Former IU Indy player returns to city for Final Four in UConn jersey

UConn’s Braylon Mullins has been getting his due this week from fans and the media in Indianapolis after the Greenfield-Central High School grad brought the entire state of Connecticut back from the dead with a 35-footer with less than a second to go in the NCAA East Regional men’s basketball final against Duke University on Sunday.

But there is another player on the the University of Connecticut’s roster with ties to this year’s Final Four host, and you may not know his name. Former Indiana University Indianapolis point guard Alec Millender was one of the UConn players celebrating Mullins’ shot.

“I remember running on the court,” Millender said about the end of the Elite Eight win. “When I ran on the court, I looked to see, and I didn’t hear a buzzer, so I knew I had to get off the court, and all of a sudden I was near the coaches. I think I like jumped on [UConn coach Dan] Hurley a little bit and then I went back. It was a full chaotic scene, just jumping around.”

This year may be Millender’s first time in a jersey at the Final Four, but it’s not his first time playing a role in the event. He was in San Antonio for the Final Four a year ago — as a graduate student journalist covering the event for the Sports Capital Journalism Program at IU Indianapolis. And one of his observations from that tournament speaks to the maturity he now brings to his current role for UConn.

“The real MVPs aren’t the media, the players, or the programs,” he wrote in one of his stories. “It’s the crew. That includes everyone from the ushers handing out transcripts to the security guards at every court entrance checking credentials, to the stagehands on standby with the platform and confetti for whichever team gets crowned champion.

“These people transformed a concrete dungeon into a space covered with carpet, curtains, stages, chairs, tables, and elite signage,” he wrote.

Millender worked that weekend alongside classmate Joshua Miranda, who noticed that Millender had some strong instincts as a Final Four journalist — and that he used his experience as a player to give him an advantage.

“He first tried to build a connection with that player more than anyone else in the room who’s trying to get a quick quote,” Miranda said.

An example, he said, came after last year’s championship game, which the Florida Gators won with a dramatic comeback in which they took the lead over the Houston Cougars with just 46 seconds remaining. Florida won 65-63.

Houston players “were walking back to the locker room super dejected, and obviously the reporters are standing near the entrance of the locker room, but Alec ran up to a couple of players before they entered the locker room and told them to keep their head up before he started his work,” Miranda said.

Alec’s father, Coby Millender, who lives in suburban Chicago where Alec grew up, spoke to his son every day during Alec’s journalistic trip to the Final Four. He said his son had a confession about the conversations he was having with the Final Four players: “He said, ‘Dad, I’m out here meeting players and this and that, and they treat me like royalty and it’s great, but Dad, but they don’t know I’d rather be here as a player.’”

Now Millender is in the Final Four as a player, finishing his final year of college basketball at UConn after spending four years on the team at Division II Wayne State in Nebraska and then one season as a starter at Indiana University Indianapolis, which plays in the Horizon League. During the 2024-25 season Millender ranked 12th nationally and led the Horizon League with a 2.95 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Millender announced he would leave IU Indy last May, just a week after the school fired its head coach, Paul Corsaro, for inappropriate behavior toward his players. At the time, Corsaro denied the school’s assertion that he mistreated student-athletes and called the decision to release him “deeply disheartening.”

In October, Corsaro filed a tort claim against IU, seeking damages related to the firing. In December, six former players sued the school, alleging physical and mental abuse by Corsaro.

Millender was not among the players who sued. But after the firing, he had a year of eligibility left, thanks in part to pandemic-related rules that extended the time players could participate, and he decided to finish his career at UConn.

It was a sort of full-circle moment.

Years before as a third grader, Millender had become a fan of Kemba Walker, who played for UConn and declared he was going to play at Walker’s school one day.

Millender got to meet his hero this year after UConn’s 73-63 win at Villanova on Feb. 21. “ I told him he was the exact reason that I put this UConn jersey on,” Millender said. “He said, ‘Oh man, that’s love.’ He told me that I’m in the brotherhood now. We’re UConn brothers now.”

Becoming part of the UConn brotherhood meant the prospect of playing on a team with Final Four talent. But it also meant sacrificing more than a little playing time. Millender has appeared in 18 of 38 games at just over 3 minutes a clip — a significant drop from his IU Indy days.

That wasn’t necessarily a surprise. UConn coach Hurley had told Millender and his father during the recruiting process that his playing time would be less. But Coby Millender admits that the emotional adjustment of not seeing his son on the court as much was difficult — for him at least as much as for his son.

“I didn’t help Alec get through it,” he said. “Alec helped me get through it. Alec helped me accept his role. He said, ‘Dad, I’m happy.’ … ‘Dad, I’m at UConn.'”

Alec reminded his dad that he had wanted to be part of the Huskies team. And Coby Millender said his son told him: “I’m going to be here. I’m going to be the best teammate. I’m going to be the best player. I’m just going to be ready when I’m called on. But I’m part of UConn, Dad.”

“And because he accepted it, I accepted it,” Coby said.

Alec Millender learned lessons of acceptance long before he even suited up for Wayne State — the school where he played before transferring to IU Indy. His mother died during his freshman year of high school after a battle with Lupus.

Alec, the second youngest of five kids, had the most intimate experience with the caretaking associated with his mother’s illness, Coby Millender acknowledged.

It’s all the more reason Alec Millender isn’t taking any of this weekend for granted.  ”To end my basketball career where I started my sports journalism career, it’s just all crazy,” he said. “Full circle. Surreal. Thank God for the opportunities that I’ve had. It’s hard to put into words, honestly. But these past couple years of my life have been so special.”

Chris Schumerth writes for the Sports Capital Journalism Program at IU Indianapolis.