What Penn’s Sarah Miller learned from ‘surprise’ call-up to Japanese national team

That camp was Miller’s first-ever invitation to train with the national team, and she wasn’t guaranteed to play in any games this summer. But the rising sophomore earned minutes in four games in June, two each against China and Chinese Taipei (the name the International Olympic Committee uses for Taiwan).

“It was kind of a surprise that it was going to happen this early into my basketball career,” Miller told The Next on June 30 about playing for the national team. “… A good surprise.”

Miller is Japanese on her mom’s side of the family, and Japanese was her first language growing up. (Her dad’s side is Jamaican.) She’s since gotten a little rusty speaking it, she said, but she can still hold conversations with her Japanese teammates and coaches. Alongside the basketball experience she’s gaining this summer, she is also refreshing her language skills and spending plenty of time with family members who live in Shizuoka, which is a few hours southwest of Tokyo.

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Growing up in Phoenix, Ariz., Miller didn’t always dream of playing basketball for Japan. Instead, the possibility entered her mind during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I would say it started maybe [with] the 2020 Olympics,” Miller said. “… And then also coming to visit my grandparents, and I know it’s kind of hard for them to travel all the way to America. And so I kind of wanted to just go to them and be able to play in Japan.”

She got one step closer to that goal when she arrived at Penn last fall. As a first-year, she started 11 games, including 10 straight from Nov. 20 through Jan. 4. She averaged 5.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in 15.0 minutes per game while making 35.9% of her 3-pointers.

“Especially during the more beginning of the season, I think I had a really strong showing and performance,” Miller said. “I will say that it just did get a little bit harder as the season went on, especially when we went into conference play, just because the stakes were a little bit higher. But I felt like I still tried to bring my best.”

Miller had a breakout performance on Dec. 6 against La Salle in the Big 5 Classic, scoring 21 points on 5-for-6 shooting from behind the arc to lead Penn to a win. She hadn’t scored more than 10 points against a Division I opponent before then, but she put up 18 in the first half alone against La Salle.

“She had moments [throughout the season] where I thought she was great,” Penn head coach Mike McLaughlin told The Next on July 1. “I thought she had moments against a couple teams that … I don’t want to say won the game for us, but put us in position to win.”

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After the La Salle game, Miller was named USBWA National Freshman of the Week and Ivy League Rookie of the Week. She followed that up by scoring double figures in two of her next three games. That included a 15-point performance against Benedictine Mesa on Dec. 31, during a two-game trip to Arizona that doubled as a homecoming for Miller.

That trip also started the chain of events that gave her another homecoming of sorts this summer in Japan. While the Quakers were in Arizona, Memphis Grizzlies and Japan national team point guard Yuki Kawamura saw Miller post on Instagram about playing for Penn. He sent the post to Corey Gaines, who has worked with the men’s national team and was named the head coach of the women’s team in January. Gaines reached out to Miller and eventually invited her to participate in the training camp.

“It was really lucky,” Miller said. “That was just all [by] chance.”

In Ivy League play, Miller’s shot didn’t fall as often as it had in the nonconference, and she scored in double figures just once. But that game came when Penn needed it most. She had 17 points on 5-for-9 3-point shooting in a win over Brown on Feb. 15 — a game that effectively sent the Quakers to the four-team Ivy League Tournament instead of the Bears.

“[Sarah] really gave us an incredible life tonight,” McLaughlin told reporters that night. “We needed a wing to make shots. She not only did that, she competed really hard on both ends of the floor. And really proud of Sarah. [She’s had] ups and downs as a freshman, learning and great moments and tough moments, and … [she] took this game.”

Three months later, Miller flew to Japan to try to make a similar impact for another team. The 25 players in the national team camp ranged in age from about 19 to 35, and most of them play professionally in Japan. Miller was the only one without prior national team experience, and she had to develop chemistry with new teammates and learn Gaines’ system — which he has described as “organized chaos” — after arriving late.

Still, Miller was selected to be on the game day roster for the series against Chinese Taipei and China. Gaines encouraged her to shoot whenever she was open, and he told all his players not to worry about mistakes. They were all learning together, and it was OK to mess up. That gave Miller a sense of freedom on the court, which mixed in with her nerves ahead of her international debut on June 7 against Chinese Taipei.

“I know my ability to play, but I just didn’t want to give myself too many expectations and just wanted to play freely,” Miller said. “And so … it was a mix of nervous, but really, I was really excited and really happy.”

Despite all those emotions swirling, Miller came off the bench to lead Japan in scoring in her debut, with 12 points on 4-for-7 3-point shooting in about 11 minutes. Across the four games she played — two wins over Chinese Taipei and two losses to China — she averaged 5.0 points and 1.3 rebounds in about 11 minutes per game and made six of her 14 3-point attempts (42.9%).

“It was such a good experience, but I do see parts where I feel like I do still have room to grow,” Miller said. “And I think that in itself is really exciting because it just shows that I can be better and just come out stronger. And so in that aspect, I’m really excited for the future, but … just looking back, I think it was a really good first showing of being on the team.”

The style of play Miller experienced on the national team also dovetails with how McLaughlin and his staff are hoping to see Miller develop at Penn. The Penn coaches want her to be more aggressive defensively, Miller said, and in Japan’s training camp, “they’re, like, glued to you defensively.”

McLaughlin and his staff also want her to learn how to play with even more intensity on every possession, regardless of the score or the clock. She saw that up close in Japan, especially because of the national team’s pace.

“She’s got special traits; she’s got special quality. It’s just understanding the value of every movement on the court,” McLaughlin told The Next. “… So I think Sarah’s experience over there … and then kind of what we’re trying to get her to, I think, is going to be a good match. [I] think she’s got a really high ceiling because she can put the ball in the basket.”

Miller will have a chance to take more shots this season after the graduation of leading scorer Stina Almqvist. And Penn’s backcourt could be deadly with guards like Miller, juniors Mataya Gayle and Ese Ogbevire, and senior Simone Sawyer all returning to complement star sophomore forward Katie Collins.

If Miller continues to build on what she learned this summer throughout her Penn career, she could get the chance to play professionally in Japan after graduation, which is a dream of hers. After a few lucky breaks got her in the door for her first national team camp, she could stay in the mix there for years to come.

“It’s amazing for her,” McLaughlin said of Miller’s game experience in Japan. “So I’m excited. I think … she has a future with this national team if we can help her get to the next level.”