TEMPE- Through two games of the season, the Arizona State Sun Devils women's basketball team learned a lot of valuable lessons on and off the court from head coach Molly Miller and her staff.
With only three returning players from last season, the Sun Devils get pretty comfortable in Miller's system on both ends of the court, primarily on the defensive end.
“It’s like coming to a new school and not knowing anybody," Arizona State fifth-year guard Gabby Elliott said Monday. "It’s good to have someone familiar who can show you around. Even today, although it’s kind of small, we had to run, and Jyah had to lead us. We are literally running blind, trusting Jyah to get us there and so on. Even learning how to ring the bell, I was nervous; I didn’t know what to do. Little stuff like that, having somebody there really means a lot and it goes a long way even if it doesn’t show up in the stat book.”
The key takeaway for players on the Sun Devils' women's basketball team from learning under Miller's leadership is that she challenges them to succeed together on both ends of the court.
"The biggest thing for me that I've learned is as long as the energy and effort is there, she doesn't care about this shot or something like that, something small like that, as long as the energy and effort is there," Elliott said Saturday. "And also, again, it starts with defense. I feel like that is her main focus right now, and it's going to be throughout the season. If you're not giving energy on defense, or if you're looking tight on the defense, offense gotta to be out the question."
“Anything you're going to do, just go hard," Arizona State junior guard Jyah LoVett added. "If you make a mistake, as long as you're going hard, she won't be mad at you. And I think also just being a good teammate. I feel like that goes a really long way and just being here for each other and celebrating each other for sure.”
LoVett came off the bench and was one of the four players who scored in double figures in Arizona State's victory. She scored 13 of the 21 points off the bench and had two steals.
As Miller and the players played their second game of the season on Saturday, the Sun Devils improved their pacing and continued to defend the ball aggressively.
She was satisfied with Arizona State's performance on the court against Eastern Washington, especially in comparison to the season opener.
"What we did a better job of this game is we switched up our screen coverage a little bit to try to keep them off balance," Miller said. "And they were really mindful tuning me into that what screen coverage we were in. So trying to just make sure that we're listening on the fly too, because our defense can be so chaotic and we're mixing things up, and how we look and feel on the defensive end can change every possession. So they've been really good at figuring that out, and that's going to take some time too to even perfect, but that's one area that I was proud of."
When Elliott scored her 1000th career point in the win over Eastern Washington, she gave credit to Miller and her coaching staff.
After spending the first five years of her collegiate career playing for three different teams, she felt appreciation and trust from Miller and her coaching staff.
"Coach [Molly] Miller really just saw my potential," Elliott said. "I feel like, don't get me wrong. DB [Assistant Coach Daniel Barber] helped because I was coming with him, but she had to put some faith in me too, for sure.
"She didn't really know what she was going to get, but also, she also had faith [in me], and I have faith in her too. She never lied to me throughout the process. She always preached defense and what type of program she was going to have, and I was ready to back her up. We went and got some good pieces to do it, and now we're here. So I'm very happy [with getting to learn from coach Miller]."