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/ Men's BasketballCoro: Family formed coaches, stays at teams' cores
8/19/2020 9:00:00 AM | General, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball
Miller, Drew start GCU culture with ways learned from playing for their fathers
There is a basketball home at Grand Canyon.
It is not GCU Arena, the campus' basketball landmark, known for its riveting game environment.
The Lopes basketball family tree takes root in a building that sits in the shadows of the campus entrance's row of palms and within a 7-foot center's wingspan of the Arena side door.
Upstairs in the GCU Basketball Practice Facility, Bryce Drew and Molly Miller reside in offices that are like siblings' bedrooms at opposite ends of the hallway. With only a lobby separating them and a practice court balcony joining them, Drew and Miller also are close in family philosophy as the head coaches march the programs in lockstep toward NCAA tournament goals.
The family business is relative to Drew and Miller, who each shot to playing and coaching success with fathers who coached basketball. They now feel charged with helping raise GCU players as students and athletes.
"Watching how my dad treated his program and the players and coaches, they were family," said Drew, whose Collegiate Basketball Hall of Famer father, Homer, coached him and seven NCAA tournament teams at Valparaiso.
"Ever since I can remember, my dad would discipline me the same way that he disciplined his players. He would encourage me the same way he would encourage his players. There wasn't a difference in the two, so that's made coaching an easy transition for me because I haven't really known anything else but that our team is a lifestyle and it's family-oriented."
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Coaches line up well
Hired within three weeks of each other in the spring, Drew, 45, and Miller, 34, bring similarities that are no coincidence for why GCU pursued each one. Each has the requisite basketball coaching success – Drew took Valparaiso and Vanderbilt to the NCAA tournament, and Miller recorded the best winning percentage (91.3%) among all NCAA basketball coaches on any men's or women's level.
They are Midwesterners who see the world with Christian values and see the court as point guards. They grew up with a coaching pedigree that was predicated on positivity and fun and winning systems that thrive on defense and tempo.
For Miller, growing up in Springfield, Missouri, it was learning the fundamentals of defense first from her father, just as she taught it to the Lopes on their first practice day with extended arms rotating like propellers.
"He taught me a lot of the intangibles on work ethic and then he grew my game from defense," Miller said of Jack Carter, who founded Baby Bears Basketball Club in 1997 in Springfield. "He's probably the sole person who made me start to love that end of the floor, and then I continued to love that end. The apple didn't fall too far from the tree when it came to defensive mentality."
The Drew late night coaching calls will resume with his father and his brother, Scott, who took over the Baylor men's basketball team when it was on probation and built it into a national powerhouse. Homer calls GCU "an answer to prayer" for Bryce, who worked as an ESPN analyst last year.
Homer always encouraged players about having another opportunity and Bryce found his at GCU, a Christian university to fit his faith. Each practice opens with prayer, and Bible study will be a tenet of the program.
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New approaches embraced
"I really like him so far," Lopes senior center Alessandro Lever said. "It's been really easy. We're starting from zero. We're getting to know each other. It's really exciting, actually. He's the type of coach that talks to everybody. We're trying to create a group and he's asking if we need anything and if we have any suggestions. I think it's going to be a really good year."
That is more than a hunch. Lever is among a group of standout returnees, including Jovan Blacksher Jr. and Oscar Frayer, along with Drew's first recruiting class of seven players his staff signed in swift work. Drew is a noted recruiter, having landed Darius Garland (the NBA's No. 5 pick in 2019) and Aaron Nesmith (a projected NBA top-15 pick this year) while at Vanderbilt.
Drew's personable ways connect with recruits to gain their trust. That's also his approach as a coach, just as his father treated players with sincerity and respect and spent hours with players for video breakdowns or life advice.
"There's no substitute for time together and going through experiences with each other," Drew said. "The more we can be around each other, I think doing things together makes that bond stronger. Hopefully as things get better (with COVID-19), we can spend more time off the court and eating together."
Miller wants to create a similar familial feeling in her players, whom she expects to be community ambassadors. She demands a lot from them to win but also because she follows her father's mantra: "The better you get, the more fun it is."
GCU players, new and returning, were taken aback at Miller's first GCU practice in July when she was running alongside them on fast-break drills.
"She's really energetic," said Lopes junior guard Tianna Brown, whose sister, Tiarra, is a freshman teammate as Miller's first GCU signee. "She is going to challenge us and expects a lot of us.
"She wants us all to feel like sisters. She says that if we feel like we're sisters on the court, then that's how we're going to play."
