SAN FRANCISCO — There was no guarantee Texas Tech would have senior guard Chance McMillian available for Saturday’s Elite Eight game against Florida.
The 6-foot-3 guard had been dealing with an oblique injury for two weeks that kept him out of the team’s last four games and all three of Texas Tech’s NCAA Tournament contests.
Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland had no expectations for McMillian to play, especially after he was a late scratch for the Red Raiders’ Sweet 16 game against Arkansas.
But from the moment he woke up on Saturday morning, McMillian knew he was going to suit up no matter what. With this year being his last and a chance to go to the Final Four on the line, there was no way he was going to watch from the bench again.
That’s not the cloth in which the Vallejo native is cut from.
“I was taking my injury day-to-day and I knew there was a lot of risk that came with it if I played,” McMillian told the Bay Area News Group. “But then I woke up and I said ‘I’m just going to do it.’ I love my teammates and I knew it could have been my last game. And it was in the Bay Area, so I knew I had to play.”
Despite his team falling short of making the Final Four, McMillian left it all on the floor. He scored 14 points on 5 of 11 shooting from the field and played just under 26 minutes in Texas Tech’s 84-79 loss to Florida at Chase Center on Saturday night.
McMillian’s next steps to his future are unknown, but he’ll never forget how Vallejo made him into the player he is.
“It’s a full circle moment,” McMillian said. “I remember being at the park in Vallejo, imagining me shooting a buzzer beater like I’m at Oracle Arena. But now that I’m at Chase Center now, so it’s just crazy.
“I wasn’t ranked coming up at all. I played on a little AAU team called Lakeshow. I didn’t play on a circuit team or anything like that until my last year of AAU. I just wanted to give people in the Bay Area hope, especially Vallejo. Not too many hoopers came out of Vallejo and played in college, so I definitely wanted to put on for the city.”
While he was at Texas Tech for just two seasons, his final performance as a collegiate athlete will always be remembered by McCasland.
“What Chance McMillian did today has nothing to do with the score,” McCasland said. “It just has everything to do with what I want to live my life like. He’s obviously in a situation where he probably could have not come back. … Man, I’m so inspired by him, and because of him I do believe our program is different forever.”
When McMillian stepped onto the floor for warmups, a loud cheer emerged from behind the Texas Tech’s bench as he looked over to the crowd. The Texas Tech section was filled with McMillian’s family members and fans with his face on their t-shirts.
McMillian didn’t start the game, but made a huge impact early.
He subbed in five minutes into the first half and saw his first jumper fall short. But it doesn’t take much to get McMillian going.
The shifty guard snaked his way into the lane and knocked down a floater over the outstretched arms of Florida’s 6-9 forward Thomas Haugh a few minutes later. On the next possession, he found Darrion Williams for a 3-pointer that initiated on his drive to the basket.
From there, any thought that McMillian would look rusty in his return went out the window. He made two of his five 3-point attempts and was the scorer that Texas Tech needed coming into Saturday’s game.
When he saw McMillian take the floor, Florida coach Todd Golden wasn’t thrilled. The former University of San Francisco coach recruited McMillian when he was in high school and knew he had to game plan for him in the days leading up to Saturday’s game.
“We were disappointed when they said he was playing,” Golden said jokingly. “We knew that he was going to be hard to guard. He’s a great shooter, great scorer and gives Texas Tech more depth. But he still had a great game.”
For McMillian, it’s fitting that his legacy as a college basketball player ends in the Bay Area.
McMillian grew up in San Francisco, attending Star of the Sea Elementary School and St. Thomas the Apostle for middle school. When he moved to Vallejo, he spent his first three years at St. Patrick-St. St. Vincent High before transferring to Bethel for his senior year.
At Bethel, he averaged 28.2 points per game and won his third straight Tri-County Athletic League Stone Division MVP. He then played one season at Golden State College Prep in Napa.
“It’s almost miraculous what he was trying to do, really,” McCasland said. “We didn’t win the game, so it doesn’t have the same thrill for everybody to write stories, but to me, in my heart, it doesn’t change anything.
“What he was willing to sacrifice for the guys to put himself in that position, I don’t think anybody really understands it. And in my heart and in our guys hearts, they know that he loved them that much and that he was willing to do whatever. … It’s how it was every day, and that’s why we got the opportunity to be in the Elite Eight.”