Miller’s Number Coming Up Again : Basketball: Former Titan player, now an assistant coach at Fullerton, will have her No. 40 retired in March.

Maryalyce Jeremiah had a promise to keep to Genia Miller, which is why there were a few awkward moments when the Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball team started practice in October and freshman Michele Leitner was wearing No. 40.

Jeremiah, associate athletic director at Fullerton, and Deborah Ayres, in her second season as Jeremiah’s successor as the Titan coach, were in a meeting when Jeremiah casually mentioned that Fullerton was going to retire No. 40 this season.

Ayres’ reaction was quick: Uh-oh.

“Somebody’s got that number,” Ayres said.

“Well, somebody can’t wear that number,” Jeremiah said. Before they had a chance to fix it, the situation was resolved for them. Leitner blew out a knee and is out for the season.

And Miller’s No. 40 will be retired at halftime of the Titan men’s game against UC Santa Barbara on March 5.

Two things about Miller, who returned to Fullerton this fall and is in her first year as one of Ayres’ assistants: She was quite a player; she is almost finished with her degree.

That was her end of the deal with Jeremiah.

“She told me back in 1991 that once I graduated, she would retire my number,” said Miller, who, in 1991, became Fullerton’s first--and only--Kodak All-American. “I was surprised. I really was. I never put myself on a pedestal. It was a great honor.”

Said Jeremiah: “She’s one of my favorite subjects. She’s just come so far. When we recruited her out of Crenshaw High School (in Los Angeles), she was so shy and she just wasn’t very good. She couldn’t shoot a free throw.

“We just really felt that if we could teach her some things and put her in the post as a freshman . . . The one thing she could do was block shots. She had more blocked shots in high school than points. We’d put her in and let her block a couple of shots, then take her out, give her a high-five and tell her how good she was.”

Really, the fact that the promise to retire her number had been kept so quiet was fitting; Miller never was very loud.

Before her first game as a freshman, Miller quietly approached one of Jeremiah’s assistants and said she didn’t think she was good enough to play at Fullerton.

After her sophomore season, she declined Jeremiah’s offer to help her get a spot playing against national competition at the U.S. Olympic Center in Colorado. She still didn’t think she was good enough.

And even though she regularly dunked during pregame warm-up drills, and even though Jeremiah told her it would be great if she did it during a game because she would be the first woman to accomplish the feat, the one time Miller had a golden opportunity, she chose to go for a layup instead.

“It was against UC Santa Barbara and she stole the ball and was on a breakaway all by herself,” Jeremiah recalled. “I was standing up on the sidelines and I said, ‘This is it!’ She made a finger-roll layup instead. And we were ahead by 15 points! She said, ‘Coach, I was just afraid I would miss the shot.’ ”

By the end of her career, Miller, 6 feet 3, became Fullerton’s all-time leading scorer (2,415 points, 20.5 points per game) and leading rebounder (1,162). She also is listed first in the Titan record book under field goals made (914, a Big West Conference record), field goals attempted (1,598, also a conference record), free throws made (587), free throws attempted (849), blocked shots (428, an NCAA record) and blocked shots per game (428, also a conference record).

And they still talk about that night in 1991 when Miller made 10 of 10 field-goal attempts and all eight free-throw attempts during an NCAA tournament victory over Louisiana Tech in Titan Gym.

And this was a kid who couldn’t make a free throw when she arrived at Fullerton.

She remembers that Louisiana Tech game well, and she is proud of the Kodak All-American award from 1991 that hangs on the wall in her office. But her biggest memory from playing at Fullerton?

She hems and haws awhile before finally settling on one.

“You know what?” she said. “I have it. It was coming in here as a freshman and not being able to shoot a free throw. The ball never even made it to the basket. I was pitiful. All I could do was run and block shots.

“And by my senior year, I was an All-American. The progress I made, and having Coach Jeremiah there to help me through it.”

The key to Miller’s success doesn’t necessarily lie in all of those gaudy numbers. No, to see what makes Miller tick, you need only discover why she returned to Fullerton this fall.

She played in Japan the last two seasons--earning $100,000 two years ago and roughly $125,000 last season--but there was the matter of the unfinished degree. Miller has dreamed of opening a day-care center since her freshman year in high school, and she always saw basketball as a means to that end.

“(Opening a day-care center) is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Miller said. “Basketball is a stepping stone for me to obtain that goal. It’s helped me to get where I am now.”

The day-care center Miller envisions will offer educational toys, computers and other mind-expanding devices.

“I want to have an educational center, not just a baby-sitting place for kids,” she said. First, she will finish the two classes needed for her degree this semester. After that, she will have to fend off Ayres’ plans to coax her back for another basketball season.

“I wish we could keep her forever,” Ayres said. “She’s been very helpful this year, particularly at the post position. And, more importantly, having her person around--she’s a great person.”

As for Miller’s plans to end her coaching career after this season . . .

“I am certainly going to sit down and talk with her about it,” Ayres said. “We like having her around.”

No matter what Miller’s association with the Fullerton basketball program, that’s pretty much been the reaction.