INDIANAPOLIS (USBWA) – Alabama forward Brandon Miller, the SEC Player and Freshman of the Year whose three-point shooting and rebounding helped lead Alabama to a conference title and the NCAA Tournament's top seed, has won the 2022-23 Wayman Tisdale Award as the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's National Freshman Player of the Year.
Miller will formally receive the award at the upcoming USBWA College Basketball Awards Banquet in St. Louis on April 12, hosted by the Missouri Athletic Club. The USBWA has presented a men's National Freshman Player of the Year Award since the 1988-89 season. This is the 13th season for the award to be named for the late Tisdale, a three-time USBWA All-American at the University of Oklahoma and a 12-year NBA veteran before retiring in 1997 to focus on a blossoming jazz music career. Auburn's Jabari Smith won the award last season.
Miller, a 6-9 forward from Antioch, Tenn., was a second-team honoree on this season's USBWA All-America Team and the only freshman to make the 15-man roster. He is the first SEC freshman to win player of the year and freshman of the year in the same season since Kentucky's Anthony Davis in 2012. Miller became the fourth player in the last 50 years to lead the SEC in scoring as a freshman (19.6 ppg) joining Tennessee's Bernard King (1975) and LSU's Chris Jackson (1989) and Cameron Thomas (2021).
He is tied for 43rd in scoring this week at 19.1 points per game and was the only player in Division I to score 605 points, grab 245 rebounds and make 90 three-pointers during the regular season, boosting Alabama to its second SEC Tournament championship in the last three seasons. The Crimson Tide advanced to this week's Sweet 16 round for the ninth time in school history with a 73-51 win over Maryland on Sunday.
Miller has made 105 three-pointers this season – 11th nationally – and now owns the 'Bama program record (was 103, Eric Washington, 1995-96). Miller was a six-time SEC Freshman of the Week, matching the school record set by James "Hollywood" Robinson. Miller scored 167 points against AP Top-25 opponents this season.
The Wayman Tisdale Award is voted on by the entire membership of the association. It was named the Wayman Tisdale Award in the 2010-11 season in honor of the late three-time USBWA All-American at Oklahoma and the first freshman to receive first-team All-America honors from the USBWA. In March 2007 Tisdale was diagnosed with cancer and, following a courageous and difficult battle that included the amputation of his right leg in 2008, he passed away in May 2009.
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected a women's All-America team since the 1996-97 season. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at 814-574-1485. For additional info about covering the awards banquet, contact Jim Wilson with the MAC (314-539-4488).