Larry Miller, a two-time ACC Player of the Year and ACC Tournament MVP and a 2022 inductee in the College Basketball Hall of Fame, died Sunday at age 79 in Bethlehem, Pa.
A native of Catasauqua, Pa., Miller starred at small forward on Dean Smith’s first two ACC championship and Final Four teams in 1967 and 1968, earning first-team All-America honors in both seasons. As a senior in 1968, he was a consensus first-team All-America on one of the greatest five-man squads ever honored, joining UCLA’s Lew Alcindor, Houston’s Elvin Hayes, LSU’s Pete Maravich and Louisville’s Wes Unseld.
Miller is one of three players ever to win ACC Player-of-the-Year and Tournament MVP honors in consecutive seasons and is the only Tar Heel to win ACC Player of the Year twice. He was also the ACC Male Athlete of the Year in 1968.
He scored in double figures in 64 consecutive games, which remains the UNC record. Miller scored 1,982 points in three seasons and averaged 21.8 per game, the fifth-highest by a Tar Heel.
In one of his most memorable performances, he scored 32 points on 13 of 14 shooting from the floor in an 82-73 victory over Duke in the 1967 ACC championship game.
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Led by Miller, Carolina went 70-21, including 32-10 in ACC regular-season play, from 1965-68. The Associated Press ranked the Tar Heels No. 4 in the final polls in his last two seasons, the first time Carolina was ranked in the top 10 in the final poll in consecutive seasons.
Miller played seven years in the ABA and set the league’s all-time single-game record with 67 points.
