Arizona’s Burke, Arizona State’s Miller enter rivalry with mutual respect

As new coaches at opposite ends of a rivalry, Arizona State’s Molly Miller and Arizona’s Becky Burke could easily hold animosity toward the other.

Far from it.

Both coaches admire the way the other has worked through the coaching ranks, winning at every stop, and how their infectious enthusiasm seeps onto the floor through their players.

They also have a common connection: Stephanie Norman.

The current associate head coach on Miller’s inaugural staff was once at Louisville, where she coached Burke as an assistant under Jeff Walz.

“She’s funny because coach Norman is like, Becky is kind of like my boss in a way, being a head coach,’” Miller said. “She’s (Burke) really competitive and comes from a great program in Louisville. It’ll be fine because I have a lot of respect for how she’s kind of climbed and been there.”

Arizona and Arizona State have new women’s basketball coaches for the first time — outside of the programs’ first season in 1981 — since the Wildcats hired June Olkowski and Maura McHugh took over the Sun Devils in 1987.

Miller and Burke have the same goal — winning — yet will come at it from different starting points.

Burke takes over an Arizona program that’s on firm standing, earning trips to the NCAA Tournament four of the past five years under previous coach Adia Barnes, including a run to the 2021 national championship game.

When Barnes left for SMU during the offseason, Arizona turned to Burke and her resume full of winning.

She played in the NCAA Tournament three times as a sharpshooting guard, reaching the 2009 national title game and the Sweet 16 two years later. After stints as an assistant coach, Burke had winning records as a head coach at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, the University of Charleston in West Virginia and USC Upstate.

Burke spent the past three seasons at Buffalo, leading the Bulls to a 30-win season and a WNIT title last year.

The transfer portal era wreaked havoc on Arizona’s roster — Montaya Dew is the only returner on scholarship — but Burke has a foundation in place with recent successes and strong fan support in Tucson.

“The momentum in the brand and the fact that she (Barnes) did a great job building this is extremely helpful, but ultimately we’re starting from scratch,” Burke said. “We walk into a locker room that has one player and it doesn’t help you in the moment, but it’s nice to say on recruiting calls that you coach at Arizona and they know what it is and what it’s about.”

Miller’s task will be to rebuild a brand at Arizona State that’s struggled to regain relevancy since the end of longtime coach Charli Turner Thorne’s tenure.

The Sun Devils have not been to the NCAA Tournament since reaching the Sweet 16 in 2019 and went 29-62 in three seasons under Natasha Adair after Turner Thorne’s retirement in 2022.

Like Burke, Miller brings a history of winning with her.

Miller was one of the top scorers in Drury University history as a player and spent two seasons as an assistant following a stint at a neurological and spine institute in her hometown of Springfield, Missouri. She became the head coach at her alma mater in 2014 and won 180 games over six seasons before becoming Grand Canyon’s coach.

Miller led the Antelopes to a 32-3 record last season, including a 30-game winning streak, and took the program to its first NCAA Tournament. She went 117-38 at GCU before moving across town to Arizona State.

“I think with any good program to have a quick turnaround, you have to have buy-in,” Miller said. “That’s the biggest piece and I think we’ve gotten our teams to buy in pretty quickly the last few years.”

Burke has done the same everywhere she’s been. Now the two coaches will try doing it on opposite ends of a rivalry.

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