Tag: Cheryl Miller

Cheryl Miller paved the way for Caitlin Clark and others

Cheryl Miller discussed her pioneering career in a great conversation with Dan Patrick. Watch and learn.

Cheryl Miller is, quite simply, a trailblazer in women’s basketball. She was the first two-time national champion in the era of the Women’s NCAA Tournament, which began in 1982. USC won national titles in 1983 and 1984 to become the first two-time winner of the event. Miller and her USC teammates made history. What they also did was plant the seeds for more growth at USC. Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson became part of this story in the 1990s. USC made the Elite Eight in 1994, and the Trojans had not been back in the 30 years since then. JuJu Watkins finally led the Women of Troy to the round of eight in this year’s edition of March Madness, but the Trojans were stopped one win short of the Final Four by UConn and Paige Bueckers. UConn lost to Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the Final Four on Friday night.

JuJu. Paige. Caitlin. Cheryl Miller was the first super-duperstar in the Women’s NCAA Tournament era 40 years ago. Miller talked about her life and her pioneering career in an extended conversation with Dan Patrick. It’s well worth watching and listening to.

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JuJu Watkins and Cheryl Miller discuss USC’s run to No. 1 seed for NCAA Tournament, and more

Cheryl Miller and JuJu Watkins had a conversation. You’ll want to watch it.

Cheryl Miller’s place as a basketball icon is enormous and secure. JuJu Watkins is just beginning to collect awards and pursue championships at USC. An established USC great and a rising USC star have a lot to talk about, and one of the great things about this USC women’s basketball season is how it has brought the legend and the current Trojan star together.

Cheryl Miller’s imprint on USC and Los Angeles sports is massive. As we noted, “After facing Kim Mulkey in a contentious Final Four semifinal on March 30, 1984, Cheryl Miller became a teammate of Mulkey on the 1984 United States Women’s Basketball National Team. Miller, Mulkey, and other women’s basketball stars of the era led the USA to the gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics. Miller therefore won a national title and Olympic gold in Los Angeles in 1984, a very special year for a USC basketball icon.”

Cheryl Miller and JuJu Watkins talked ball, USC, and more in a conversation you won’t want to miss. Here it is:

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JuJu Watkins breaks Cheryl Miller’s all-time single-season USC scoring record

JuJu Watkins and Cheryl Miller are linked forever in USC women’s basketball history.

JuJu Watkins has racked up a lot of awards this season. She is a First-Team All-American. She is the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Freshman of the Year. She has made history on a lot of levels at USC. Now comes one of the crown-jewel achievements of her resplendent 2024 season: She is now the all-time single-season scoring leader for USC women’s basketball. Cheryl Miller had the record at 814 points. JuJu broke it early on Saturday in the Trojans’ NCAA Tournament opener against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Watkins will now try to win honors connected to team success. USC, powered by Watkins, led A&M-CC by a 36-20 score at halftime. The Trojans are trying to earn their way into the second round on Monday evening in the Galen Center against the Kansas Jayhawks, who defeated the Michigan Wolverines in overtime in the day’s first of two games in Galen.

JuJu Watkins broke a Cheryl Miller record set in 1986, the last time the Trojans were a No. 1 seed in the Women’s NCAA Tournament before this year. The year 1986 is also the last time the Trojans made the Women’s Final Four and reached the national championship game. Those are the goals JuJu Watkins wants to reach more than anything else.

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USC women’s basketball icon Cheryl Miller addresses Women of Troy after UCLA win

Miller, the leader of USC’s WBB dynasty in the 1980s, told the 2024 Trojans “the Bruins never saw it coming” on Sunday.

The USC women’s basketball program, it is important to note, is not doing something new. It is doing what it used to do 40 years ago. Everyone needs to remember that point.

USC women’s basketball is not a program which has never tasted elite success. The Trojans were the first dynastic power in women’s college hoops after the Women’s NCAA Tournament began in 1982. They were the first Division I team to win two NCAA Tournaments. Cheryl Miller was the leader of those USC teams. She is one of the greatest women’s basketball players of all time and a certified legend of the game.

After the 2024 USC team beat UCLA to rise to No. 4 in the USA TODAY Sports Women’s College Basketball Poll and become a projected No. 2 seed in the Women’s NCAA Tournament, Miller addressed the Women of Troy. She had a lot to say, and the three-minute speech is worth watching and sharing to every Trojan you know.

“The Bruins never saw it coming,” Miller said, praising the quality of USC’s effort against UCLA.

