The MBCA is excited to announce the addition of Drury University head coach Molly Miller to the 2019 clinic line up. As season ago Miller guided Drury to a magical season finishing 35-1, advancing to the NCAA-II national semifinals, winning the Midwest Regional, and winning their third-straight GLVC championship in 2018-19. The Lady Panthers became the first team in GLVC history to win three league titles in a row and were the first team ever to go unbeaten during the regular season and win the conference tournament in the same year. Drury ended the year with a number three national ranking after being ranked number one in the coaches' poll throughout the second half of the season.
As a result of her team's success, Miller was named the NCAA-II Coach of the Year by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and was the GLVC Coach of the Year. In addition, Drury forward Hailey Diestelkamp was named the Division II Player of the Year by the WBCA and she was a finalist for the Honda Female Athlete of the Year in NCAA-II while Daejah Bernard was the GLVC Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight year.
During her five seasons as head coach, Miller's teams have gone 148-17 (.897), 85-5 (.944) during the GLVC regular season, and have captured the Great Lakes Valley Conference championship in four of her five years at the helm. The Lady Panthers earned a trip to the NCAA-II tournament in each of Miller's five seasons and they have advanced to at least the round of 16 for four straight years.
She will enter the 2019-20 owning the best winning percentage among head coaches in all of NCAA-II women's basketball. Drury will also start '19-20 season with a 40-game winning streak at the O'Reilly Family Event Center (the second-longest home court winning streak in the nation), the Lady Panthers have posted a 66-2 record at home under Miller's leadership that includes a 45-0 mark at home in the GLVC through five seasons.
In 2017-18, Miller guided the Lady Panthers to a 31-3 record, a 17-1 mark in the conference, a first place finish in the GLVC West Division, and her team became the first squad in 13 years to repeat as conference champions. That team produced an All-Midwest Region player in Hailey Diestelkamp, the GLVC Defensive Player of the Year (Daejah Bernard), five all-conference selections including three on the first team and an All-Freshman Team selection.
A year earlier, Miller led Drury to a 30-4 record, a GLVC championship, the GLVC West Division title with a 17-1 league record during the regular season and an NCAA-II national tournament appearance that featured the Lady Panthers advance to the Midwest Regional championship game for the second straight season.
Before taking over as head coach, Miller spent two seasons as an assistant coach for the Lady Panthers, including the 2013-14 season which netted a final 27-4 record and the program's third NCAA-II Elite Eight appearance.
As a player, Molly (Carter) Miller was a four-year standout for the Lady Panthers from 2004-08, and still ranks as Drury's number three all-time scorer with 1,570 points. She ranks second all-time in assists (439) and steals (409) and was also the winner of the GLVC's Paragon Award as a senior, the highest honor bestowed to a student-athlete by the league. She earned All-Great Lakes Valley Conference honors three times and was Third Team NCAA-II All-American as a senior. She was named the Heartland Conference Freshman of the Year in 2005 in Drury’s final season as a member of that league.
In her four seasons in a Lady Panthers' uniform (three with head coach Nyla Milleson, one with Steve Harold as head coach), Drury amassed a record of 112-18, qualified for the NCAA-II Tournament four times (including the 2007 Elite Eight in Kearney, Neb.) and captured the GLVC title in 2008 as well as the Heartland Conference crown in 2005.
Miller also had a storied high school career helping Kickapoo High School in Springfield to state championships in her freshman and junior seasons. In 2002-03, her Lady Chiefs team went 31-0 and were ranked 13th in the nation by USA Today. Kickapoo went 110-9 during her four years on the varsity squad. She was named an all-state performer three times in her career, a four-time all-academic selection in the Ozark Conference as graduated from Kickapoo as the valedictorian of her high school class.
For her time as a player, Miller was inducted into the GLVC Hall of Fame in 2014 and became the first Drury individual from any sport to receive those honors from the league.
After graduating from Drury University in 2008, Miller spent four years as the marketing director at Springfield Neurological and Spine Institute before returning to her alma mater as an assistant coach.
Miller is married to former Missouri State football player Derek Miller, and the couple has a daughter, Crosby, who will turn three-years-old before the start of the 2019-20 season.
