ASU WBB Q&A: Molly Miller, Graham Rossini, Charli Turner Thorne

By Jeff Metcalfe

Charli Turner Thorne began as Arizona State women’s basketball coaching in 1996 with 40 career wins from three seasons at Northern Arizona and finished in 2022 with 528.

Molly Miller is starting at ASU with 297 career wins, 117 of those Division I in five seasons at Grand Canyon. She is receiving a five-year contract.

Whether Miller, 39, can approach Turner Thorne’s sustained success in 25 seasons at ASU is the central question as Miller takes over a program that was 29-62 in the last three seasons. Turner Thorne came to ASU at 30 after the Sun Devils were 20-60 in the three preceding seasons.

Miller, athletic director Graham Rossini and Turner Thorne addressed a variety of topics at Miller’s introductory press conference Wednesday. Here are some of their collated answers from separate 1-on-1 interviews.

On first power conference job in Big 12

Miller: “The biggest piece of grateful moment for me is reflecting on how I got here but (also) who I got here with. There’s been countless coaches, athletes, administrators, faculty, staff that you don’t go on a journey with unless you’re with them. I’m so grateful for those moments.”

Turner Thorne: “I think she’s ready. I thought I was ready. When you work as hard as Molly does and that detail oriented, you can see how meticulous she is. You’re willing to do whatever it takes, you have confidence.”

On remaining in metro Phoenix

Miller: “The cherry on top was staying here and saving Graham on some relocation expenses. Honestly, it was the vision that sold me. I was going to be pretty picky for my next step if I was blessed to have one. It was the vision and commitment to athletics and women’s basketball that really made it clear I belong here.”

On her coaching staff

Miller: “That’s a working document in progress. We’re still trying to figure out the pieces. I want people that compliment strengths, offsets weaknesses and really bring a diversity of perspectives to the table. That’s really important to me. We’re all going to have our areas of expertise, but at the end of the day the purpose is going to be developing a program that’s going to be successful. I’m looking at some sitting power four assistants along with GCU members. There’s a strategy to mix it all together I’m going through right now.”

Turner Thorne: “I’m trying to help her with her staff, hiring people that are completely locked in. You need somebody that’s national, international, swimming with the sharks for all the top kids for a while.”

On Turner Thorne comparison

Miller “I draw what experience can do and how she made the transition (from NAU to ASU). I’m going to pick her brain on what those nuances are  because my path is similar and I saw her have success. I want to try to replicate that and make her proud.”

Rossini: “I see a lot of parallels to not only Charli but Kenny (Dillingham), JJ (Van Niel), the fact that Kristen(Glattfelder) in beach volleyball made the same transition from GCU and didn’t miss a beat. We want coaches that are just grinders. There’s a grit and determination, a chip on the shoulder but also awareness of using the power of ASU. Charli did that as well as any coach that’s ever been at ASU.

“There’s a lot of parallels in Charli coming from another school in the state, coming from a different level, having a lot of success at ASU. Coach Dillingham coming in with a love for ASU and a great background in the market, which coach Miller has as well. There’s parallels across the board but most importantly an awareness that she can be elite at ASU.

“I’ve been around ASU for 25 years. I see bits and pieces of a number of eras and personalities to touch our state. A lot of coach Dillingham’s energy, his love for ASU, the story of coach Turner Thorne and what she’s meant to this program and what coach Miller could grow into, it’s exciting how this all came together.”

Turner Thorne: “The thing that Molly has going for her is now you have a big wad of money and the portal. She can make her decisions on the roster with no NCAA restrictions, which is great for everybody. Just the ability to get in the portal and go get her players right away, not have to wait as long as you did back in the stone age when I took over.

“That’s a huge difference. I think she’s going to get things flipped pretty quickly. Not that she should feel rushed. I don’t think it’s going to be TCU-like, but I think Molly understands this is a hard job. They’re all hard. She has what it takes. She will put the work in.”