Here’s the speech in full:

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Lindsay Gottlieb can’t say enough great things about USC basketball icon Cheryl Miller

Lindsay Gottlieb knows how special Cheryl Miller is.

The greatest USC women’s basketball player ever is also — one could certainly argue — the greatest women’s basketball player of all time.

Cheryl Miller is women’s basketball royalty, the best of the best. If there’s a Mount Rushmore of women’s basketball superstars, Miller has to be on it, period, end of sentence.

USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb, in a recent interview with P.J. Brown of Tucson.com, shared how much Cheryl Miller’s support has meant to her and to the USC women’s basketball program. Gottlieb also mentioned how much she personally admires Miller:

“I describe to other people who maybe aren’t as in tune on what it’s like to have Cheryl Miller just stop by as if Michael Jordan walked in just to chat with your players at North Carolina. The best player, really in the history of our game.

“Maybe (Miller’s) career was cut short, but in terms of who she was at ‘SC I can’t help but get goosebumps. Like I’m not starstruck often, but it’s Cheryl Miller. She is this epic player and to have the connection to USC with her to know what our mission is to try and get USC back to the level that she and her teammates were at, and to have her be here in support, it’s just it’s incredibly special. I think that’s an understatement.

“It’s a unique position to be in in women’s college basketball. I think we’re all stewards of the game. We all have to honor the history. To be here and she’s on my wall, as is Lisa Leslie, Tina Thompson and the McGee twins (Paula and Pamela). But Cheryl is right in the middle so I look at her on the wall every day then she walks to the office and is like, ‘Coach, what’s up? How can I help?’ I’m just like, it’s crazy to me to think this is my life and this is what I get to do. But I take that responsibility really seriously. She’s just such a cool human being and an epic great in our game that I just want to be part of telling her story and also having our players understand what it means to wear the USC jersey.”

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Hannah Hidalgo is USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year

Congrats, Hannah!

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] only has played college basketball for a month, but the Notre Dame freshman phenom already is making an impact. She’s the nation’s leader in steals (6.0 a game) and one of its top scorers (23.6 points a game). But that doesn’t begin to describe what she’s done overall this year.

Hidalgo has won the prestigious USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year award for how well she did in international play this season. During the FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup, she averaged 10.7 points and 5.4 assists a game to help the U.S. win the gold medal. Joni Taylor, her coach from that tournament, said it best:

“Hannah Hidalgo is a name you will not forget.”

In winning this award, Hidalgo is joining elite company in more ways than one. She is only the fourth player to win it before beginning her collegiate career, joining Paige Bueckers, Brianna Stewart and Janelle Bailey.

Many women’s basketball legends, some of which remain active and others are enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, have won this award since it was first given out in 1980. These include Diana Taurasi, Teresa Edwards, Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, Cheryl Miller, Katrina McClain, A’ja Wilson, Maya Moore, Tina Charles, Katie Smith, Natalie Williams, Ruthie Bolton, Chamique Holdsclaw, Seimone Augustus and Lynette Woodard.

If that list is any indication, Hidalgo is on her way to becoming not only an Irish legend but a legend of the sport. It probably wouldn’t surprise her either because she indicated such when Fighting Irish Wire asked her about it after the Irish’s win over Lafayette:

“No, I’m not surprised at all. I think I know what God has blessed me with, and so, it’s a lot easier when I have teammates like the ones that I do. That makes the game just so much easier.”

Here’s to the latest of what should be many more honors for someone who’s just getting started.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Cynthia Cooper-Dyke relishes memories of Houston’s golden basketball era

Four WNBA championship banners for the Houston Comets still reside in the Toyota Center rafters, and Cynthia Cooper-Dyke (@AllDecade14) is a big reason why.

It is not easy to become an icon in the city of Houston, especially in the sports world. The fans are very strict on whom they call a Houston sports legend, especially in basketball.

That elite moniker is reserved for individuals such as former Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon, who led his team to two NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. An example from a different sport is Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, who has helped bring two recent World Series titles to the fourth largest city in North America.

Yet, another name falls right in line with those icons. It’s a woman who is largely responsible for the four WNBA championship banners that still hang inside the Toyota Center, home of the Rockets.

In this case, she is so legendary throughout Houston that people seldom call her by her full name. They simply yell, “Coop!”

Long before former Houston Comets player Cynthia Cooper-Dyke was winning WNBA titles and multiple finals MVPs, she perfected her skills at the University of Southern California in rigorous practices versus players such as 1995 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Cheryl Miller, and  Pam and Paula McGee.

