He Has Answers for All the Big Talk : Arkansas: At 270 pounds, Oliver Miller hears a lot about his weight, but he’s big enough to handle it.

The taunts began when Arkansas center Oliver Miller stepped to the free-throw line during the Razorbacks’ 88-85 victory over Texas in the Midwest Regional final last weekend at Dallas.

“Hey Porky, want a hamburger?” a Texas fan shouted.

At 6-feet-9 and 270 pounds, Miller is accustomed to being teased about his weight and his fondness for junk food.

“He says he weighs 270, but he won’t let me see him on a scale,” said Miller’s mother, Annie.

A Dallas newspaper columnist refers to Miller as “Old Cheeseburger Belly.”

When Arkansas played Baylor, fans threw hot dog wrappers and paper cups at the sophomore.

And Miller expects more of the same from Duke’s notorious fans when the Razorbacks face the Blue Devils in an NCAA semifinal game Saturday at Denver. Duke fans once threw a Twinkie at an overweight opponent.

“If they throw me a Twinkie, I’m going to pick it up and give it to my manager, and eat it after the game,” Miller said.

When Arkansas ran a fast-break drill with a medicine ball during practice, a fan joked that Miller’s stomach was so big, it appeared that he had hidden the medicine ball under his jersey.

Do the barbs hurt Miller?

“That really doesn’t bother me,” he said. “It pumps me up. If they mess with me about my weight, evidently they must like me. I can take a joke. My saying is, ‘If you can’t take what you dish out, don’t dish it out’--and I dish out a lot of mess, so I can receive it.”

Nicknamed the Big O, Miller was even bigger when practice began last October, reporting at 305 pounds. And that was after he had been on a diet.

“During the summer, my mom told me to watch out for my weight, so all I ate were salads and fruit,” Miller said. “When I came back to school, I just couldn’t understand how I could weigh 305, because I really didn’t eat that much back at home.”

Said Annie Miller: “I kept fruit in the house for his snacks, but I don’t know what he ate when he left the house.”

Miller tried to work off the weight, wearing a sweat suit during practice. He also went on a one-meal-a-day diet. But instead of losing weight, he lost water, nearly passing out from dehydration.

“When I’d take off the sweat suit, it was just like I’d had a bath,” Miller said.

Doctors discovered that he had an overactive thyroid, and he lost 35 pounds after being placed on medication. He would like to shed even more pounds.

“I feel I’d be a whole lot better player because I’d be quicker and lighter on my feet,” Miller said. “My role is to go into the game and block shots, and to block shots, you got to get off the floor. I feel if I get lighter, I can get higher and block more shots.”

His teammates are split on whether Miller should lose weight.

Mario Credit, Arkansas’ starting center, thinks Miller is the right size.

“I don’t think he’d be a better player if he lost weight,” Credit said. “He plays great at the weight he’s at. I think he feels comfortable at the weight he’s at now.”

But forward Lenzie Howell thinks Miller needs to lighten up.

“If he does lose more weight, he could get a lot better,” Howell said. “He would be more agile and he could do more things.”

Miller, Arkansas’ best rebounder and shot-blocker, has thrown his weight around to help the Razorbacks reach the Final Four for the first time since 1978.

Miller scored 19 points, including 15 in the second half, as Arkansas defeated North Carolina in a Midwest Regional semifinal game last Friday. The most accurate shooter in the Southwest Conference this season, Miller made all seven of his shots and all five of his free throws.

Although he had only nine points and nine rebounds in the victory over Texas, Miller was a factor on defense, destroying the Longhorns’ inside game as he helped force centers Guillermo (Panama) Myers and Hank Dudek to foul out.

As the last line of defense for the Razorbacks, Miller waits to block shots if opponents break through the front court. What makes him such an intimidating defender?

“He has the greatest pair of hands I’ve ever seen,” Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson said. “And he has great awareness of what’s going on on the floor. There are a lot of things you can teach, but you can’t teach awareness and instincts. Those are gifts.

“And he’s got great timing. He blocks a lot of shots, but he keeps them in play. Most guys block shots out of bounds. If you get past our front line of defense and get to the Big O, you pay the price.

“You can go off on him, and I usually do, but when the chips are down, Big O seems to pay off.”

The Big O likes to pop off, too.

Before the Midwest Regional, Miller predicted that Arkansas would have a free ticket to the Final Four if it met Texas in the championship game.

After hearing of Miller’s prediction, Richardson was livid. Miller’s mother also advised him to quit making predictions.

But Miller plans to keep talking.

“Coach told me to stop making statements like that,” he said. “But I backed it up. And I’ll keep talking smack.”

Does Miller have any material for the Duke bulletin board?

“Just tell them to watch out, because we’re ready and we’re on a mission,” he said. “We’ve got one more goal to complete, and that’s to win the national championship.

“Duke has a good inside game, but if they come in with their little weak stuff, I’m going to have to (block) them.”

Richardson realizes that he can’t muzzle Miller.

“The more jive he talks, the better he’s going to play,” the coach said. “Coming out of high school, (talking) was all he did. But by the time he gets to be a senior, I think he’ll have it toned down.”

But Miller doesn’t plan to tone down his act for the nation’s media at the Final Four. An aspiring sportscaster, he’s already preparing new material for Denver.

“I just hope I don’t make a complete fool of myself,” he said.

Miller sometimes makes a fool of himself during games, playing to the Razorbacks’ rabid fans. He is theatrical, pumping his fist to encourage fans to cheer louder and pointing to the scoreboard when Arkansas goes on a scoring spree.

Perhaps Arkansas’ most popular player, Miller has found that fame has a downside because he’s continually being asked for his autograph. And it doesn’t let up on the road, where fans knock on his hotel room door.

What do his teammates think of all this?

“I think it helps him, because it gets him in the flow of his game,” Credit said. “I think it’s to his benefit to talk on the court.”

After Arkansas defeated Texas to reach the Final Four, Miller staged a joyful celebration.

He grabbed the Razorback mascot and gave him a piggyback ride, before he raced over to cut down the nets. It wasn’t an act.

“Ever since I was in high school, I dreamed of playing in the Final Four,” Miller said.

One of the most heavily recruited high school basketball players in Texas after averaging 20 points and 15 rebounds a game while leading Southwest High School of Ft. Worth to the 1988 state title, Miller spurned offers from Texas colleges to play at Arkansas.

Why?

“I didn’t think the schools in Texas got enough publicity and I wanted to go somewhere I could get some pub,” Miller said.

After visiting Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana Tech and Washington State, he signed with Arkansas because of Richardson.

“He’s like a father figure to the players,” Miller said. “If you’re hungry, you can always go over to his house to eat.”

Miller never really knew his own father. After his parents divorced when he was a child, Miller was raised by his mother.

“I’m a mama’s boy,” Miller said. “I’m a mama’s baby.”

A math teacher at Southwest High, Miller’s mother coaches the girls’ freshmen basketball team. She kept the scorebook at all of her son’s high school games. Has she ever offered basketball advice?

“If I say anything, he says, ‘Just because you’re the freshmen coach, you’re going to try to tell me something,’ ” she said. “But you know how mothers are. I tell him anyway.”