“When you see her energy and how personable she is, she’s going to get out in the community, build affinity, get people excited. This is a great time. Back when I started, nobody cared. It’s a lot different. The fan base is a critical piece (for elite success).

“I did two of her games (as an analyst), I’m liking this defense. They had great energy, they made you work for every touch, great rotations. That was by far the thing I was most impressed with but also they were very unselfish, made the extra pass and played off each other really well. Those two things stood out.”

On Desert Financial Arena renovation

Miller: “There’s plans, but I wouldn’t have taken the job if all areas that touch the program weren’t going to be beneficial to winning. I’m 1-0 in that arena (GCU 66-59 over ASU in 2023-24) so my goal is to bring more wins to it.”

Rossini: “We’ve got a great set-up at Weatherup from a practice facility. We want to update and modernize that. We want to let her live in the space and understand what are some of the recruiting tools, basketball technologies, attributes that can make that an elite day-to-day space for developing great basketball players.

“Then we’re definitely focused on Desert Financial Arena and knowing we’re going to put a multi-year renovation in to make it an elite college basketball experience. That information will come out in the coming months. We’re hard at work building a great environment to bring fans into the conversation and build community support around Sun Devil basketball.

“Like you’re seen in football, creating energy around our sports is step one. It’s unfair we ask our coaches to win at a high level so it’s easier to sell tickets. We need to run a better business. We need to be building support around a great game day. It’s the chicken or the egg. Building a great game day is an important starting point, but wins will come because the team is going to feed off the energy from the fan base and knowing there’s a community support around Sun Devil basketball. When those pair together like we’ve been in football, it takes off. We’ve very mindful we need to improve the basketball experience, and we’re prepared to do that.”

On her 2-1 record vs. ASU while at GCU

Miller: “I think the body of work probably had a little bit more of an impact than any singular game.”

Rossini: “It’s more coincidental. At that point, we were not anticipating making a change and did not have a relationship with coach Miller. I do remember that game at Footprint Center in the fall (70-59 GCU win), the hands-on approach she had coaching. They played tough, they played up tempo, the fan base was behind what they were doing. Not knowing in the moment, but it was helpful to see her action. I watched a lot of her games down the stretch. But thinking back on that game in November, it was very eye-opening in terms of seeing how she is in action, cool under pressure, fiery and energetic, connected with her team, leaning on her assistant coaches. In hindsight, it was probably pretty informative to the decision we got to.”

On 2026 NCAA Women’s Final Four in Phoenix

Miller: “I want ASU to be front and center. Here we are hosting. I want there to be good momentum going into that. I want to be in the tournament and able to represent and bring the Final Four here with a buzz around our program. That will be the goal.”

On rising popularity of women’s basketball

Miller: “We stand on that hard work. There’s a lot of eyes on our sport right now. That comes from history and the great players and great coaches that came before us. I want to use this momentum of taking over a program while eyes are on women’s basketball to heighten the enthusiasm of Arizona State.”

ASU President Michael Crow: “My hope is coach Miller can restore ASU women’s basketball to the highest level of competitiveness possible at a moment when women’s basketball is taking off like a rocket.”

On ASU ties with WNBA and Phoenix Mercury

Miller: “We had players come in and do summer workouts in our gym (at GCU). Caitlin Clark stopped by. I want that access to be available to them so we can really be teammates from the professional level to the college level. I want that cohesive unit for women’s basketball.”

On filling her first ASU roster

Miller: “That is the beauty about the portal. You can plug holes pretty quickly. Our strategy is going to be find out a lot about the kid, not only as a basketball player but as a person. This is an easy sell here. It’s just about us getting to work, scheduling visits and filling the roster.”

Note: 12 ASU players from 2024-25 team  are out of eligibility or in the transfer portal.

