The Cal State Fullerton women's basketball program has only been to the NCAA Tournament twice since the first iteration of the competition in 1982. Genia Miller (now Genia Miller-Rycraw) was a vital member of both of those teams and you could very easily make the argument that she is the best player in program history.
A member of the inaugural Cal State Fullerton Athletics Hall of Fame Class in 2005, Miller joined the program for the 1987-88 season. As a 6-3 center, she immediately carved out a role on the team that boasted an 18-11 record under Dr. Maryalyce Jeremiah, averaging 6.9 and 5.6 rebounds per game. The Los Angeles native was named the 1988 Big West Freshman of the Year. Ultimtately, the Titans saw their season end at the hands of UNLV in the PCAA Tournament.
Things were different in 1988-89 for the Jeremiah's squad as a whole and for Miller individually. It was a season of firsts as the Titans posted their first-ever 20-win season (21-9 overall) and made their first trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Fullerton started off the season as one of the hottest teams in the nation, winning 11 of its first 12 contests, including a 2-0 start in Big West Conference play.
The Titans would finish in a tie for fourth in the Big West during the regular season and won their first game in the league tournament before bowing out in the second round to nationally-ranked and defending champion Long Beach State.
However, it wasn't enough to keep Miller and Cal State Fullerton out of the 48-team NCAA bracket as the Titans were sent to Missoula, Mont., for their first-round contest against the University of Montana.
Although the team would lose to Montana, the season was still a resounding success for the team and Miller individually as she was named to the All-Big West Conference First Team at the end of the regular season – the first of three all-conference first-team awards she would receive in her career. She tallied 20.1 points per game (the eighth-best mark in school history), 8.9 rebounds per game, 109 total blocks (3.6 per game), also the second-best single-season total in school history.
Miller would only improve in her junior campaign as she poured in 23.9 points per game, the third best single-season average in program history. She also hauled in 12.1 rebounds and blocked 3.90 shots per game. The team would boast just a 14-14 overall record but Miller went on to claim first-team all-conference honors yet again.
As a senior, Miller's numbers were ridiculous, to be honest. She poured in 29.4 points per game on a whopping 60.1 field goal percentage. She scored 969 points that season alone. She also blocked 146 total shots (4.4 per game). Both her 29.4 average and 146 blocks are still Big West records to this day. She also hauled in 12.3 rebounds, a single-season CSF record. Miller was named the 1991 Big West Player of the Year and until Raina Perez in 2020, Miller was the only winner of that award in school history.
In the opener of the Big West Tournament, Miller wanted to set the tone and make sure there were no doubts who the Big West Player of the Year was. She posted the first triple double in school history (and just the fifth all-time) in a 79-41 win over Fresno State on March 6, 1991, tallying 29 points, 13 rebounds and 11 blocks. The very next day she set the school record for points in a game with 44 in a win over New Mexico State (108-80) to send the Titans to the final against Long Beach State.
After falling in the Big West championship game to archrival Long Beach State, Fullerton was awarded a berth into the 48-team field as the No. 7 seed, locking them into a first-round match-up with three-time national champion Louisiana Tech.
After leading by as many as nine in the second half, the Titans watched their lead dwindle to just a single point with 1:53 remaining in the game. The Techsters would stay close and trail by only two with less than a minute, however, leading scorer Sheila Ethridge was called for travelling after slipping on the court, giving the Titans the ball and a chance to seal the game.
Michelle Hennessey hit a pair of free throws with :24 left and Fullerton would hold on for the program's first NCAA win and eliminate Louisiana Tech in the first round for the first time in 10 years.
Miller posted yet another incredible performance as she became only the second player in the 10-year history of the tournament to shoot a perfect game (10-for-10) while attempting at least 10 shots.
However, the magical run would come to an end on the court in Palo Alto, as defending national champion Stanford and its front-line was too much for the Titans. Miller still produced, like always, as she scored a team-high 23 points to go with 12 rebounds in her final collegiate game.
Miller continues to stand as the only player to score more than 2,000 points (2,415 total, fourth-best in Big West history) and grab 1,000 rebounds (1,162 total) in a career. She holds nine career and 11 single-season marks in the Fullerton record book and her name can be found 57 times in the Big West Conference record book. She was named a Kodak All-American in 1991, the third All-America honoree in school history.
Her legacy will never be forgotten at Cal State Fullerton as her No. 40 is one of two women's basketball retired numbers hanging in the rafters at Titan Gym.