 percent shooting) has been an impactful addition.
But Miller is the catalyst. He’s the one that has MSU in contention for its fourth NCAA Tournament bid in the last five seasons.
“Jed has probably been the most important element of this whole thing,” Logie said last week. “Everyone has a different definition of a conference MVP or a player of the year but there’s been NOBODY that’s been more valuable to a basketball team in the Big Sky than Jed Miller. I will go to bat on that argument against anybody.
(Terri Miller Jr. from Portland State won league MVP after leading the Vikings to an outright Big Sky championship, their first since 2009.)
“Jed has been rock solid in terms of his production, his leadership, his attitude. He’s been the heart and soul of this group. So when trying times came, he stepped up to the bell and gave guys confidence that we could continue to play a championship level of basketball.”
And who could’ve seen this coming?
Danny Sprinkle called Miller “unassuming” when the Bobcats signed him in April of 2022, but also acknowledged Miller’s range and his scoring ability. But he looked out of place on the uber-athletic rosters Sprinkle put out his final two seasons leading his alma mater. At times, Miller seemed like a placeholder even if he came to Bozeman as an elite scoring machine.
Miller was one of the best scorers in all of California Division 2A his senior year in 2021 at Agoura Hills High. He poured in 44 points in a championship game loss in the Southern Section divisional. That came on the heels of rolling up a school-record 62 points to reach the title game.
Agoura Hills is north of Los Angeles near West Lake Village, Calabasas and Simi Valley. It’s about 45 minutes from downtown LA without traffic and 90 minutes with traffic.
“We call it the bubble,” Miller said. “It’s a great place to grow up, a great place to live. It’s super peaceful there. There’s a good amount of high schools in that area that are super competitive. It’s amazing, I’m super grateful to grow up there.”
Miller finished his senior year by averaging 21.4 points per game. He was a D2 all-state first-team selection and the Ventura County Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year. Yet his recruiting was almost non-existent because of his slight build, unassuming persona and the global pandemic that wrecked recruiting opportunities from coast to coast.
He decided to go to Southern California Academy for a prep year, essentially taking a basketball only year without using an extra year of eligibility. School was not a part of the equation. Just hoops. So Miller committed to his craft. Many of his teammates at the Academy had to move to campus because they were from different parts of the state, the country or the world.
“Grinding, playing basketball, hoops multiple hours a day, all day, every day,” Miller said. “It was like Division I without the school part. It definitely helped me grow my skill set a lot.”
When he signed with Montana State in April of 2022, he and Brown III were the only players Sprinkle added with MSU coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1996.
“When I was talking to a lot of coaches, they had mentioned how the transfer portal was starting to pick up, and how they didn’t love to just get guys straight out of high school,” Miller said. “And so some of them actually liked that I was doing a prep year, because it was basically like a red shirt year almost for a freshman coming in. I definitely think it was a big deal for me in terms of the recruiting process and where I might have been ranked among other recruits.”
Miller had his Division I opportunity. But playing time was fleeting on a Bobcat team that would run it back and win the Big Sky Tournament, advancing to the Big Dance for the second year in a row and the fourth time in school history.
Miller played 5.4 minutes per game on that team, buried well behind Bishop, a first-team all-conference selection who’s now Miller’s point guard coach on Logie’s staff, and Ford, a hyperactive reserve that season who then turned into Superman the following year in Logie’s first campaign at the helm to make it three straight March Madness trips for the Bobcats.
Entering his junior year, Miller had played in 28 total games and 326 total minutes. He had scored exactly 100 points, grabbed 48 total rebounds and assisted in 38 buckets. He was an end-of-the-bench guy who many people wondered “why doesn’t he go Division II or to a lower level so he can play more?”
“After my freshman year, I immediately knew I loved the Bozeman community and even though I didn’t have a lot of opportunity, when Logie came in, I wanted to give him a chance because I loved it here,” Miller said. “ Me and coach Logie, we hit it off and really clicked on all cylinders.
“I’m the type of guy that loyalty runs through me. And I’ve loved everything about Montana State. I’m a believer that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. And I knew it would pay off in the end.
It has, although entering his junior year, his signature moment was hitting a pair of free throws to help MSU secure a 74-71 win over Sac State in the Big Sky Tournament semifinals, setting up a rivalry matchup in the tournament championship game against Montana.
Last season, Miller played 18.8 minutes per game. But he struggled shooting the ball, finishing at 37.7 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc. He averaged 3.7 points and 3.2 rebounds per game. He knew he had to get better. And he did.
“He’s stayed the course and that’s pretty rare in today’s age,” Bishop said. “You seen when things get tough, dudes want to find a new spot or a new situation. He just stayed the course. He didn’t play a bunch his freshman or sophomore year but minutes went up his junior year. And now he’s looked at being the guy and he’s grabbed that bull by the horns. And he’s riding that bull.”
By all accounts, Montana State basketball has established a new standard since Sprinkle’s hiring helped resurrect a middling program. So when MSU went 15-18 and got blitzed in the Big Sky Tournament by top seed Northern Colorado, losing 72-45 to end last season, everyone within the program acknowledged that the campaign was not up to that standard.
