After offering up a number of opinions about how senior Addison Miller impacted the Ottawa High boys basketball team this winter, Cyclones coach David Grover summed up the youngster’s game with one simple phrase.

“I guess not many people have an ACT and vertical that are similar,” Grover said.

Translation: The 6-foot-1 wing has smarts, and he has skills.

He also has a new honor – the All-Area Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

Utilizing his head for the game and his unique athletic gifts, Miller managed to shine on a team where balance is a buzzword, averaging 17.3 ppg while scoring in double figures in 21 of Ottawa’s 22 contests.

Such steady contributions allowed the Cyclones to rattle off an 18-4 record and earn a spot in a Class 5A sub-state title game, where they came up short against Emporia in a showdown for a state-tournament berth.

“Some games it just came naturally. My shots were going in, so I just kept shooting. Other games, it felt like it was needed,” Miller said when asked to explain his consistent offensive output. “This year, I kind of put it on myself to not let down any games.”

At first glance, Miller doesn’t have the type of basketball body that begs discussion about his being a game-changing player. Most players who stand 6-1 make a one-dimensional impact in the backcourt, relying on a deadly accurate jump shot or a propensity for sweet passes to set up teammates.

However, a slasher’s mentality and a 32-inch vertical leap allowed Miller to do much of his damage around the rim. Throw in a renewed commitment to defense, and a player who already owned a double-digit scoring average as a junior saw his numbers climb even higher.

“The reality is, his minutes didn’t change,” Grover said. “But you saw his steals go from 45 to 70 – as a swing player, that almost always translates into a layup. Without doing anything different offensively, that’s 50 points.

“The second thing, once you prove that, we start running some things through you. We talk about that all the time – if you extend yourself defensively, you get rewarded offensively.”

And thanks to Miller’s aptitude, finding ways to engineer such bonuses proved to be a simple task.

Equipped with a 3.85 grade-point average and a score of 31 on his ACT standardized test, Miller rarely found himself fazed on the basketball court.

“In game situations, I notice stuff,” said Miller, who was named to the Academic All-State team by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Assn. “I’ll ask Coach what he wants in a certain situation because I know I’ll be able to adjust.”

Now comes the probability of adjusting to life without basketball.

While college recruiters have come calling, Miller is fairly certain he’s ready to close that chapter of his life. While he’s left the door open on playing hoops for MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, he’s more sold on attending Kansas State and keeping his focus on an engineering degree.

Should he follow that path, he’s at peace with the way his career panned out.

“I can’t say that I’m happy we didn’t make it to state,” Miller said. “But I kind of feel like I did something with my career that was worthwhile.”