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"I can learn something from everybody" - Yakiya Milton ready for a new challenge

by Wes Todd

It’s never easy being the youngest.

She skipped the first grade and was always the youngest in her class. Now she’s one of the youngest women’s college basketball players in the SEC, if not the country. In fact, she won’t turn 18 until late in the season.

 But Auburn freshman Yakiya Milton has gotten used to it.

 “When I first got here, it was weird,” Milton said. “But I’ve just got to play like everyone else.”

At 6-foot-4 and just 17 years old, Milton had to grow into her body as a junior high and high school player. She started out playing volleyball, but made the switch to basketball in sixth grade.

 It didn’t go great at the beginning.

“I was terrible,” a laughing Milton said. “I had a big growth spurt in sixth grade, I grew like six inches. But over time, I picked it up, and it made me happy.”

A two-time all-conference selection at Mandarin High School in Jacksonville, Florida, Milton helped her team to a state Final Four appearance. She finished her career as Mandarin’s all-time leader in blocks and rebounds.

“I’ve always been the youngest on every team because I skipped a grade,” she said. “So my mom had to tell me I have to play based off of skill, not based off of age.”

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Her play – regardless of age – sufficiently impressed Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris in the spring of 2023 to offer her a scholarship just days after watching her play in a weekend tournament.

“It was my first call with her,” Milton said. “She was at one of the games, and my mom kept telling me – but I tried not to look at the (college) coaches when I was playing. I didn’t want to get excited about it. But then the next day, she called me and she offered me.”

Off the court, fashion and design are a passion for her. She has an interest in majoring in industrial design, with Auburn’s program in the College of Architecture, Design and Construction being one of the oldest and most recognized in the country.

“I’m into creativity, making things,” Milton said. “I was going to do graphic design at first, but that wouldn’t help me have my own fashion line, my own business, that type of thing. So I thought industrial design would be good for me, anything with designing and being creative.

“I’ve always been into clothes, and I guess shoes is my main thing. It’s the best part of your outfit. If you’ve got some nice shoes, that makes the whole outfit.”

How many pairs of shoes does she have?

“Too many,” she laughed.

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The industrial design program isn’t the only thing that attracted her to Auburn, though. Shot-blocking seem to run in the family, too. Her cousin, Kyle Davis, played for the Auburn men’s basketball team in the early 2000s.

And it just so happens that he’s Auburn’s career leader in blocks with 360, ahead of such former Tiger greats as Mamadou N’diaye, Anfernee McLemore and Horace Spencer.

“We talked about Auburn a little bit,” Milton said of her cousin. “I didn’t know too much, but I did know that he broke Charles Barkley’s blocks record. So I’m hoping to get a record, too.”

But her favorite part of Auburn so far is the family environment – the culture among Auburn’s student-athletes of supporting one another has been incredible for her.

“Not just with the coaches and stuff, but just being on campus,” she said. “Everybody speaks to everybody. You can be on the elevator and someone’s going to ask you how your day is going. That’s something I wasn’t really used to, but here you see how people come out and support teams, like volleyball and soccer. Everything. Everybody supports everybody.”

And now, as one of three freshmen for the 2023-24 Tigers, she’s looking to make an immediate impact.

“I’m looking forward to everything,” Milton said. “I grew up watching people play in the SEC. So it’s going to be all about absorbing everything I can learn. And there’s so many new people on the team, I can learn something from everybody.”

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