Molly Miller - Women's Basketball Coach - Grand Canyon University Athletics

Molly Miller

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
molly.miller@gcu.edu
Alma Mater:
Drury (2008)
Year at GCU:
5th season
Career Record:
265-52 (.836)

Miller's marks

SEASON	SCHOOL	RECORD
2014-15	Drury	26-4
2015-16	Drury	26-5
2016-17	Drury	30-4
2017-18	Drury	31-3
2018-19	Drury	35-1
2019-20	Drury	32-0
2020-21	GCU	18-7
2021-22	GCU	22-10
2022-23	GCU	21-10
2023-24	GCU	24-8
Career	10 years	265-52

WBCA Division II Coach of the Year

2019, 2020

Conference championships

2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

NCAA Division II Final Four

2019

Molly Miller is leading the Grand Canyon women's basketball program for her fifth season as Lopes head coach after taking over the program on April 7, 2020.

Miller is coming off a record-breaking season for the program in which the Lopes won a D-I era best 24 games, tied a program record with 11 road victories and had the second most home wins in a season with 13 at GCU Arena. From 2013-14 to 2019-20, GCU totaled 63 wins when playing in Phoenix, and since Miller took the helm prior to the 2020-21 season, has helped transform GCU Arena into one of the toughest places to play with 50 wins and and a 80% winning percentage in Phoneix in four seasons.

Miller enters the 2024-25 season with an .836 winning percentage, fourth highest among active Division I head coaches who have spent at least four years at the D-I level. The two-time Division II Coach of the Year ended her Drury career by leading the D-II national runner-up in 2019 and an undefeated, top-ranked 2020 team when the national tournament was canceled because of COVID-19.

At GCU, Miller has compiled a 85-35 (.708) overall record and a 50-18 (.735) conference mark while solidifying GCU Arena as one of the toughest places to play with a 50-12 (.833) record at home.

The Lopes earned a D-I program era best 24 wins in 2023-24, highlighted by its 19th ranked scoring defense (56.2) and 28th best scoring margin (13.3). GCU averaged double digits steals for the fourth consecutive season to rank 36th in steals per contest (10.2) while countering on the offensive end with the 40th best field goal percentage in the nation (44.6%).

The 2023-24 season consisted of major award winners including All-WAC First Team recipient Tiarra Brown, WAC Sixth Woman of the Year Laura Erikstrup and All-WAC Defensive duo in Trinity San Antonio and Brown. The first team accolade for Brown was a milestone achievement for the forward out of Spanaway, Washington, and Miller's first GCU recruit, as she became the first Lope to achieve two first team nods and three total conference accolades.

GCU set a new program best NET ranking of 85 on two separate occasions throughout the 2023-24 campaign. Highlighted wins include a 66-59 victory on the road at Arizona State, the school's first ever win over a Pac-12/Big 12 program. The Lopes also defeated eventual NCAA Tournament team Middle Tennessee, 68-59, in front of its home crowd, the second best victory via NET rankings in program history.

In her third season at the helm in Phoenix in 2022-23, Miller's lockdown defense shined again as the Lopes tallied 12.6 steals per game, fourth best in the nation. Miller's defenses at GCU have consistently ranked among the nation's top five in that category with a three-year average of 12.9 per contest. GCU also ranked eighth in the country in turnovers forced per game (21.29) and fourth in the WAC in 3-point percentage defense (29.3%).

The 2022-23 season saw the Lopes finish 21-10 overall, 12-6 in the WAC with a 13-4 showing at GCU Arena. Highlighted victories include a 74-70 home win over Stephen F. Austin, the highest ranked victory in program history via NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings, and a 71-63 win at Montana. Miller was a key piece in bringing crosstown Arizona State to GCU Arena as part of a home-and-home series. On Nov. 30, 2022, the Sun Devils visited Phoenix in front of 6,019 fans, the highest attended women's basketball game in program history.

Miller coached her first GCU signee, Tiarra Brown, to an All-WAC first-team honor for averaging 11.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game and solidifying herself as one of the conference's best defenders. Brown, alongside guard Aaliyah Collins, each received All-WAC Defensive Team honors as the two combined for 141 of the team's 392 steals.

In Phoenix, Miller’s high-pressure defense has seen GCU rank nationally in steals per game and turnovers forced per game. GCU finished third in the country in steals per game (12.6), steals (404) and 10th in turnovers forced (21.72) in 2021-22 and second in steals (334) and steals per game (13.4) and fourth in turnovers forced per contest (23.28) in her first season in 2020-21.

Miller and the Lopes earned back-to-back appearances in the WAC Tournament championship game in 2021 and 2022. The 2021-22 season concluded in the WNIT first round, the Lopes' first WNIT berth in program history.

Miller posted an astounding 180-17 record over six years at her alma mater, Drury. Her Panthers teams held a stunning 67-1 mark over her last two seasons in her hometown of Springfield, Missouri.

“Given the unbelievable success Coach Miller has experienced on the basketball court, we are incredibly excited about the future of the women’s basketball program,” GCU President Brian Mueller said at the time of Molly Miller her hiring. “Her basketball record is nothing short of incredible, but even more important is who she is as a person. Her leadership capabilities and strong faith background make her an ideal representative of the University.”

The competitive fire of a 2008 Division II third-team All-American has translated to coaching. Miller maintained Drury's tradition upon becoming head coach at age 28, and she ascended the program to reach the 2019 Division II Final Four and post a 32-0 record in 2019-20, when the Panthers were ranked No. 1 every week in the Division II poll.

“Coach Miller is one of the winningest college head coaches in the country and a true leader who knows how to run a championship program,” GCU Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs said of Miller's hiring. “She has tremendous character, is passionate about her faith and will be a wonderful leader for our student-athletes.”

If an undefeated mark does not state Drury’s dominance under Miller enough, the Panthers also led Division II in scoring margin for her last two seasons there. Drury won by 27.9 points per game in 2018-19 and 28.5 per game in 2019-20.

“Molly is a rising star,” Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Executive Director Danielle Donehew said after her peers gave her consecutive Division II Coach of the Year honors.

Miller’s teams defend with the intensity and trapping that was her trademark as a player. From 2004 to 2008, Miller played at Drury as a 5-foot-6 point guard and four-year starter. She ranks fourth in program history for career points (1,570), third for assists (439) and second for steals (407).

Miller recruits players with a similar hunger to win and work to improve. She challenges them on the court, invests in their lives off the court and keeps an open-door policy to form long-term relationships.

Growing up in Springfield as Molly Carter, she found her love of basketball at age 8 as a ball girl for national power Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State). She mastered dribbling and finishing with either hand and progressed into a player who won two state championships at Kickapoo High School, where her teams went 109-9 (.924). In her Drury playing career, her teams went 112-18 (.862).

At every step, she has been a determined winner.

"To this day, she’s the most competitive person I’ve ever been around,” her Drury coach, now-George Mason head coach Nyla Milleson, once told the Springfield News-Leader.

In her first job, Miller spent four years as a marketing director for Springfield Neurological and Spine Institute, putting her master of business administration to use while giving basketball instruction on the side. She took a pay cut to return to Drury as an assistant coach for two seasons before being elevated to interim head coach, a title that lost the “interim” tag after a 7-2 start.

Under Miller, Drury became the first Great Lakes Valley Conference program to win four consecutive titles and went 105-5 in conference play (55-0 at home) over her six-year tenure. Drury was ranked in the Division II top 25 for a nation-leading 111 consecutive weeks. All the while, she put an emphasis on her players being students first, learning life skills and acting as community stewards.

Miller and her husband, Derek, have two children, Crosby and Cy.