ASU Women’s Basketball: After 25th season, Charli Turner Thorne retires

(Photo: Reece Andrews/WCSN)

On Thursday evening, Arizona State Women’s Basketball head coach Charli Turner Thorne announced her retirement from coaching. Thorne’s reasoning was simple – it was just the right time.

“I’m retiring,” Thorne said. “After 25 years, it’s just been my honor to be here and serve… it’s just time.”

Thorne explained that the decision had been coming for some time, but she didn’t think it would have come this soon. She explained that the COVID-19 Pandemic had taken a lot out of her and even joked that her “high octane fuel” had run out a little too soon.

“I definitely didn’t go into the year thinking I’m going for another 10 years,” Thorne explained. “So, I’ve been kind of taking it maybe a little bit as we go. I think, a lot of things just in my life. And I think we all experienced things through the pandemic that maybe just shifted our perspective. It definitely wasn’t, ‘Oh, I got to go out on a great season or I’m going to go out on a bad season’. It didn’t really have anything to do with that.”

Thorne started her collegiate basketball career at Stanford, where she played guard from 1984-88. After her playing career, Thorne became a graduate assistant at Washington before she took a role with Santa Clara. She got her first head coaching job at Northern Arizona University, where she was the head coach for three seasons. In 1994-95 and 95-96, she led the Lumberjacks to back-to-back winning seasons, a first in program history.

On June 21, 1996, Thorne filled the head coaching vacancy at ASU. Through 25 seasons as a head coach, she amassed 488 of her career 528 wins at ASU. That number has made her the second-winningest coach in Pac-12 Conference history.

She also made the postseason every year at the helm of the Sun Devils except for the 2001 season.

Thorne elevated the program to heights it had never seen, leading ASU to 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, five Sweet 16 appearances and two Elite Eight appearances.

Although Turner Thorne was all about winning, she is most appreciative of her team’s accomplishments off the floor and the support they were given.

“Reflecting back, of course, we were all about winning championships,” Thorne said. “But I so appreciated that our academic achievements, our community service, our character, our players excelling beyond basketball, were so appreciated by our administration, by our donors, by our alums, and by our fans. And I sincerely hope that we continue with ASU women’s basketball to have a transformative and not transactional program.”

The announcement was a surprise to all, including ASU’s current players and staff. Thorne told reporters that she broke the news to the team at noon on Thursday, but even after hearing the news hours beforehand, the team was still very emotional. Some players and coaches sat in on the press conference and could be heard sobbing in the background.

“It was hard,” Thorne explained to reporters on the players’ reactions. “I know it was very unexpected and obviously that’s one of the hardest things. Whether you take a different job or you retire, [you’re] leaving behind team and staff.”

As Thorne’s coaching career comes to an end, she is still unsure of what is to come in her next chapter.

“I’m going to look into a number of different things, maybe some broadcasting and maybe some writing [and] maybe some teaching at ASU,” Thorne said. “So, I’ve actually talked to a few people. I’m definitely not ‘retiring.’”