2026 PHILLIPS 66 BIG 12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 6, 2026

Molly Miller

Marley Washenitz

T-Mobile Center

Arizona State Sun Devils

Postgame Press Conference

West Virginia 67, Arizona State 54

MOLLY MILLER: That was a game that was hard-fought on both ends. We made some runs there, just couldn't get over the hump. We got it within five, we got it within thee. It's a back-and-forth battle. You're in the game. And the effort that these kids showed, I'm just so happy and proud of them. That type of style is not easy to play day three. That was not an excuse for them. They were ready. They emptied the tank. It's not a full tank when you're doing three games in three days, but it was a tank full of heart and commitment and I'm really proud.

Q. What would you say that you learned throughout this experience and what you were able to bring over from GCU and establish with this ASU team?

MOLLY MILLER: I learned that culture wins. It's won everywhere I've been. Culture doesn't win unless you have buy-in, though. So the fact that I could bring strangers together and have our players be two feet in, ready to learn a totally any system. They were all freshman in the system. How challenging is that to put freshmen together? A whole team of freshmen that was new to the system and go out and accomplish what we accomplished?

It's a testament to their trust, their care, their love for the game, the love they found with each other and for each other. I really learned that this is a tough conference, but if you have the right people in place, you can be successful in it. I got very fortunate by putting the right people in place and around me from my staff to my players. We have formed a bond this first year that will be unbreakable.

Q. How did you evaluate the team's growth over these past three days in Kansas City?

MOLLY MILLER: We're such a different team. When we watch non-conference games or even the first time we played a conference opponent, we're like that's not the same team. And when you do put that many strangers together and develop chemistry throughout the year, it grows. You can tell that they love to play with one another, the strength of them being on this pretty steep learning curve, but figuring it out quickly.

Q. Marley, you had a great shooting performance tonight and to do that against your home state team. Did it feel like a revenge game from the start?

MARLEY WASHENITZ: I won't say necessarily revenge game. I think every game is a revenge game for us. We lost to Iowa State and West Virginia earlier on the road and we thought we should have won. It was a revenge game for us and on top of that, we're proving ourselves every night.

Every game in our next game up, that's a big game for us. That's a revenge game. Whether we beat them or not, we have our foot on the gas and we just want to win.

Personally, obviously, I want to win every game. There was no, like, animosity or certain sort of motivation specifically for West Virginia because it's my home state. I'm from there, obviously, but like I said, I want to win every game, no matter who we're playing, Whether it's the first game of the season against Coppin State or now against West Virginia. I just want to win. I don't care who the opponent is.

Q. Marley, with all your time in Pittsburgh, how would you compare the ACC Tournament versus this tournament?

MARLEY WASHENITZ: Yeah, it's been awesome, honestly. I've loved the Big 12 Tournament. I loved my time in the ACC for three years, but being here and being able to be some of the first couple of teams to play in this class of four is really special. I think it has some pros and cons, for sure, that everyone is probably going to hear about. But as an overall standpoint of the tournament itself and the hosting and the organization and everything, the locker rooms from top to bottom, the way that the floor is put together, everything from top to bottom has been amazing.

I would say maybe I'm biased now because I'm in the Big 12, but I liked it better. I think Big 12 style play is really fun and exciting compared to the ACC, so that's been really exciting to see. You have three-point shooting teams. You see Kansas State. You have West Virginia and similar to us, very defensive-heavy teams. So it's a really fun league to play in and the versatility is off the charts and everyone can attest to that. Top to bottom, this conference is competing every single night and we see that here in the tournament.

Q. You talked about the pros and cons of the floor. Lots of sliding from several games throughout this whole tournament. Do you want talk about some of the pros and cons?

MARLEY WASHENITZ: The pros is it's coll. Obviously, you're the first to do some of the things within it. I think a con that everyone's talked about is the slipping. We mentioned it even in our huddles. We have played on this court, we know how it is. We've played in this arena. We know how it looks. We know how it looks to shoot in here so we feel like we had an advantage in that point, and you saw the first couple of possessions West Virginia came out, they were slipping and sliding everywhere. And once they got a feel for it, they stayed on their feet a little bit better. Even essentially Iowa State same thing. They were a little on the floor in the beginning, too.

