By John Beisser, Feature Writer 

With a nod to the famous quote signaling New Jersey legend Bruce Springsteen’s arrival on the world’s rock & roll stage back in the mid 1970’s, we have seen Rutgers women’s basketball future and its name is Kiyomi McMiller.  

Rutgers fans get ready. Get ready to be amazed. To be dazzled. She has arrived - arrived to help spark a Scarlet Knight women’s basketball revival. The 22nd-ranked player in the nation by espnW, McMiller is a 5-foot-9 five-star blur of a point guard and the most exciting RU recruit in recent memory. She is the cornerstone of the 2024-25 recruiting class that is hoping to change the narrative of a program emerging from the enduring legacy of the C. Vivian Stringer era under the direction of third-year head coach Coquese Washington. 

“Kiyomi McMiller is one of the most exciting players I've ever seen play the game of basketball," Washington said upon her signing. “She is a walking highlight, and our fans are going to love watching her breathtaking performances in Jersey Mike's Arena. She is a fast-paced guard which fits in well with how we like to play. Moreover, she is highly competitive and is ready to elevate Rutgers women's basketball to new heights. It's going to be a lot of fun coaching Kiyomi."  

Make no mistake, no one individual is a savior in the game of basketball. But if you’re going to start a hardwood renaissance, McMiller is as good a place to start as any. So just who is this Jordan Brand All-American and why does she have the entire college basketball landscape buzzing?  

Her story begins in Silver Spring, Maryland where she first began to tag along with her older brothers. Before long she was holding her own with and against them. Fast forward a couple years and there were just a handful of boys in the area as good as her.  

 When McMiller finally got around to competing against girls teams, well, it was almost unfair. Before long she was dominating eighth graders as a first grader. That’s a six-year-old successfully dribbling past and shooting over 13-year-olds. 

She picked up her first Division I scholarship offer before middle school and later became the first high school athlete to sign an endorsement deal with the Jordan Brand McMiller has always been the player you couldn’t take your eyes off, the player who performed with a certain flare, a lightning rod in sneakers. She has been touted as one of the top prospects in the nation by outlets including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Sports Center Next, WSLAM and Overtime WBB.   

 McMiller could have played for any school in the nation. For years the incoming phone calls, emails and letters were incessant. In the end, the question she would finally answer, the door she would finally open, the key that turned the lock to the front gate of the Rutgers University campus, was handed to her by Coquese Washington.  

 Her ball-handling skills and offensive creativity have drawn comparisons to Allen Iverson and Kyrie Irving. Highlight clips of her dazzling skills generate tons of views. Consider that McMiller has more than 65,000 followers on Instagram, and videos of her playing have amassed hundreds of thousands of clicks on YouTube and TikTok. 

 McMiller played her first two seasons of her scholastic career at Trinity Collegiate School in Darrlington, South Carolina where she averaged 27.1 points per game as a sophomore. Heading into her junior year of high school, McMiller took her talents to Life Center Academy in Burlington, New Jersey where as a senior she averaged 30.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.8 steals per game. She left high school with a breathtaking resume, where, over a three-year span of 70 games, she poured in 2,015 points, hauled down 437 rebounds while dishing out 363 assists and on the defensive end, came up with 231 steals. Staggering numbers. 

 One of five siblings, along with her two brothers, Michael and Jeffrey, and two sisters, Miku and Yuri, McMiller hails from a basketball family. Her mother Ravilia McMiller played at Mount Saint Mary's, her aunt Ashley Simmons (Alexander) played at Loyola Maryland and cousin Nalini Page (Hawkins) played at Army. Her father Mike has been McMiller’s lead trainer her whole life and, along with her mother, served as an assistant coach during her two seasons at Life Academy.  

 Aside from basketball, McMiller said what she enjoys most is spending time with her family.  

 “My family is a very important part of my life. Just being around my family when I’m away from basketball, that’s everything to me,” McMiller added, “My parents have definitely had a big part in my development as a basketball player. I’ve been around basketball my whole life. They’re definitely the reason why I’m in the position that I’m in now. It’s all because of them.” 

 So, in the end, why did Miller decide to attend Rutgers? 

 “One of the biggest factors for me was the connection I had with Coach Washington and the entire team,” said McMiller, who despite her rising fandom and attention speaks in a calm, measured tone. “That was a big thing for me because if I didn’t feel I could trust the coaches, then that wasn’t a place where I wanted to be. For me it felt comfortable knowing that I would be in such good hands with Coach Washington, her staff and the Rutgers team.” 

 “Coach is just a very honest person and that’s really important to me,” McMiller added. “Whatever she says to me, you can believe that it’s going to be the truth. I think she’s definitely a good coach and it’s definitely a situation where I can see me and her and the team all doing great things together.” 

 McMiller and her teammates recently completed a two-month on-campus summer training program which served the dual purpose of the getting the new and returning players acclimated to one another while at the same time learning the system and honing their individual skills.  

 “I think summer workouts have gone very well. I think we’re definitely going to come through and shock a lot of people because I’ve seen a lot of things with this team that gives me confidence that we’re going to come out and make a point and put a lot of things out in the air.” 

 "I mean at the end of the day basketball is basketball,” McMiller said. “The only thing that changes at times is the speed of the game but sometimes that’s not even the case. Depending on what level you’ve been playing at or as long as you have been playing for. I think maybe the only thing that’s changed is my older teammates’ knowledge of basketball. But nothing about playing at this level of basketball bothers me.” 

 McMiller said the acclimation process has been a smooth one.  

 “I think blending in with my new teammates has gone well,” she said. “I think we all connect, we’re all connected with one another. That’s something that Coach Washington really pounds into us. We all have to be connected both on and off the court.” 

Academically, McMiller plans to study communications and sports marketing at Rutgers with an eye towards, when her basketball playing days are over, becoming a TV analyst - someone like the commentators she admires such as Candace Parker, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley. But first comes her Rutgers education, followed by Rutgers basketball and, if all goes according to plan and with good health on her side, a long and successful WNBA career.  

 Asked how she views herself as a player, McMiller responded, “I see myself as someone that really can’t be stopped, that’s how I’d say it.” 

 If you’ve gotten this far into the story and are not as a Rutgers women’s basketball season ticketholder, do yourself a favor this winter and go to Jersey Mikes Arena to check out the Scarlet Knights and Kiyomi McMiller. You will be entertained and likely walk away having seen something on the basketball floor you’ve never seen before. 

You can purchase 2024-25 Rutgers women's basketball season tickets HERE. 

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A recipient of seven NJ Press Association Awards for writing excellence, John Beisser ('86) served as Assistant Director in the Rutgers University Athletic Communications Office from 1991-2006, where he primarily handled sports information/media relations duties for the Scarlet Knight football and men's basketball programs. In this role, he served as managing editor for nine publications that received either National or Regional citations from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). While an undergraduate at RU, Beisser was sports director of WRSU-FM and a sportswriter/columnist for The Daily Targum. From 2007-2019, Beisser served as Assistant Athletic Director/Sports Media Relations at Wagner College, where he was the recipient of the 2019 Met Basketball Writers Association "Good Guy" Award. Beisser resides in Piscataway with his wife Aileen (RC '95,) a four-year Scarlet Knight women's lacrosse letterwinner, and their 15-year old daughter Riley.