Arizona State has higher expectations entering Year 2 under Molly Miller

TEMPE- The Arizona State Sun Devils women's basketball team is preparing for its upcoming season after one of its special seasons, in which they had their first trip to the NCAA Women's Tournament since 2019.

After a successful offseason, second-year head coach Molly Miller notes that the Sun Devils' newcomers are quickly adapting and learning from last year's returning players.

"Honestly, this is one of my favorite summers that I've ever had," Miller told reporters Wednesday. "It's hard. You don't have a favorite team, you don't have a favorite child. But what's been really cool about this group is to see the chemistry form so fast, and I told them the other day, I took a moment in practice, and I was like, 'I'm just so grateful for your buy-in.' ... It has just been light and fun, and a lot of learning and growth, and to me that means we've had a successful summer.

"When you can get on the other side and look back and think, what a great time we've had together. We've experienced a lot. We've learned a lot. We've coached them up a lot, and they've just taken that in stride, and that's been really cool."

After a productive summer—recruiting talented transfers, welcoming a new class of freshmen, and integrating the roster—Miller, the coaching staff, and the players are eager to build on last season’s success.

The five returning players from last season's Sun Devils women's basketball team have higher expectations heading into the new season.

"We expect to do better than last year," senior forward McKinna Brackens told Echo from the Buttes. "We don't want to do less or the same. We want to keep growing, and I feel like we have the team to do that."

"Very energetic, because we have a great group this year, and it's just been going and going and going," added redshirt senior guard-forward Deborah Davenport. "Especially Molly [Miller], her energy is just amazing. The impact that we're gonna have this year is gonna be amazing, and it's gonna be very different than last year."

Last year, Miller felt the urge to demonstrate while leading a new group of players in her first year as Sun Devils women's basketball head coach. Now, she notices how the returning players are making a difference for Arizona State in leadership for the newcomers.

"They know what the expectations are," Miller said of the returners. "They know what the standards are. They're relaying that to the newcomers, and it's not just a coach-led team in that sense. Last year I was teaching it all; my staff, my assistants, myself, like we were the ones giving the messaging because no one else knew what that messaging would be. Now it's the returners giving that messaging, which is nice."

One of the transfers, guard Ruby Whitehorn, had the opportunity to observe Miller's coaching system and attend the Sun Devils' games throughout the last season.

When being asked about her takeaways from observing Arizona State before making her debut with the team, she stated, "to see the ins and outs of it from practice to games and how the energy translated."

"It's been great," Whitehorn told Echo from the Buttes. "I love Coach Molly. She's very open, very welcoming. She takes care of us on and off the court, so I love being in Arizona and the people that I'm surrounded by."

As the Sun Devils look forward to their first game of the season, a home game on November 2 against Jackson State, they're optimistic about continuing to build on the success for now and the future of the women's basketball program.

"I think we're going to be extremely fun to watch," associate head coach Jason Glover told Echo from the Buttes. "I thought last year, in Molly's first year, winning 24 games was great. We were one of the best turnaround teams in the country. But this year, we're going to be even that much better, and we're going to be a lot of fun to watch and love to invite anybody listening or anybody out there that should watch it because it's going to be a great team."