I think that would be the biggest con I would say, but the pro is being part of history and a first here at the Big 12 Tournament and hope to continue to see it grow.

Q. Marley, I'm excited to continue to watch you play but can you put a bow around what this experience has been like in Tempe with coach Molly, your teammates and everything you have put together this year through the regular season and through this Big 12 run?

MARLEY WASHENITZ: Yeah, it's been perfect, honestly, and to say that sounds unrealistic, but it's not. I have been very blessed and fortunate to have ended up here and I wouldn't have asked for my last year to be anywhere else.

From the relationships to the court, there's everything here at this university that you could imagine. You have a staff that loves you. You have such versatility in the staff, too. You have Coach Glover and Coach Norman who have been here. They've been in the women's game and even higher up for years. And then you have younger coaches, who are Coach Abi and DB and Daejah, who have been in our shoes. They've played. So it's really cool to see that in a staff and they've poured into us wholeheartedly.

And to see a group of a lot of fresh faces come together and gel the way we did is pretty remarkable. You don't see that in every program, and, again, I think that starts with the coaching staff. A lot of us transfers and even freshman came in not knowing what this year was going to look like, but we trusted the staff because we knew they were going to bring in good people.

Another reason I decided to come here was one of my first calls was with Coach DB and he had told me already, he was like yeah, I called one of your old teammates, Mikayla, who I played with at Pitt, just to see how you are as a person. I was like, okay, so they're not only recruiting good players, they're recruiting good people. So when you have that and you're recruiting people with the same mindsets and same goals, you're going to gel naturally because you have the same wavelength. To see the staff do that and bring together a team that's been competitive and best friends and everything else you don't see that everywhere else. And then who's to complain about Tempe weather?

Q. What's to come next, what (inaudible).

MOLLY MILLER: That's why I love this team. (Inaudible). That's an incredible story. If you get to know them and their stories and how we meshed this together to win -- I'm going to start with the closer, to win 24 games. No power four team has ever, in the history of the tournament been left out with 24 wins.

I'm going to hit you with the one, two, three. The one: We have won 12 top 100 NET games. That's first out of any team on the bubble. So over half of our wins are truly very competitive at the highest level.

We have -- honestly, from the start to finish, on the road -- that's our number two -- we have nine wins away from home. We have proven we can win anywhere. Quad 2 wins, that's tied for third, amongst all bubble teams.

The other thing in that schedule is we don't have a bad loss. We lost on the road at Cincy and that's still a Q3 loss. We don't have a Q4 loss. I think when you put that resume together and the fact that we got our signature win against a healthy Iowa State as well, we've got the package, the resume, and we also have the acumen to go on the road and win. The five teams that we played that were in top of this conference, four of them we played on the road. And the one we did play at home, Oklahoma State, we ended up winning.

The fact that history is on our side, the fact that we have out of all the bubble teams the best record, 12 wins against top 100 teams, that shows the competitiveness of this team. If you're going to go play in the most competitive tournament in the country, you want the most competitive teams and that's Arizona State.

Q. I just have to ask, your first game with Arizona State, you playing Coppin State and during the post presser, I was there, that's how I note this, you said "I love these girls, I love this team, we are a family". Just watching them bond with you and your team grow, do you feel like that bond is better than any victory against a team?

MOLLY MILLER: Yeah, nothing will break that bond, it's a life bond. I probably won't remember the scoreboard of what just happened, but what I am going to remember is how we did the (inaudible) in the sense that you have your highs and lows in ports.

I just felt like we trusted each other. There's genuine built-in relationships. I'm going to be mad at Marley when she doesn't call me when she's like coach, I got my first interview or I'm putting my down payment on my house or I got engaged! Those are the relationships that we're going to have for life.

We have basketball to still play. We're still building on that, but the fact that we put a group together that's committed to the cause, that established a legacy already in a program -- and I feel gypped that I didn't get to coach her for four years but I'm so blessed I got to coach her for one -- that's how I feel about all my players.

These seniors especially, there's more basketball to play, but they have done a phenomenal job in setting the foundation so we can spring this thing forward.

THE MODERATOR: Anymore questions? Thank you.