“I didn’t start at USC, I came off the bench, so I had to practice against Cheryl Miller every single day,” Cooper-Dyke said via Zoom. “Those practices were tough. To try to get to the rim against Cheryl and the McGee twins, I had to step my game up a little bit.”

Her contributions helped USC win two NCAA championships. Those playing days, along with helping lead Locke High School in Los Angeles to their first and only state championship, were recognized by the Southern California Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020 as they enshrined Cooper-Dyke into their inaugural 2020 class of inductees.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, individuals could not attend in person, so the ceremony was postponed. This month, the inductees were finally able to have an official induction ceremony.

“I am incredibly honored,” Cooper-Dyke said about being recognized for her on- and off-court accomplishments. “There is a lot of talent that comes out of California. That puts me in good company. I grew up in Los Angeles, and to have success with the amount of talent that comes out of that city and really state, I feel very fortunate. To be recognized for my accomplishments is just an amazing honor.”

After spending a decade playing professional basketball overseas, Cooper-Dyke finally showcased her talent with the Comets in the newly formed WNBA in 1997. This challenge would be more difficult for her than the practices at USC against Miller, since she was turning 34 in her rookie season. Making matters more challenging was her star teammate, Sheryl Swoopes, missed a significant amount of time due to her pregnancy.

If you have been around “Coop” for any time, you know obstacles never deterred her from getting the job done. That’s exactly she did. She was named league MVP for leading the Comets to the inaugural WNBA championship in 1997. She also earned the WNBA Finals MVP honor.

Three more titles over the next three years helped set a foundation for the WNBA and solidified her place among basketball royalty. She became the first WNBA player to be enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. It also made for a golden era in Houston basketball, since those four championships by the now-defunct Comets came shortly after the Rockets’ two titles.

“I knew when I started playing in the WNBA, the work I put in, the effort we put in, the games we won, the championships we won, would help lay the foundation for a stronger WNBA,” Cooper-Dyke said. “Hopefully, I left a legacy of hard work, winning championships, not settling, but continuing to grow and get better every single year. I love the state of the WNBA now, because you see talent all over the place.”

After her playing career, Cooper-Dyke became a head coach and helped rebuild the women’s basketball programs at Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern, two historically black colleges in Texas.

Giving back to the sport she loves so much did not stop after her coaching days ended. Within a few weeks, Cooper-Dyke will be reunited with her former teammate, Sheryl Swoopes, when they will host the “Legends Tournament” in June for girls between the ages of 9 through 17, followed by a basketball camp in Houston.

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The Spurs paid tribute to NCAA women’s basketball legends with pre-game jerseys

The Spurs showed love to more players than just Becky Hammon.

Before their game against the Charlotte Hornets on Monday evening, the San Antonio Spurs paid tribute to some of the best players who have ever stepped on the floor during the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

Especially after the pathetic weight room originally provided to the NCAA women’s teams and all of the other ways the NCAA has failed its women’s tournament, it was refreshing to see such support from such a respected NBA team.

Spurs point guard Dejounte Murray got things started with a hat tip to his assistant coach, Becky Hammon, who is a legend both on and off the floor.

Hammon, who has been an assistant for San Antonio since 2014, was once one of the best college basketball players in the nation. She ran point for the Colorado State Rams from 1995 until 1999, leading her mid-major squad to the Sweet Sixteen.

Spurs veteran DeMar DeRozan entered the arena wearing a Cheryl Miller jersey.

Miller, like DeRozan, played college basketball for the USC Trojans from 1982 until 1986. She won Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year during three consecutive seasons, securing national championships in 1986 and 1987 as well.

Her jersey number, No. 31, is retired by the University of Southern California.

Rudy Gay was rocking a jersey from Rebecca Lobo, who is celebrated as one of the most decorated athletes in the history of UCONN’s prestigious women’s basketball program.

Lobo helped lead the team to an undefeated record and a national title in 1995. It was only the second time that a women’s team ran the table for an entire season.

Of course, NBA veteran guard Patty Mills had to show some love to his wife, former Saint Mary’s wing Alyssa Levesque.

Mills, who is one of many Australian basketball players who have attended Saint Mary’s in California, met Alyssa when they were both in college in the late 2000s.

They were married in July 2019 and reportedly have a pretty cute pre-game coffee routine scheduled for whenever the Spurs play in San Antonio.

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