Â
COVID brings challenges
Some of that has been more difficult to establish. Drew and Miller took over programs amid the pandemic, which meant recruiting was limited to virtual campus visits and July practices could not carry the same intensity with social distancing precautions in place to limit contact and grouping.
There is great anticipation for the seasons ahead. The Arizona State men scheduled a two-year series with the Lopes that would have began this year at GCU Arena until the Pac-12 canceled 2020 games. Miller quickly focused her team on winning the WAC championship.
There is also great pause in the entire collegiate athletics scene, making it unknown when the next college basketball season will be or how it will look in the stands and on the court.
Drew and Miller already lean on each other to learn GCU while staying on the same page with extensive player safety protocols.
"It'll be neat to be in this together and have similar paths and see what the result is together," Miller said.
Â
Winning ways preceded coaching
They know what it takes to win because they succeeded with All-America fanfare as players.
Drew passed on Clemson, Notre Dame and Wisconsin to play for his father at Valparaiso, a mid-major program in Indiana, and was a two-time conference player of the year who became famous for "The Shot" on a Sweet 16 team.
It was a buzzer-beating, Ole Miss-upsetting 1998 NCAA tournament 3-point shot that he patiently recounts for fans and media more than his six-year NBA career.
"It's such a fond memory that, if I can use it as a platform to inspire/encourage others, I'm excited about that."
Just like going 180-17 as Drury's coach, all Miller did as a player was win, too.
Her Springfield Kickapoo High School teams went 109-10, and she followed with a 112-18 mark while playing for Drury. She was enshrined in the Drury Hall of Fame in 2012, before she became head coach and a two-time NCAA Division II Coach of the Year.
Her magic moment in uniform came when she scored eight points in a game's final 27 seconds to carry a winning 10-1 rally.
Drew and Miller have competitiveness and decency at their cores. They both were drawn to the same college basketball home, where the decor could use some accent pieces -- WAC trophies and NCAA tournament appearance banners.
Until then, their encouragement and knowledge will bellow off the facility's red-brick walls. They both are laying bricks for their GCU foundation with their eyes on making history.
"I'm just extremely excited to begin this journey," Drew said. "Your mind can imagine what it's like to have the arena filled and the practice gym with a whole team and being able to hold a regular practice.
"It's a great feeling just walking around. We have awesome facilities, but my mind can't help but wander to the Havocs and that arena being packed and the spirit on our campus being vibrant when all of the students are back. I can't wait to see those days."
About 7,000 new friends feel the same way.
Reprinted from the August issue of GCU Magazine.
Â
It is not GCU Arena, the campus' basketball landmark, known for its riveting game environment.
The Lopes basketball family tree takes root in a building that sits in the shadows of the campus entrance's row of palms and within a 7-foot center's wingspan of the Arena side door.
Upstairs in the GCU Basketball Practice Facility, Bryce Drew and Molly Miller reside in offices that are like siblings' bedrooms at opposite ends of the hallway. With only a lobby separating them and a practice court balcony joining them, Drew and Miller also are close in family philosophy as the head coaches march the programs in lockstep toward NCAA tournament goals.
The family business is relative to Drew and Miller, who each shot to playing and coaching success with fathers who coached basketball. They now feel charged with helping raise GCU players as students and athletes.
"Watching how my dad treated his program and the players and coaches, they were family," said Drew, whose Collegiate Basketball Hall of Famer father, Homer, coached him and seven NCAA tournament teams at Valparaiso."Ever since I can remember, my dad would discipline me the same way that he disciplined his players. He would encourage me the same way he would encourage his players. There wasn't a difference in the two, so that's made coaching an easy transition for me because I haven't really known anything else but that our team is a lifestyle and it's family-oriented."
Â
Coaches line up well
Hired within three weeks of each other in the spring, Drew, 45, and Miller, 34, bring similarities that are no coincidence for why GCU pursued each one. Each has the requisite basketball coaching success – Drew took Valparaiso and Vanderbilt to the NCAA tournament, and Miller recorded the best winning percentage (91.3%) among all NCAA basketball coaches on any men's or women's level.
They are Midwesterners who see the world with Christian values and see the court as point guards. They grew up with a coaching pedigree that was predicated on positivity and fun and winning systems that thrive on defense and tempo.
For Miller, growing up in Springfield, Missouri, it was learning the fundamentals of defense first from her father, just as she taught it to the Lopes on their first practice day with extended arms rotating like propellers.
"He taught me a lot of the intangibles on work ethic and then he grew my game from defense," Miller said of Jack Carter, who founded Baby Bears Basketball Club in 1997 in Springfield. "He's probably the sole person who made me start to love that end of the floor, and then I continued to love that end. The apple didn't fall too far from the tree when it came to defensive mentality."
