Rutgers women’s basketball star benched vs. No. 4 USC, fires back at coach on Instagram

Posted by Admin January 6, 2025 Basketball

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PISCATAWAY — Rutgers women’s basketball team is hosting No. 4 University of Southern California Sunday night without freshman star Kiyomi McMiller, who got ahead of the announcement of the “coach’s decision” in an Instagram post hours before the game – while appearing to undermine head coach Coquese Washington.

McMiller, a five-star recruit who played the last two seasons of her high school career in New Jersey at Life Center Academy in Burlington County, is in the Top 25 in scoring nationally with 19.9 points per game along with 5.4 rebounds.

Rutgers said in a statement that “Kiyomi will miss tonight’s game due to coach’s decision. We will handle the matter internally,” but made no mention of why the decision was made.

The statement by McMiller said:

“I would like to apologize to my fans. I will not be playing in today’s game vs. USC, which is #4 in the country. This decision was made by my Head Coach Coquese Washington. Thank you for your continued support. Goodbless all of you~Kiyomi ‘The Product’ McMiller.”

The Rutgers-USC game was highly anticipated, with Rutgers matching stars McMiller (before the benching news) and former Manchester High School star Destiny Adams (three double-doubles of 30 points or more this season) against USC’s JuJu Watkins, the third best scorer in the nation averaging 25.3 points per game, and Kiki Iriafen (18.1 ppg.).