No Peace in Mideast Regional : Women: USC’s Miller is sharply critical of lack of tournament TV coverage on eve of Trojans’ game against Virginia.

If there is one thing Cheryl Miller can do better than play basketball, it’s talk. And Wednesday, she had a microphone.

Rookie coaches are supposed to be seen and not heard, but USC’s coach had something on her mind at an NCAA Mideast Regional news conference.

On the afternoon before her USC women’s basketball team plays Virginia in tonight’s NCAA Mideast Regional semifinal, Miller was asked about television coverage of women’s basketball.

“If I had a chance, I’d tell Ted Turner: ‘Come on, Ted. Get off your butt. Let’s go!’ ” she said.

“I worked in the industry (as a basketball broadcaster the two seasons before becoming USC coach last September), and I said all along that women’s basketball wasn’t getting the coverage it deserves.

“There are women in this country playing basketball at a very high level, and people who like basketball should be able to see them, like the 6-year-old girl in Iowa who could be shown women playing ball instead of Magic Johnson.

“It’s a shame. It seems like you can put your feet up and find a men’s game any time of the day. With all the satellites, all the cable, TV could do so much more. . . .”

After that, and after predicting that the winner of this regional would win the national championship in Richmond, Va., next week, Miller put her team through a relaxed practice at 19,200-seat Bud Walton Arena, where about 4,000 are expected tonight to watch her 25-3 Pacific 10 champions meet the 27-4 Atlantic Coast Conference champion Cavaliers.

The first game tonight matches No. 1-ranked Tennessee (31-1) and Louisiana Tech (28-3). The winners will meet Saturday night for a Final Four berth.

This is the tournament’s toughest regional. Tennessee was ranked No. 1 in the final regular-season poll, Louisiana Tech No. 6, USC No. 7 and Virginia No. 10.

Said Louisiana Tech Coach Leon Barmore: “I’ve been to 10 Final Fours, and I’d say this regional is tougher than about five of them.”

USC has won five games in a row since it was beaten, 80-50, at Stanford on Feb. 24. Afterward, Miller predicted her team wouldn’t lose again this season.

Although winning, the Trojans haven’t played well. USC’s long-range shooting has dropped to 31%, and the offense seems to have lost its early and midseason sizzle.

But the inside power games of 6-foot-5 senior Lisa Leslie and 6-3 freshman Tina Thompson have been the difference in tight tournament victories over Portland and George Washington.

Leslie, who averages 22 points and 12 rebounds per game, will see a familiar face on the Virginia bench in Cavalier Coach Debbie Ryan, who coached Leslie at a 1989 world juniors tournament in Spain.

“We just hope to contain Lisa; no one can stop her,” Ryan said. “We just don’t want her to go off for 35 against us.”

The only common opponent between the teams is Maryland. The Trojans defeated Maryland, 92-85, to win the preseason Richmond tournament. Virginia won twice in ACC games, 68-56 and 86-83, the second in double overtime. The Tennessee-Louisiana Tech game is a rematch of a 94-60 drubbing by Tennessee at Knoxville on Dec. 22. Since then, the Techsters have won 22 in a row.

“Tennessee’s second string is a top-10 team,” Barmore said. “They’re hands down the best team in the country, and maybe the best in the last six, eight years.”

Women’s Notes

USC Coach Cheryl Miller sought a restraining order in Los Angeles Superior Court against a neighbor she claims is harassing her and threatening to drive her out of her neighborhood because she is black. . . . Tennessee’s Pat Summitt joined Miller in sounding off about a lack of TV exposure for the women’s game. Tonight’s games aren’t being shown live anywhere. “We’ve come a long way, but there’s a long way to go,” she said. “It seems like all the men’s games are on TV. All of our March tournament games should be on TV.”

Summitt, who is 499-124 at Tennessee in 19 seasons, reiterated that she is not interested in becoming the men’s coach at Tennessee, where Wade Houston has resigned. “We’re making great strides in women’s basketball and I want to continue doing that,” she said. Later in a news conference, she was asked what her reaction would be if Houston’s replacement signs for a bigger salary than she receives. “If someone is hired who makes more than Pat Summitt, then we’ll sit down and talk about Pat Summitt,” she said.

Last season, three Pac-10 women’s programs outdrew their counterpart men’s programs: Stanford, Oregon and Washington. This year, only Washington outdrew the men, 4,621 per game to 3,655. Stanford’s women came close: 4,613 for the women, 4,640 for men. . . . Miller is one of three to play and coach in the NCAA women’s tournament. . . . George Washington Coach Jack McKeown, who was an assistant on the 1992 U.S. women’s Olympic team, on Cheryl Miller, at 28, trying to make the team before she was stopped with a knee injury: “She was amazing. I kept thinking to myself: ‘Hey, she’s still got it.’ ” . . . USC’s practice was so low-key Wednesday, Miller and Lisa Leslie finished up with a game of HORSE. Leslie won, on a fourth shootoff.