LOS ANGELES — Breaths flow and muscles unclench for just a few minutes this Friday night at the Galen Center, a timeout on the court pausing a breakneck bout between USC and Colorado. The promotions team runs out courtside to pick a fan to man a prize wheel, and there is little deception when they announce the spinner: “Cheryl M.”
The crowd tunes back in immediately as Cheryl Miller pops up on the JumboTron, her energy pouring life into buzzing seats. This is who she was 40 years ago, dusting off the memories of the legend she built at USC, her fire as a Trojan so great that she joked concession-workers could hear her bellow after and-ones. This is who she is 40 years later, hamming it up for the hometown crowd, spinning the wheel and landing on one section in the lower basin to receive a prize. She holds her hand to her ear, mock-searching for the winning group, finding the row and motioning for them to stand.
“I think Cheryl,” former USC teammate Rhonda Windham said, “is finding some joy in life right now.”
Miller has found it, specifically, at Galen. As JuJu Watkins and the USC women’s basketball program have captivated Los Angeles, Miller has been their most radical supporter. An icon of the game has poured her soul back into USC, such an emotional barometer that senior McKenzie Forbes sought her out to mimic a chest-pound on the sideline after one 3-pointer against Colorado.
Sitting courtside for one game this winter, Miller saw Tina Thompson, a former legend herself, who Miller had coached at USC in the 1990s. She ran up to Thompson on the baseline at halftime, embracing her.
“What,” Miller recalled Thompson saying, “did they say to get you back?”
It wasn’t until then, really, that Miller realized how disconnected her relationship with USC had been.
For decades, Miller had felt disillusioned with the program’s direction. There was little support, Miller felt, from the university. The women’s team stagnated for years, never…
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