By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Even though he missed most of last season following shoulder surgery, Walton-Verona basketball player Dieonte Miles received four Division I college scholarship offers and decided to accept the one from Xavier University.
The 6-foot-10, 210 pound senior made his commitment on Saturday. He’s the first Walton-Verona boys basketball player recruited by a Division I college team since Scott Benton, who played for Wright State from 1988-1991.
“Some of it was (staying) close to home, but the more important part was education,” Miles said of selecting Xavier. “Getting a good academic degree and then also being able to play for a really good team, it was kind of like the whole package.”
As a sophomore, Miles averaged 12 points, six rebounds and three blocks per game for Walton-Verona. Nine games into his junior season, however, he aggravated a previous shoulder injury and needed surgery.
That kept him out of action until this summer. By playing for the Kentucky Junior All Stars and then going to a select team tournament in Louisville, he got the exposure he needed to be tabbed a three-star recruiting prospect.
“I missed my whole junior season and it kind of had an impact on how I was going to be recruited,” he said. “But I came into the summer and just played the best I could and tried to get back on top.”
Miles said he also received scholarship offers from Northern Kentucky, Akron and Austin Peay. None of those programs have a basketball history like the Xavier Musketeers, who have been in the NCAA post-season tournament 15 times in the last 17 years and 27 times overall.
This is the first recruiting class for Xavier’s new head coach Travis Steele, who spent the last 10 years as an assistant in the program. He replaced Chris Mack, who resigned in March to become head coach at Louisville.
Miles said he was being recruited by Xavier until Mack changed jobs. He said interest “kind of fell off a little bit” until the new Xavier coach saw him in action this summer.
“In the summer, when I got back from my injury, things kind of opened back up and they were looking at me again,” Miles said.
Miles made a recruiting visit at Xavier and talked with the new coach before making his commitment with the program.
“I just needed to go see what they were about again,” he said. “The more of what I saw and how it was going to be, I grew more interested in them. Eventually, I discovered this was probably a good fit.”
Walton-Verona finished 26-6 and 26-7 the last two years and Miles is part of a strong senior class on coach Grant Brannen’s roster for the upcoming season.