Grand Canyon University women’s basketball coach Molly Miller has taken the internet by storm since her postgame celebration went viral after the Lopes won the Western Athletic Conference Tournament to punch their first-ever ticket to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
“I don’t have TikTok, but my girls are like, ‘Coach Miller, you’re trending,’ or whatever, and I’m like, ‘Oh, is that a good thing?’ (They’re) like, ‘We’ve got your back.’ It’s awesome,” Miller said. “I’m just glad for the recognition for the program and what this program has done, history they’ve made. These girls are at the forefront of it. I’m so proud of them.”
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GCU has won 30 straight games – the longest active win streak in the country – a mark that was emphatically memorialized when the Lopes captured their first WAC Tournament title in program history last Saturday. The Lopes, seeded No. 13, face fourth-seeded Baylor Friday at Foster Pavillion, the Bears’ rowdy home court in Waco, Texas, in the first round of March Madness.
While the rest of the country might be new to Grand Canyon’s raging success – she’s a top candidate for the open coaching position at Arizona State, a possibility she won’t address until the season is over – Miller saw it coming.
“We said we’re going to win a championship in June. We didn’t say we’re going to win a championship in March,” Miller said. “So I think that mindset from the get-go, we had talent, and it was just about putting the pieces together and the buy-in was there, the leadership was there, the commitment was there.”
This type of success is new for GCU, but not for Miller. She was raised in Springfield, Missouri, a city that for decades has passionately embraced women’s basketball.
Miller played basketball at Kickapoo High School, a hoops powerhouse that has won six state titles in the last 11 years. Miller won two state championships at Kickapoo, where the Lady Chiefs went 110-9 during her four years. An all-state performer in three of those seasons, Miller had some Division I scholarship offers, but decided to stay local at Drury University, a private Division II college in Springfield. Four years later, Miller graduated from Drury in 2008, leaving with a No. 4 ranking on the all-time scoring list (1,570), and third in assists (439) and second in steals (407).
Miller’s journey started before her success at Kickapoo and Drury, though. It began when she was a young girl in elementary school assisting her father in youth camps at Kansas State University, a role that gave her a first taste of coaching. Her love for the sport grew as she attended summer camps at Kickapoo, led by her future college coach, Nyla Milleson; Miller was even the Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) ball girl as an 8-year-old, where she had a close-up view of the game.
That passion blossomed into an illustrious career at Kickapoo, driven by the energy and competitiveness her parents instilled in her.
“My mom is the most energetic person in the room, but my dad is the most competitive person in the room, and he does it in the right way, though, with humbleness and integrity,” Miller, 38, said. “He’s smart, though, he knows how to motivate me.”
Miller’s success at Kickapoo may be remembered most through her two state championships, undefeated senior season and three all-state performance honors. But Miller was also a four-time all-academic selection and graduated as valedictorian of her class.
“When I was in middle school, I was getting ready to go to high school, and (my dad) said, ‘Molly, if you graduate valedictorian of your class, I’ll give you a budget and we can go pick out a new car for you to drive to college.’ So I was driving my new car to college four years later,” Miller said. “So, I just think even that competitiveness within my family – game night, board night is rough – but we still love one another.”
Miller’s competitive drive has been the backbone of her success, starting as a player in high school and college, and later defining her coaching career at Drury and GCU.
Miller’s playing career at Drury includes a stream of accolades. The standout local product earned All-Great Lakes Valley Conference honors three times and was Third Team NCAA-II All-American as a senior. For her work in the classroom, Miller earned the GLVC Paragon Award as a senior, the conference’s highest honor bestowed to an athlete. Miller was inducted into the GLVC Hall of Fame in 2014, becoming the first Drury athlete from any sport to receive that honor.
Milleson, who coached Miller at Drury, is now the university’s Vice President and Director of Athletics. Miller has stayed very close with Milleson and considers her a role model, picking up several of her coaching techniques during her college years.
Miller’s internal drive caught Milleson’s attention from the start, a passion that convinced the coach that Miller would find success in anything she chose.
“Molly’s very driven in everything that she does. We lost a game in the regionals. Tight game, probably shouldn’t have lost. We were nationally ranked, and I literally had to run her out of the locker room at 10, 11 o’clock that night with her uniform still on, just because she was so heartbroken that she couldn’t get done for her team what our goals were to set out,” Milleson said.
“She’s driven. She’s got passion for whatever she does. She’s a great motivator.”
After graduating from Drury, Miller spent four years with the Springfield Neurological and Spine Institute as the marketing director. In 2012, she took a pay cut and returned to her alma mater as an assistant coach. Two years later, Miller took over the head coaching duties and led the Panthers to the NCAA Tournament five years in a row, including three straight trips to the Sweet 16.
“There wasn’t any question that, if that’s what she wanted to do, she could be a coach. When this opportunity at Drury arose, there was conversation, ‘Gosh, am I ready for this? I’ve never done this, can I do it?’ And absolutely, Molly, you can do whatever you want,” Milleson said. “If being the head coach at Drury University is what it is at this time, go for it and you will be great.
