In today’s era of high school basketball, prep and private schools are trendy on the national stage, but Adan Diggs and Millennium High School are bucking that trend.
The Tigers are one of the top teams in Arizona, and Diggs is leading the way on the court. Diggs is a five-star recruit, and although he’s just a sophomore, the 6-foot-4 combo guard has been tearing up teams with the ball in his hands, while locking down defensively for Millennium. The Tigers are 17-2, and have been consistently playing elite out-of-state competition, while simultaneously impressing people across the country. MaxPreps has Millennium as the No. 9 team in the country as of Jan. 14, and Diggs has embraced the season’s ups and downs.
“The season’s been great so far. I love it [At Millennium],” Diggs said. “We’ve battled adversity throughout the season, but we’ve battled through it and continue to get stronger.”
He attended Williams Field High School for his freshman year, and then transferred to Millennium for this season in Goodyear, Ariz., staying in his home state. Diggs is the eighth ranked player in the class of 2028, and likely could have attended any prep school he wanted, except he wanted to live a normal life.
“At the end of the day, I feel like I still want to be a kid,” Diggs said. “I feel like most prep schools are more isolated, just strictly basketball, which I would love to do, but all my guys are here, going to school together, still being kids. That was the main reason [of staying at a public school].”
As a kid who’s not even halfway through high school, Diggs is mature well past his age. He’s intelligent on and off the court, and recognizes what he can work on.
“ I would say my defense, if anything, is a big strength of mine, as well as the ability to get to my spots,” Diggs said. “But I need to be more of a leader — communicating, being the guy to talk on the floor defensively and getting the team going.”
In Friday’s game at the Panini Hoophall classic, Millennium faced Christ The King (N.Y.), a team that comes to the event yearly. However, for Millennium, the team made its Hoophall debut, and showed out. The Tigers ran by the Royals 61-43, and Diggs scored 15 points with two assists and three steals, but also had the game-highs plus-minus of 15.
“Defensively, communication was good today,” Diggs said. “We know we have to be dogs on defense and the offense will come.We all have the ability to score the ball at a very high level so as long as we lock in on defense we know we’re gonna do what we got to do on offense.”
Diggs’ head coach Rich Thornton is in his first year with the program. Thornton spent 14 years with Bishop Gorman as an assistant, and also coaches Nike EYBL’s Vegas Elite team. Thornton joked about leaving Vegas for a bigger opportunity.
“Some of the people I knew on the team, at first it started out as a joke, ‘why don’t you come out here?’” Thornton said. “I’m like, I’m from Vegas man, I was born and raised in Vegas, I’m not coming to Arizona. But they stayed on it and stayed on it and next thing I know I’m coaching this team, it’s crazy how it all happened.”
Thornton’s team prides itself on the defensive end, and he loves having Diggs lead the way.
“Adan Diggs is off the charts special, he’s different,” Thornton said. “So to have a guy like that who can score the ball the way he does, and he’s such a great competitor too. He’s a coach’s dream because he’s such a great kid too off the court. He’s a hard worker, always in the gym working on his game. So to have him is a coach’s dream. He’s athletic, he’s super skilled, super crafty, and like I said, he’s just different. He’s what they look like.”
The win at Hoophall was Millennium’s last out-of-state matchup, but its next matchup is the biggest of the Tigers’ season. Sunnyslope is the No. 1 team in Arizona, and a rival of Millennium. The two will face off on Wednesday at 7 p.m. MT.
“We have to come out and smack them on defense, hit them in the mouth,” Diggs said. “The rest will fall into place.”
Photo by Emma Bynes/The Student