Miller Has Grand Goals Off Court

Genia Miller describes her basketball career as a “means to an end,” which is a giant leap ahead of most of her colleagues, who are forced to settle for a means to a dead end.

The future is now for those who occupy the under-appreciated and under-observed world of women’s college basketball. For them, there is no NBA, no lottery, no temptation to trade in a year’s eligibility for six zeroes and a big number with a dollar sign. In women’s basketball, the lure is just the reverse--they would stay and play longer if they could, because after four years, it’s see you later, maybe in some neighborhood rec league.

Oh, every so often a few rich businessmen get bored and decide to flush several million down the drain for the right to toy with a women’s pro league. Right now, the Liberty Basketball Assn., with its skintight unitards and skinflint contracts, is perched on the porcelain. But the only viable way to play for pay, if you’re female and you’re American, is to buy a one-way ticket overseas and pray for a good exchange rate.

Miller, the record-routing senior center at Cal State Fullerton, is in line, waiting for her boarding pass. She could go Euro and possibly pull in a contract worth $100,000--Derrick Coleman dollars in this context. Or she might try Japan. She’d be big in Japan. Miller would go if the salary was the same.

“Most definitely,” she said Thursday night after scoring 44 points to lead Fullerton past New Mexico State, 108-80, and into the Big West Conference championship game. “I’d like to play overseas. It would be a chance to see a different country, to see a other culture . . . and the money is better than it is here.”

Money is important to Miller because she has important plans for it.

She wants to invest it in income property, apartment buildings.

She wants to see her savings grow until she has enough to build a counseling center for inner-city children.

And then a day-care center.

And then a medical clinic.

“I’m going to have to do it a section at a time,” Miller said, “but as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to own my own center for children.”

A thousand points of light? Miller has already scored 2,200 of them as a Titan, each of them tiny steps toward a greater goal for the greater good.

“I’ve always loved children,” Miller said. “I remember growing up on the East Coast and reading about this lady they called Grandma Moses. She got the name because one day, someone left a drug-addicted baby on her doorstep and she took it in and took care of it. Soon, more and more babies came and now she runs her own center for drug-addicted children.

“Ever since I was little, I wanted to do something like this. I just don’t think children should have to go without love and care and everything they need to become responsible, functioning adults in our society.”

Such thinking is fairly grand for someone so young--Miller turned 22 last December--but Miller is used to grand. Everything she does on the basketball court these days seems to fit the description.

The 44 points she scored Thursday broke the Big West Tournament record and tied her own Fullerton record, which she set last month against Nevada Las Vegas.

The 108 points Fullerton scored Thursday set another school record, as did the Titans’ 24th victory, which established another Fullerton precedent--first appearance in a conference tournament final.

And today, there will be more, when the 45 finalists for the 1991 Kodak All-American team are announced. Miller was a given in December. Later this month, 35 of those names will make honorable mention and the remaining 10 will be first-team All-Americans. Miller is expected to make the cut. The man in charge of the West Coast ballot, Fresno State Coach Bob Spencer, saw all he needed Wednesday as his team lost by 38 points to Fullerton as Miller fashioned her own kind of triple-double--29 points, 13 rebounds and 11 blocked shots.

The 11 blocked shots were another school record.

If and when, Miller will become Fullerton’s second All-American women’s basketball player, joining some heady company known as Nancy Dunkle, the high-scoring cornerstone during the Billie Moore dynasty years and a 1976 Olympic silver medalist.

“It would mean everything to me,” Miller said, beaming as the image comes more into focus. “It was a childhood dream. I can remember looking at the poster of Cheryl Miller in my bedroom and thinking, ‘Maybe that can happen to me. . . .’ ”

Cheryl and Genia, by the way, are not related, except for the way they can dominate a basketball game. Thursday, Fullerton actually trailed New Mexico, 11-4, before Miller sank a short turnaround jumper, powered inside for another basket and turned a teammate’s miss into a three-point play--follow and foul--to ignite a 25-6 Titan run, quickly to become run-and-hide.

Almost certainly, Fullerton has already clinched an NCAA playoff berth, but a Big West tournament triumph would assure it, maybe bringing a first-round game to Titan Gym. From there, the lights ahead are gaudy--Las Vegas for the West regionals, New Orleans for the Final Four.

But those sites are simply potential layovers on a longer, international flight. The means to an end. And, Genia Miller is hoping, that could mean a brighter end for the youth of tomorrow.