Virginia Tech released guard Hysier Miller, a transfer from Temple, from its men’s basketball team “due to circumstances prior to his enrollment at Virginia Tech,” the program said Wednesday in a statement. According to Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde, the dismissal stems from a gambling scandal last season involving Temple players. In March, late-season games involving the Owls were flagged by a watchdog group for suspicious gambling activity.
In April, Miller entered the transfer portal and committed to the Hokies just a few weeks later. He was part of a five-person transfer class for Mike Young and his staff and expected to be an early contributor at the guard spot given his scoring production.
Miller was a key piece of Temple’s late-season turnaround that propelled the No. 11 seed Owls to an unlikely run to the AAC Tournament title game. He led Temple with 15.9 ppg, 4.0 apg and 1.8 spg last season and averaged 19.2 points per game in the AAC Tournament — which included a career-high 32 points in a loss to UAB in the AAC tourney championship game.
U.S. Integrity sent an alert out to casinos in early March related to unusual wagering activity on a game involving Temple and UAB.. The betting line moved drastically during the day of the game from UAB -1.5 to UAB -8 before eventually settling at UAB -7. UAB won the game 100-72 — the second consecutive game in which Temple failed to come within single digits of the spread.
It’s unclear to what extent Miller was allegedly involved in the scandal and U.S. Integrity has not yet detailed the findings of its investigation from earlier this year.
