Arizona State's primary target in the hiring process for its new women's basketball coach has landed in Tempe and did not have to travel far to accept this job.
On Saturday morning, ASU announced that Molly Miller, who has coached at crosstown rival Grand Canyon University for the last five years, has accepted the job with the Sun Devils. Miller led the Antelopes to a 32-3 record this season, which included a 30-game winning streak and GCU’s first berth in the NCAA Women’s Tournament. Overall, Miller complied a 117-38 (.760) record at GCU, and overall is 297-55 (.845) at the collegiate level that also included 180 wins in six seasons at her alma mater Drury College in Missouri.
ASU will hold a welcome press conference on Wednesday, March 26.
“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Coach Molly Miller to the Sun Devil family. Molly’s track record of excellence — both on and off the court — aligns seamlessly with our vision for ASU women’s basketball,” said ASU Athletics Director Graham Rossini. “She has built winning cultures at every level, from her days as a high school state champion and valedictorian to becoming one of the most exciting and sought-after coaches in Division I basketball.”
“I am incredibly excited and grateful to be named the Head Women's Basketball Coach at Arizona State University,” Miller said. “I want to express my sincere appreciation to President Dr. Michael Crow and Athletics Director Graham Rossini for their belief and trust in me. Their vision for the program's future aligns perfectly with my own, and I am eager to work alongside them to build a championship-caliber team both on and off the court. The comprehensive resources, clear commitment to women's basketball, and compelling vision for the program's future at ASU truly made this opportunity stand out. I can’t wait to start working with our dedicated student-athletes and staff to build a successful and thriving program that the Sun Devil community can be proud of."
Jeff Metcalfe, who has covered Arizona State sports for nearly four decades for the Arizona Republic and now covers women's basketball for the Jon Wilner Hotline and Sports 360 AZ, said that while Miller has yet to coach at a power conference level, she is "a proven commodity" and a quality hire for the Sun Devils.
“In five years at GCU, they've gone from 18 wins to this year having 32 wins and going to the tournament for the first time,” Metcalfe remarked. “I'm pretty comfortable in saying that I think she'll come in here and be able to recruit and show that she is a capable coach at a power conference school level.
“To be honest, I think she could come in here and capture the imagination of the fans and the public in general a little bit like (ASU head football coach) Kenny Dillingham has done. The NCAA women's Final Four is going to be here a year from now, and I think that's also part of the reason that they hired her. They want to get the program going in the right direction, so when the Final Four comes here, people are gonna be looking at this place and say, ‘Wow! What a great place to live. What a great place to come to.’ And now you've got this young coach in place, and whatever happens in the first year, I think people will cut her some slack because it could be a challenge to get players in here. But I believe that she's the right person going forward, and ASU will be in a good situation a year from now when, basically, the whole women's basketball world is going to be here for the Final Four.”
With this hire, there are some inevitable comparisons to be made between Miller and former ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne, who retired from coaching after 26 years in Tempe, where she led the Sun Devils to 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, including two Elite Eights and three Sweet Sixteen appearances. Turner Thorne also came from an in-state school, Northern Arizona University, and much like Miller, has a formidable defense-first philosophy that has contributed to her success.
“I'm not saying people took that (success) for granted,” Metcalfe said, “but that level of success and consistency is hard to achieve over those 25 years. Miller has a big job ahead of her to get this team up and running to where it can be successful and get it to the tournament. But then maintaining it in the way that Charlie did over an extended period of time that's a real challenge. I can only come up with maybe five or six ASU players at the most who are not either graduating or already in the portal. So you have a huge hole in your roster that you're gonna have to fill from the portal that opens on Tuesday. The fact that GCU lost last night and Molly could now move on and get going on this new job was important from a portal standpoint, getting the players in here and trying to get things going in the right direction.
“Charlie had only been a head coach for three years before she came to ASU at the age of 30. Miller is 38 years old and has been coaching for 11 years. But Charlie came in a whole different environment because now you got the portal, you got NIL. You have to find that blend of how we can bring people in from the portal and get good freshmen and get them blended together so that you can have an elite program. So, there are a lot of challenges ahead. Getting the arena renovated can help recruit going forward, and the better you can be, the better NIL basis you can have.
“I think Miller’s style of coaching and her overall philosophy does have parallels to Charlie’s. I've watched the three games when GCU played ASU over the last three years, and GCU won two of those. Miller is a defensive-minded coach, but she had a pretty good offense, too, that gets up and down the floor. If you watched the NCAA Tournament Baylor game yesterday was a two-possession game with five and a half minutes to go, and GCU was up against the Big 12 regular season and Big 12 tournament runner-up. That's a pretty impressive performance for a school playing in an NCAA tournament program for the first time ever. They didn't look out of place there, and she coached a very good game.
“I think that ASU got the right person.”
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