Miro Little (born 30 May 2004) is a Finnish

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

player who plays for

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos are the intercollegiate athletic teams representing the University of California, Santa Barbara. Referred to in athletic competition as ''UC Santa Barbara'' or ''UCSB'', the Gauchos participate in 19 NCAA Division I i ...

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...

. He previously played for the

Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans in the Unite ...

and the

Baylor Bears The Baylor Bears are the athletic teams that represent Baylor University. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as one of only three private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior t ...

. Little also represents the Finland national team.

Early career

Little started to play basketball in a youth team of his hometown club

Tampereen Pyrintö Tampereen Pyrintö ry is a Finland, Finnish Sports club, multi-sport club from Tampere. Pyrintö representatives have achieved several Olympic medals and other success. In the year 2017, Pyrintö has sport sections in cross-country skiing (spor ...

. He joined Helsinki Basketball Academy in 2019 and played with

HBA-Märsky HBA-Märsky is a Finnish basketball club, administrated by the Helsinki Basketball Academy. Their home arena is in URHEA Campus in :fi:Mäkelänkatu, Mäkelänrinne, Vallila, Helsinki, which also serves as the National Olympic Training Center. He ...

in Finnish second tier

Koripallon I-divisioona The Koripallon I-divisioona is the second tier professional basketball league in Finland. The teams play playoffs

. In 2022, he played at the Adidas Next Generation tournament with HBA in

Patras Patras (; ; Katharevousa and ; ) is Greece's List of cities in Greece, third-largest city and the regional capital and largest city of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens. The city is built at the foot of Mount Panachaiko ...

, Greece, averaging 23.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists over four games. Later in the same year, he moved to United States to attend Sunrise Christian Academy high school. In February 2023, Little was invited to the

Basketball Without Borders Basketball Without Borders is a basketball instructional camp organized by the NBA in conjunction with FIBA. It presents itself as a “basketball development and community outreach program that unites young basketball players to promote the sport ...

camp, and in April 2023, he was invited to the Nike Hoop Summit event.

College career

Little started his college career in 2023 and joined Baylor for the 2023–24 season. He had committed to Baylor already a one year before over several other offers. In his freshman year, Little had a minor role in the team and his playing minutes were limited, and eventually in the end of April 2024, he registered to the

NCAA transfer portal The NCAA transfer portal is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) application, database, and compliance tool created to manage and facilitate the process for student athletes seeking to transfer between member institutions. It is i ...

. On 7 May 2024, it was announced that Little would join the

. In April 2025, it was announced that Little would join

UC Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joined ...

National team career

Youth

Little played for Finland U16 at the 2019 FIBA U16B European Championship tournament. He played also for Finland U18 at the 2022 FIBA U18B European Championships, where Finland finished 3rd and were promoted to Division A.

Senior

Little debuted in Finland senior national team on 25 February 2022 aged 17, in a 2023 FIBA World Cup qualifying win against

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. He was the first Finnish underaged player in 25 years to make a debut at the senior international level, after

Teemu Rannikko Teemu Rannikko (born September 9, 1980) is a Finnish former professional basketball player and currently working as an assistant coach of Finland national team. He is 1.89 m (6' 2 ") tall, and he weighs 88 kg (195 lbs.). He mainly playe ...

. Little was named in the Finland squad for the

EuroBasket 2022 The EuroBasket 2022 was the 41st edition of the EuroBasket championship organized by FIBA Europe. It was the first since it was agreed it would take place every four years, with a similar system of qualification as for the FIBA Basketball World C ...

, and for the

2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 19th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams, held from 25 August to 10 September 2023. The tournament was the second to feature 32 teams and was hosted by multipl ...

. He also played in the 2024 FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, Spain, averaging 7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists in three games against

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;", Baylor , 34 , , 0 , , 7.1 , , .429 , , .360 , , .722 , , 1.2 , , .7 , , .1 , , – , , 1.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2024–25 , style="text-align:left;",

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, 33 , , 12 , , 17.7 , , .337 , , .310 , , .755 , , 3.2 , , 2.9 , , .9 , , .2 , , 5.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 67 , , 12 , , 12.3 , , .356 , , .321 , , .746 , , 2.2 , , 1.8 , , .5 , , .1 , , 3.5

National team

Personal life

Little was born in

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

, Finland, and raised in

Pirkkala Pirkkala (; ) is a municipality in Finland, located in the Pirkanmaa region. It lies to the southwest of the regional capital, Tampere. The population of Pirkkala is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . I ...

, to a Finnish basketball player Kati Packalén and an American basketball player . His father played basketball in Finland, and later worked as a basketball referee in Finnish

Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total o ...

. His mother Kati Packalén was named the CEO of the Basketball Association of Finland in September 2022. At the age of seven, Little was diagnosed with

type 1 diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body's immune system destroys pancreatic cells (beta cells). In healthy persons, beta cells produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone require ...

.Interview: Miro Little
eurospects.com, 12 May 2023

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Little, Miro 2004 births Living people Basketball players from Helsinki Basketball players from Tampere Finnish men's basketball players Point guards Finnish people of African-American descent Finnish people of American descent HBA-Märsky players Baylor Bears men's basketball players Utah Utes men's basketball players UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball players 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup players Finnish expatriate basketball people in the United States 21st-century Finnish sportsmen