“If there is one word that you can probably use for Molly every step since I’ve known her since third grade, that you would say about Molly Miller is she’s a winner.”
Throughout her five years as a coach at Drury, Miller went 148-17, and 85-5 in GLVC regular season games. In 2020, Miller made the move to the Valley when GCU hired her on April 7, 2020, where she’s been for five seasons.
Milleson said Miller’s accomplishments are not surprising. Milleson took a similar journey – playing in high school, coaching at the Division II level and then Division I. The talent on the floor might have changed between levels, but the X’s and O’s of basketball remain the same.
Miller found instant success at GCU and hasn’t looked back. Including this season, Miller has a cumulative 117-36 record. Dating back to her playing time, Miller’s overall record as a player and coach is 487-79. That success derives from her coaching style.
“I think for me, it’s be authentic and true. Be a reliable coach that you can develop relationships with these players. I had those role models growing up with Nyla and my dad,” Miller said. “They just did it so masterfully, and for me, you can see the payoff of that in the end.
“I can demand a lot of my kids, because I’ll run through a brick wall for them. When you do this together, I think anything is possible. I just had that good example growing up.”
As Miller has risen to stardom in the Valley with GCU, her hometown of Springfield hasn’t forgotten about her. The city that watched her grow up, win state titles at Kickapoo, and set records at Drury is ready to show its support when GCU takes the court in Waco, Texas.
“I’ve gotten so many messages from my friends and family, past players that I coached, who are probably going to make the trip down to Waco. That is what the sport is about. I don’t know if anyone’s going to remember the scores at the end of the day, but you sure do hold on to those relationships and that’s a life thing for us,” Miller said. “When you have family for life through basketball, there’s nothing that compares to that. It’s just the most special feeling to be able to spin the highs and lows with one another and share the joy.”
Miller may have become a recent household name in the Valley, but that’s been the case in her hometown for years. The Kickapoo and Drury star long ago stamped her name in the city’s history books, and she’ll always have its support.
Now with her team making its first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, the Springfield community will be eagerly watching its icon.
“Molly Miller is certainly a legend and a household name in Springfield. The success she’s had at Grand Canyon, there’s a lot of buzz. Social media is a fun thing to be able to follow. I know there’s a lot of people that go out to the games,” Milleson said. “I know there’s a lot of Grand Canyon fans here in Springfield, and certainly a lot, including me, that watch that ESPN ticker on Saturday afternoons to see how Grand Canyon and Molly are doing. Certainly a lot of buzz and a lot of love for Molly back in her hometown of Springfield, Missouri.”
As Miller’s GCU Lopes travel to Waco for their matchup Friday with Baylor, they will be underdogs. The Lopes have been the hunted all season long, but now they’ll be the hunters.
GCU is a double-digit underdog in Friday’s first-round game, but Miller and her squad are confident in their chances.
“I have to say without a doubt that she was the most competitive player. I coached for 36 years and the most competitive player I’ve ever coached,” Milleson said. “Certainly one of the hardest workers that I’ve ever had.”
Miller has instilled a confidence in her players that has them believing they can go anywhere and beat anybody.
“Now we’re the underdogs, and we have nothing to lose,” said senior guard Alyssa Durazo-Frescas, who is second on the Lopes in points, averaging almost 15 per game, while leading the team shooting 47% from 3-point range.
GCU enters the NCAA Tournament with the best winning percentage in the country, ranked second in field goal percentage (49.3%) and sixth in 3-point percentage. Miller and her players credit the scout team for the Lopes’ success throughout this season, saying the behind-the-scenes support staff has pushed and challenged them every day.
“You’re only as good as the people that surround you, and I have an amazing staff. I have to give a lot of credit to the hours and the dedication, work that they pour into this program,” Miller said. “There’s no way we can be successful without a group that surrounds our program, from trainers to the support staff, assistance, managers, everyone has a huge impact in our success. So bringing those people along and acknowledging them are really important to me.”
In the Lopes’ preparation for the Bears this week, Miller looked back on her coaching days at Drury when she led her team to the NCAA Tournament all five years.
“At Drury, I always said, ‘In (the) postseason, one, defense has to travel. You have to value the basketball and rely on the foundation you built. Don’t do anything different. Don’t think this is a schematics game. This is a mentality game,’” Miller said. “So in practice, that’s what we really focused on: The mentality of winning, getting our best shot, and going in there with the mindset that we’re going to knock off the Baylor Bears.”
There is no doubt GCU will arrive in Waco confident. The Lopes rank No. 6 in the country in steals (13.0) and No. 10 in turnovers forced per game (22.3). Both Baylor and GCU beat Arizona and ASU, with Oregon the common opponent loss. Regardless of the outcome Friday against Baylor, the Lopes will leave it all on the court.
It’s the only way their coach knows how to play.
“(Molly’s) going to fight, and she picks fighters to fight with her,” senior guard Trinity San Antonio said.
