SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association has named Drury head coach Molly Miller as the United States Marine Corps/WBCA NCAA-II Coach of the Year. The award was announced at the NCAA-II Elite Eight banquet on Monday night in Columbus, Ohio, and Miller will officially receive the Pat Summitt Award at the WBCA’s annual convention held in conjunction with the NCAA Women’s Final Four in Tampa, Florida.
Miller is in her fifth season at Drury and this year led her team to a 34-0 record and a number one ranking in Division II. The Lady Panthers became the first team in the history of the Great Lakes Valley Conference to go through the league regular season undefeated and win the conference tournament in the same year. They are also the first team in GLVC history to win the league title for a third straight season. In the last three years, Drury has compiled a 95-7 overall record to go with a 52-2 mark in the GLVC.
The Lady Panthers also captured the NCAA-II Midwest Regional championship and advanced to the Elite Eight for the fourth time in program history. Miller has taken Drury to the national tournament in each of her five seasons as head coach, and the team has been to the regional finals for four straight years.
The Lady Panthers earned their accomplishments in 2018-19 after losing two starters to graduation a year ago and had a third starter, all-conference center Lucia Fernandez, miss more than half of the season with a knee injury. Miller also had to replace two assistant coaches from last year’s staff. During the off-season, Miller promoted Emily Ragsdale from graduate assistant to a full-time assistant role, hired assistant coach Buck Scheel and graduate assistant coach Rachel Swartz.
Miller was also named the Great Lakes Valley Conference Coach of the Year earlier this month. She enters her national quarterfinal game on Tuesday with a career record of 147-16, a career winning percentage of .902, and her teams have gone 85-5 in conference play during her five seasons at the helm.