On freshman recruiting

Miller: “You’ve got to have a balance between portal recruiting but then long-term development. That’s what I want to do with the younger kid that are here in the region is have them be excited about that vision for the long term. This a hybrid mix of portal but freshman recruiting for the long term.

Rossini: “What she’s done at Grand Canyon, being very effective at high school recruiting, having relevancy on the West Coast and the Northwest, pockets of the Midwest, dipping in internationally. That’s a playbook we think can work well. She’s going to be able to recruit a different caliber of player into the Big 12 so that’s exciting.

“She said my conversation with kids in the portal is about fit. From a head coach to an athlete standpoint, are we connected? The university backdrop will take care of itself, but if we’re not connected out of the gat, this is going to be a fit no matter what I’m coaching from. She’s going to have the resources she needs to be successful in the Big 12.”

Turner Thorne: “If you look at the top programs in the country, they have the top high school kids with the portal. I don’t think the portal (only) is sustainable if you rely on that.”

On playing GCU

Miller: “If there is regional games that generate fan excitement, that’s the best benefit of that game.”

On GCU administration comments about her departure

GCU President Brian Mueller after introduction Monday of new GCU coach Winston Gandy, former South Carolina assistant: “She’s interviewed for jobs every single year. We wanted someone who wanted to be here.”

Miller: “I’m so grateful for my time there. I just want to leave with a gratitude that we accomplished some amazing feats, and we were very successful in that five years and that journey.”

On initial contact with ASU

Rossini: “We knew she had a lot of interest. We wanted to get a sense of where her head’s at. Her team was saying she wanted to talk to ASU before other schools. It was the first day the job was open. We were scheduled just to touch base, let’s connect and understand your level of interest, talk about our process.

“There was an immediate spark and her awareness of what ASU could mean to her leading our program and how she would fit in here seamlessly. It was an easy natural conversation. I don’t think either one of us knew when it was done it was a two-hour conversation, but it was really telling there was alignment. We see the world similarly. She’s willing to put in the hard work and we’re willing to put in the hard work on her behalf. It’s a cool origin story to the outcome we’re celebrating today.

“My feeling after that conversation was we’d better move quickly. There were a number of Power 4 schools that had targeted her. So we accelerated our process. We had a chance to connect on a daily basis and be mindful of coaches on our list, coaches approaching us that had interest, and we kept going back to Molly.

We kept going back to the fact that she wants to be here as badly as we think she could be successful here. I compare it to what we went through with coach Van Niel in volleyball, with coach Dillingham in football. They were pursuing ASU. They knew their skill set, approach to leadership was a fit for what we needed at that moment. I felt very excited she had targeted ASU as much as we were targeting her, and it came together in the right way.”

On realistic chances of a quick turnaround

Rossini: “I think in this environment, you get the right mix of personalities and great coaching and the sky is the limit. We want to be an elite program. That’s the goal when it’s all said and done.

“We’ve got to develop that strong foundation before we can build from rock. There’s a lot of attributes she can use out that gate in an ASU environment. She’s got to build the culture of where Sun Devil basketball goes next. She’s got to put her mark on the program, getting great assistants, getting the right personnel on the roster then we build from there.

“Winning can happen quickly and we’re focused on that, but we’re more focused on building an elite, sustainable program over time.

“We’re prepared to make the investment on women’s basketball. When I took the job, Dr. Crow said I want you to focus on football, basketball and baseball as quick as you can. We’ve seen that in football, we’ve got some momentum in baseball, we’re trying to get basketball going as well. It starts with hiring great coaching. We want to invest in her journey to have the tools she needs to take us to a high level.”

On NIL, revenue sharing and/or collective bargaining

Rossini: “I put a premium on somebody’s that navigating this environment in real time, that understands the market economics, the transfer portal, what we’re anticipating if the (House) settlement gets approved in April.

“We’re going into uncharted waters in college athletics. We’re prepared as a university to be agile and fluid in adapting and growing into that reality. We need to have coaches that can speak that language and navigate that at the same time.”