The Drew late night coaching calls will resume with his father and his brother, Scott, who took over the Baylor men's basketball team when it was on probation and built it into a national powerhouse. Homer calls GCU "an answer to prayer" for Bryce, who worked as an ESPN analyst last year.
Homer always encouraged players about having another opportunity and Bryce found his at GCU, a Christian university to fit his faith. Each practice opens with prayer, and Bible study will be a tenet of the program.
Â
New approaches embraced
"I really like him so far," Lopes senior center Alessandro Lever said. "It's been really easy. We're starting from zero. We're getting to know each other. It's really exciting, actually. He's the type of coach that talks to everybody. We're trying to create a group and he's asking if we need anything and if we have any suggestions. I think it's going to be a really good year."
That is more than a hunch. Lever is among a group of standout returnees, including Jovan Blacksher Jr. and Oscar Frayer, along with Drew's first recruiting class of seven players his staff signed in swift work. Drew is a noted recruiter, having landed Darius Garland (the NBA's No. 5 pick in 2019) and Aaron Nesmith (a projected NBA top-15 pick this year) while at Vanderbilt.
Drew's personable ways connect with recruits to gain their trust. That's also his approach as a coach, just as his father treated players with sincerity and respect and spent hours with players for video breakdowns or life advice.
"There's no substitute for time together and going through experiences with each other," Drew said. "The more we can be around each other, I think doing things together makes that bond stronger. Hopefully as things get better (with COVID-19), we can spend more time off the court and eating together."
Miller wants to create a similar familial feeling in her players, whom she expects to be community ambassadors. She demands a lot from them to win but also because she follows her father's mantra: "The better you get, the more fun it is."GCU players, new and returning, were taken aback at Miller's first GCU practice in July when she was running alongside them on fast-break drills.
"She's really energetic," said Lopes junior guard Tianna Brown, whose sister, Tiarra, is a freshman teammate as Miller's first GCU signee. "She is going to challenge us and expects a lot of us.
"She wants us all to feel like sisters. She says that if we feel like we're sisters on the court, then that's how we're going to play."
Â
COVID brings challenges
Some of that has been more difficult to establish. Drew and Miller took over programs amid the pandemic, which meant recruiting was limited to virtual campus visits and July practices could not carry the same intensity with social distancing precautions in place to limit contact and grouping.
There is great anticipation for the seasons ahead. The Arizona State men scheduled a two-year series with the Lopes that would have began this year at GCU Arena until the Pac-12 canceled 2020 games. Miller quickly focused her team on winning the WAC championship.
There is also great pause in the entire collegiate athletics scene, making it unknown when the next college basketball season will be or how it will look in the stands and on the court.
Drew and Miller already lean on each other to learn GCU while staying on the same page with extensive player safety protocols.
"It'll be neat to be in this together and have similar paths and see what the result is together," Miller said.
Â
Winning ways preceded coaching
They know what it takes to win because they succeeded with All-America fanfare as players.
Drew passed on Clemson, Notre Dame and Wisconsin to play for his father at Valparaiso, a mid-major program in Indiana, and was a two-time conference player of the year who became famous for "The Shot" on a Sweet 16 team.
It was a buzzer-beating, Ole Miss-upsetting 1998 NCAA tournament 3-point shot that he patiently recounts for fans and media more than his six-year NBA career.
"It's such a fond memory that, if I can use it as a platform to inspire/encourage others, I'm excited about that."
Just like going 180-17 as Drury's coach, all Miller did as a player was win, too.
Her Springfield Kickapoo High School teams went 109-10, and she followed with a 112-18 mark while playing for Drury. She was enshrined in the Drury Hall of Fame in 2012, before she became head coach and a two-time NCAA Division II Coach of the Year.
Her magic moment in uniform came when she scored eight points in a game's final 27 seconds to carry a winning 10-1 rally.
Drew and Miller have competitiveness and decency at their cores. They both were drawn to the same college basketball home, where the decor could use some accent pieces -- WAC trophies and NCAA tournament appearance banners.
Until then, their encouragement and knowledge will bellow off the facility's red-brick walls. They both are laying bricks for their GCU foundation with their eyes on making history.
"I'm just extremely excited to begin this journey," Drew said. "Your mind can imagine what it's like to have the arena filled and the practice gym with a whole team and being able to hold a regular practice.
"It's a great feeling just walking around. We have awesome facilities, but my mind can't help but wander to the Havocs and that arena being packed and the spirit on our campus being vibrant when all of the students are back. I can't wait to see those days."
About 7,000 new friends feel the same way.
Reprinted from the August issue of GCU Magazine.
Â
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