News story on Hysier Miller's dismissal from the Virginia Tech basketball team, as the gambling probe of his former team, Temple, continues: https://t.co/cgqUiXaA8z
— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) October 23, 2024
https://www.si.com/college-basketball/sources-hysier-miller-dismissed-from-virginia-tech-basketball-amid-gambling-probe-into-temple
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Miller was the leading scorer for the Owls last season before transferring to Virginia Tech in the spring. Temple wound up in the crosshairs of an investigation into unusual wagering activity on its games, SI reported in March. The NCAA has been involved in the investigation, and possibly other entities, sources say.
The Owls' game against the UAB Blazers on March 7 was flagged by a gambling watchdog company, U.S. Integrity, for an unusual fluctuation in the point spread in the hours before the game.
At one casino, the line moved from UAB as a 1.5-point favorite over Temple at the beginning of the day to UAB as an eight-point favorite by mid-afternoon, then settled at seven closer to tip-off. The Blazers routed the Owls, 100-72, in Temple's home gym, the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia. Miller scored eight points in the game, half of his season average, and committed three turnovers.
That was the second straight loss for Temple and the second straight game in which the Owls did not come close to covering the spread. They were favored by 5.5 points the previous game at home against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane and lost by five. Tulsa opened the game by jumping out to a 16-2 lead and stayed ahead the rest of the way.
A source in the gambling space told SI in March that U.S. Integrity had been monitoring Temple games for a while. The American Athletic Conference is one of many NCAA conferences that employ U.S. Integrity to monitor gambling activity surrounding its member schools and to serve as an educational arm for teaching athletes and staff about how wagering is tracked. With the proliferation of legalized sports wagering, impermissible activity around college competitions has increased.
After finishing the regular season 12-19, Temple went on a surprising run in the AAC tournament, winning four straight and making the championship game before falling to UAB. Miller averaged 27.8 points during that league tournament run.
