Episode 186: Molly Miller, Full-Court Pressure and Playing Uptempo

Guest: Molly Miller, Grand Canyon University Head Coach

Grand Canyon University head coach Molly Miller joins the Basketball Podcast to discuss full-court pressure and playing uptempo.

Miller holds the highest career winning percentage (.892) of any NCAA men's or women's basketball coach at Division I, II or III levels with at least five years of experience. The two-time Division II Coach of the Year ended her Drury career with the DII national runner-up in 2019 and an undefeated, top-ranked 2020 team when the national tournament was canceled because of COVID-19.

Miller made an immediate impact at GCU by guiding her Lopes to the program's first WAC Tournament championship game appearance. She did it by instituting her style of full-court pressure defense and uptempo offense.

In 2020-21, GCU ranked second nationally for steals (13.4 per game) and turnover margin (plus-8.4 per game) while also coming in fourth for turnovers forced (23.3 per game).

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. 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.

Breakdown

1:00 - Buy-In

5:00 - Starting with Defense

8:00 - Building Up Drills

12:00 - Getting the Ball Over Halfway

14:00 - Full Court Pressure Preference

17:00 - Run Jump

20:00 - Randomness

21:00 - Using Different Terminologies

24:00 - The Tagging Concept

26:00 - Attacking the Weak Side

29:00 - Tools for Better Switching