To very few people’s surprise, upon the conclusion of the Sun Devils’ 10-22 season, Arizona State Athletic Director Graham Rossini decided to fire women’s basketball head coach Natasha Adair.
The decision came after Adair’s third substandard season in Tempe. The Sun Devils finished 15th of 16 teams in the Big 12 Conference. And although ASU managed to knock off Cincinnati in the first round of the Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship, the win wasn’t enough to revive Rossini’s faith in Adair to lead the program in the right direction.
Just over two weeks after the Sun Devils’ season ended, ASU made yet another unsurprising move, hiring Molly Miller to be the school’s next women’s basketball head coach. Miller spent the last five years turning Grand Canyon into a mid-major powerhouse.
While the Sun Devils struggled to gain footing on a national stage with Adair, Miller took the Lopes to new heights, landing a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history in 2025.
Miller was reportedly a top contender for several other Power Four job openings, but ultimately the Sun Devils were the big winner. Once Baylor knocked the Lopes out of the tournament Friday, reports started swirling. By Saturday morning, the move was official. Molly Miller would be staying in the Valley and trading in purple and white for maroon and gold.
The transition from one coach to another has many impacts. Obviously, players on both rosters are affected. Following Adair’s firing, All-Big 12 Honorable Mention guards Jalyn Brown and Tyi announced their plans to enter the transfer portal. Along with them were guard Kennedy Fauntleroy and forwards Kadidia Toure and Mallory Miller
But while much of the focus lies on what happens to the players’ futures, few people consider the other young people who may be affected, like practice players or managers.
Corinne Jones has been with the ASU women’s basketball program since the second semester of her freshman year in 2023. With the Sun Devils struggling to retain enough players for games, Jones’s parents contacted someone in the athletic department about walk-on opportunities.
Jones entered her first practice with low expectations for the best-case scenario. Instead, she was rewarded with a trial period that resulted in her being officially added to the roster.
“I was under the impression that I was just gonna be, like a practice player and just maybe help out with water, do something,” Jones said. “But after my first practice, they called us and they basically said, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna put you on a two-week trial. We want you at the next two weeks of practice to see if we actually want you on the team.’
Unfortunately, due to the timing and the program’s inability to expedite Jones’s medical clearances, she never got to play in a game. That offseason, Adair turned to the portal to retool and fill her roster. Suddenly, Jones’s role became more and more obsolete.
Adair and the coaching staff presented her with a choice. She could stay on the roster as a walk-on or become one of the team’s managers, a position that included a full scholarship. The decision was a no-brainer.
“The season ended, and we were supposed to come back, I think in June,” Jones said. “And they called me, and it was basically like, I was a walk-on, I wasn’t getting my tuition paid, but they still needed a manager. And they told me, ‘We know you want to go to law school.’ So basically it was like choosing, do I want to stay a walk-on or do I want to get my tuition paid? And I chose my tuition.”
As a scholarship manager, Jones enjoys many of the same privileges that the student-athletes on the roster are treated to. She gets access to the nutritional and academic resources only available to those select few.
As a manager, Jones got to go back to living life as more of a typical college student. Although she says the time commitment for managers is steeper, she now has more flexibility in her schedule to do things outside of basketball.
Jones is an active member of the ASU community. In addition to being a student manager, she’s also the President of ASU’s chapter of the National Council of Negro Women, the Philanthropy Chair of the Pretty Smart Club – a community-building and pre-professional organization for Black women studying fields of business, law, pre-med and nursing – and a member of the Zeta Alpha chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Had she remained a player, Jones likely wouldn’t have been able to fulfill any of these roles.
“When I was a player, I wasn’t really able to join any student organizations because I had practice at 6:00, but being a student manager, if I have events to go to or a meeting to go to, I was able to be like, ‘Oh, I have this. I can’t be there.’ Rather, when you’re an athlete, the only times you can miss practice are if you’re sick or you have class.”
Jones felt especially supported in her decision to join her sorority. Adair, a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, and assistant coach E.C. Hill, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, are also both members of the Divine Nine – the council of historically Black Greek letter organizations. When Jones’s absences from practices piled up in the fall, Adair understood and backed her in her choice.
“She understood I was gonna have other obligations to do, and obviously, I had her full support,” Jones said. “She was super supportive. She was super excited for me. … I got lucky because she understood, and she also understood, besides being in the sorority, I’m involved on campus for good reason.”
That wasn’t the only way Adair supported Jones. Adair helped create a home away from home for Jones, a native of East Lansing, Michigan. Even though Jones wasn’t a player, Adair still took the time to help her in any way she could.
“Honestly, Coach [Adair] was my mom, away from mom,” Jones said. “Whether it was talking to her about life, she was literally one of the most amazing people I met at ASU and just so supportive of everyone, and just a very motherly, very caring, very kind woman.”
But now, all of this is on the brink of disappearing. With the head coaching change, Jones’s scholarship is not guaranteed. It was a year-by-year gift, one that the next regime is not obligated to continue handing out.
With the uncertainty, Jones is leaning toward making the decision for herself and dropping her position as a manager altogether.
“I’ve been leaning towards more of not doing it next year, even if I do have the scholarship opportunity, just because it’s my senior year,” Jones said. “But I wouldn’t leave ASU. It’s just my senior year. So honestly, I think I’ll be fine. Either way, I have a lot of other stuff going on in my life.
Despite all of the flak hurled at the system of college athletics, there’s no denying that being a part of ASU’s program impacted Jones for the better. Even as a manager, she still got to live the glorified student-athlete life.
Argue, as one may, that the resources available to Jones and the players should be shared amongst the campus, a rebuttal emphasizing the work and commitment those players put in would be just as valid. Jones gave up her free time for two and a half years to be around the sport she loves and was rewarded with mentorship, friendship and no debt, among other unforgettable experiences.
“The people that I’ve met, the other managers, the staff, they’ve been some amazing people,” Jones said. “You just meet so many people who all have goals of their own. … I’d definitely say one of the [best] things is being able to meet so many people who share common interests and are genuine people. …
“Most college students, they’re not traveling to a different state, a different city every week, but being able to be a manager, for the past two years, I’ve been able to go to so many cities. I feel like, growing up, I traveled a lot, but being a manager, I’ve gone to cities where I probably would have never gone here by myself.”
College athletics isn’t always fair. But life isn’t always fair. Just like how it may not be fair that athletes and other students who work in the athletic department get special treatment, it may not be fair that Jones has to lose out on the opportunity she’s worked for because of another coach’s shortcomings.
Regardless, that’s the way of life. And if Jones can accept it, so can the rest of the world.
