TSL BLACK HISTORY MONTH: THE BEAUTY OF BEING A BOSS (Cheryl Miller)

Cheryl Miller is considered one of the finest basketball players to ever grace the hardwood. Anyone who saw her tearing it up for USC back in the 80s wouldn’t argue that assertion. She’s a pioneer who put women’s basketball on her broad shoulders and carried it into the 90s, where the sport’s popularity increased with the advent of the WNBA. 

She’s been the Trina of ballers.

She’s been a Grade A NBA analyst. She coached her Trojans alma mater to two straight NCAA appearances (1993-95). She’s been a general manager and coached the Phoenix Mercury to the WNBA Finals (1997-2000). Miller’s accomplishments in the sports and sports journalism arena are legendary. Her next ambitious step is to use all of her lifetime experience and organizational savvy to build an unheralded HBCU basketball program into the UConn of the NAIA. It would be her most remarkable feat to date. More impressive than her Olympic gold medals, scoring records or being “better” than her NBA brother Reggie. 

Miller has already taken a humble, unknown program which was 20-13 and finished in third-place in the Red River Athletic Conference in 2014 and flipped it into a first-place squad with a 20-1 record, including a 17-game win streak to set her regime off in Hollywood fashion.

Miller is well on her way to building the juggernaut she and AD Mike Garrett envisioned. Study the profound science as Miller drops jewels on how to turn the Holiday Inn into the Shangri-La Suite. 

The Shadow League spoke to Miller in depth back in May, shortly after she took the job at Langston University, a Division III school with an enrollment of 2,198, located about 15 minutes northeast of Guthrie, Oklahoma. It’s a two-part interview that covers Miller’s glorious career and her goals for the future. 

Our Game 2: Basketball Legend Cheryl Miller, Part 1

https://theshadowleague.com/articles/our-game-2-basketball-legend-cheryl-miller-part-i

Our Game 2: The Incomparable Cheryl Miller, Part 2

https://theshadowleague.com/articles/our-game-2-the-incomparable-cheryl-miller-part-ii

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