(Photo: Madison Sorenson/WCSN)
PHOENIX — After an anxious wait since exiting the Big 12 tournament, Arizona State women’s basketball was finally able to rejoice on Selection Sunday. For the first time since 2019, the Sun Devils will head to the big dance.
The next stop in head coach Molly Miller’s stunning season will be Iowa City, where they will take on Virginia in the First Four of the NCAA tournament, fighting to be a 10-seed in the opening round.
“You set the norm. You set the standard.” Miller said about her team. “This is the beginning. You’ve come in here and proved that we belong.”
The team endured an unsettlingly long wait to learn whether it had made the tournament. As the bracket filled with conference winners and other at-large bids, ASU waited until the final matchup reveal to hear its name called.
“To hear our names finally called was really rewarding,” senior guard Marley Washenitz said. “I think we were all just like, we don’t know where we’re playing, we don’t know who we’re playing, we don’t know what time. We just heard our names.”
ASU’s March Madness berth is the next step in an impressive one-season turnaround for Miller, who inherited a team that won 10 games in 2024-25 and turned it into a tournament team.
Miller and the Sun Devils also set several program records and accolades along the way.
ASU went undefeated in its non-conference schedule, en route to a 15-0 start. It also saw three wins against its rival from down south, Arizona. The Sun Devils upset Iowa State in the second round of the Big 12 tournament, propelling them to the quarterfinals.
After the second-round and quarterfinal matchups of the conference tournament, respectively, Iowa State and West Virginia’s head coaches both said that the Sun Devils deserved a spot in the big dance.
“I really value their opinion specifically, because they’re so good at what they do,” Miller said. “If they say you’re a good team, and you deserve (to be in the tournament), people listen,” Miller said.
Though Virginia and ASU have met only once before – a 2004 game that ASU won 60-50 – one player on the Sun Devils’ roster is quite familiar with the Cavaliers.
Washenitz, who played at Pittsburgh for three years before transferring to ASU, has faced Virginia four times in her career. In addition, the senior played high school travel ball with Virginia’s leading scorer, Kymora Johnson. Washenitz’s experiences will be useful in the scouting process in preparation for the game.
But Washenitz believes the Big 12’s team diversity will aid her squad more than any information she can provide.
“I think because the Big 12 is so versatile and there’s so many different styles of play, that we’re kind of ready for any opponent, any sort of style of play,” Washenitz said.
ASU’s First Four matchup is only four days away, set for March 19 at 6 p.m. The winner will play 7-seeded Georgia in the first round.
But Miller is looking beyond the immediate future.
“We want to make a run,” Miller said. “This is going to be a yearly occurrence for us.”