The roster experienced an overhaul outside of Miller, McMahon and Davis. Before the season, Logie made the prophetic decision to ensure Miller knew the 2025-2026 Bobcats would be his team to lead.
“It’s amazing what confidence can do for young people. We told Jed, as soon as the season ended last year, you’re going to be our captain,” Logie said. “We’re going to build this culture around your attitude, because it’s reflective of the one that we want in this program. But also, you’re going to have to take the next step as a player, because with that responsibility comes the expectation of more production.
“So he really committed himself to working on the things that we thought would take his game to the next level. And you’re seeing that play out during his senior season, which has been a real joy for us as a staff.”
Bishop, who’s an even more undersized guard who found a way to be a two-time All-Big Sky selection despite checking in at just 5-foot-9, has been integral in Miller’s development. So has the evolution of the Bobcat offensive system in Year 3 under Logie.
“No. 1, Jed deserves a ton of credit for where he’s at in the process, because he’s always just done the work the right way. And so you’ve seen a player that’s continued to improve,” Logie said.
“He deserves a lot of credit for subjugating his own game for the good of the team over the last few years, right? I think, in Jed’s case, it was really about having the green light and knowing that he had the confidence from us as a staff to take and make big shots and play with a level of confidence that is reflective in the type of all-league players that that you need at the point guard position to win at a high level.”
Miller has become that by becoming one of the most efficient scorers in the conference. He had never scored 20 points in a college game until he poured in 24 points against Northern Colorado in Montana State’s Big Sky opener on New Year’s Day. He scored at least 19 points in half of MSU’s conference games, including more than 20 seven times.
He’s used a diverse scoring arsenal that’s straight out of a poor man’s Steve Nash playbook. He’s the most accurate 3-point shooter in the league and shoots it at a high volume, at least by current Big Sky standards. And he’s also a maestro of the mid-range, making a stop-and-pop pull-up jumper from in and around the key as well as a baseline jumper his bread and butter.
“The mid-range game is the lost art but the best scorers in the world, the SGAs, they have a mid-range game,” Bishop said. “That’s something he’s always had. He puts so much time into it. It’s a hard shot, especially going right. But sometimes, he’s shooting behind the rim but it’s money for him. It’s a tough shot for a lot of guys but for him, it’s his best shot.”
Even when Miller has had off shooting nights, he’s made huge impacts on the game. He’s one of the top rebounding guards in college basketball, especially for players under 6-foot-3, and he’s one the best offensive rebounders in the conference.
In Montana State’s rivalry showdown with Montana in Bozeman on January 17, Miller was just 3-of-9 from the floor and 1-of-5 from beyond the arc. He finished with 11 points. But his 11 rebounds, including five offensive boards, completely swung the game as MSU earned a 76-67 win.
“Jed Miller played like a warrior,” Montana head coach Travis DeCuire said. “He gets Montana State shots. He calls the offense and he gets the shots they need. That’s what point guards do: they get you the shot you are trying to get almost every possession. He’s an incredible decision-maker.
“He also had five offensive rebounds. That’s what warriors do. They find a way to scrap without an assist or a basket to win game. I always ask our guys – how do you win a game without scoring? He found a way.”
Miller has also admirably fulfilled his role as captain. He’s helped a team that’s endured the season-ending injuries of Davian Brown, Calvin Holden, Waka Mbatch and others still manage to exceed its preseason expectations—at least the external expectations. Montana State was picked to finish fifth in Big Sky coaches’ poll and sixth in the preseason media poll.
“He’s been the ultimate leader for our team,” McMahon said. “He’s very vocal. He connects very well with everybody on and off the court. And earlier in his career…I always knew how good Jed could be. He stuck to the process. He didn’t get minutes early in his career but he put the work in and it is finally starting to show. He’s one of my best friends I’ve ever made playing basketball, and I just could be more proud of him.”
Miller is closing in on his bachelor’s degree in business marketing with a minor in entrepreneurship. He wants to go into marketing just like his father, who works as a marketer for a video game company. During his time in Montana, the SoCal kid has gotten into snow sports, mainly sledding and considers it one of his favorite activities.
And against all odds, a kid who was dropping 60 in a high school game only to ride the bench at a mid-major Division I has crafted one of the great breakout senior seasons in the recent history of the Big Sky Conference. Now Miller wants to finish it with one more flurry.
“Never doubt yourself,” Miller said when asked what he learned at Montana State. “I have plenty of opportunities where I could have just given up, transferred, gone to a different school. You always have to keep believing. A lot of that credit goes to my coaches and my teammates.
“Also, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. I came from California. I never thought I’d be playing college basketball in Montana. I learned to love it really quickly. And whenever people ask me about Montana, I just light up. And I could go on and on about Bozeman and on and on about Montana State University.”
“It’s been an amazing journey,” Miller said. “The last month or so. I’ve probably been thinking about just the end of the journey and what it looks like. Everyone always has high hopes for what their end looks like. But for me, it’s more just appreciating how far I’ve come and appreciating what this team has meant to me, and how special of a journey it has been. It’s been a really awesome feeling.”
PHOTOS BY BROOKS NUANEZ & JASON BACAJ. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
