Cheryl Miller Resigns as USC Coach

Cheryl Miller abruptly resigned as coach of the USC women’s basketball team Friday, leaving behind only a written statement containing a reference to a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” believed to be in sports broadcasting.

Named as interim coach was her associate coach, Fred Williams.

Neither Miller nor Williams was available for comment, both having left campus after their players were told Miller was leaving.

Miller was an All-American player at USC in the mid-1980s, played on the 1984 U.S. Olympic championship team and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last May.

She was hired by USC in the fall of 1993 and found herself in a storm center. The previous coach, Marianne Stanley, had refused to sign a contract extension, left, and later filed a gender equity suit against USC, which she lost.

Miller, 31, left a broadcasting career when Athletic Director Mike Garrett hired her in 1993, in the wake of the messy Stanley departure.

Miller said at the outset of her tenure that she wanted to do some broadcasting while she coached, but decided later that coaching required all her time.

One source said Miller made “around $100,000” at USC, but in her departure announcement Friday it sounded as if she was leaving for much more.

“I’ve had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presented to me, one that was very difficult to pass up,” she said in the statement.

Miller told her team at a meeting that she was leaving, and the news apparently stunned her players. Some were said to be angry.

“She told them: ‘This is the second-hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. The first was when I took the job under difficult circumstances,’ ” said one player’s parent, who asked not to be identified.

“We’re upset,” said the parent. “What kind of commitment was this? She recruits these freshmen, brings them in here, and then leaves?”

Even a longtime friend and former teammate, Rhonda Windham, was caught off guard.

“I’m shocked,” she said. “I just saw her yesterday. She didn’t say anything about leaving.”

Spokesmen for ABC, ESPN, CBS and Prime said Miller has not been offered a job by any of their networks, or at least they were not aware of any kind of offer.

Miller coached one outstanding team in her two seasons, the 26-4 1993-94 club that won the Pac-10 championship and reached the NCAA’s final eight, losing to eventual national champion Louisiana Tech. Her team finished fifth in the Pac-10 last year and lost in the NCAA tournament’s first round.

Her best player was Lisa Leslie, 1994 national player of the year who is now playing for the U.S. national team.

When Miller was the surprise pick to succeed Stanley in 1993, some predicted she would have trouble coaching players who couldn’t approach her skills as a player. And at times, they were right.

Her frustration at times drove her into rages. Once, she stormed out of USC’s Lyon Center immediately after a game. In another home game last season, against Washington, she punched a bulletin board in frustration over her players’ inability to stop a Washington three-point shooter.

Yet at other times her players brought her great joy. In a game at San Diego State last season, reacting to a leaping blocked shot by Michelle Campbell, her post player, she did a high kick and knocked over a chair.

Before her 1994 coaching debut at Northern Illinois, she talked of coaching teams and not players, and of the frustrations of teaching players with a fraction of her ability.

“I know players are all different, that they all bring something special to the game,” she said.

“I would never expect any player to do what I know they can’t. But I do think I can teach them how to think, interact and play as a team, as a unit.”

Williams, 38, was named associate coach when Miller was hired. He was a USC assistant when Miller played for the Trojans.

Times staff writer Larry Stewart contributed to this story.