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I<\/span>n March 2025, the Arizona State women\u2019s basketball team were looking for a coach who could end a drought that had seen them go without a NCAA Tournament<\/a> appearance \u2013 or even a winning season \u2013 since 2019-20.<\/p>\n The choice was Molly Miller, a proven and successful head coach at Grand Canyon. Miller had led the Lopes to their first NCAA Tournament appearance and a 32\u20133 record in her final season with the team \u2013 a benchmark for the program and an important accomplishment within the broader scope of college basketball. She soon turned around Arizona State, leading them to a 24-11 record and a first appearance at the NCAA Tournament in six years. (Their season ended in the First Four.)<\/p>\n But the discourse around Miller\u2019s hiring extended beyond her credentials. Miller is blond and petite, a conventionally \u201call-American\u201d attractive woman. From there, the conversation blurred. Fans focused on a common trope projected on to women in sports; the discussion shifted towards her looks, rather than the records she has broken<\/a>, and the job she was hired to do.<\/p>\n One TikTok on her appointment praised her as \u201cone of the best basketball coaches to ever walk the Earth\u201d before noting she \u201cis a beautiful woman \u2026 I hate saying it, but if you know anything about Arizona State, you go because it\u2019s beautiful. If you know, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n Another TikTok, with more than 300,000 views, appears when you type in the name \u201cMolly Miller\u201d on the app. The caption reads: \u201cMolly Miller isn\u2019t going viral because of her coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n In the video<\/a>, user CFBChuck, who covers college sports on his page, catalogs her accomplishments before he pivots with a \u201cbut\u201d. He adds: \u201cArizona State\u2019s biggest selling point: big party school, beautiful women.\u201d The comments section includes observations such as \u201cshe\u2019s so hot,\u201d and \u201cso she\u2019s a D.E.I hire, got it.\u201d<\/p>\n This is nothing new in basketball \u2013 and sports more broadly \u2013 where women have long been evaluated on their looks, often as an assumed extension of their professional roles. From the formation of the WNBA, where marketing campaigns pushed a \u201cstraight girl next door\u201d image<\/a>, intertwined with overt sexualization, to today, the pattern has been consistently reductive. When Miller\u2019s achievements are met with a \u201cbut \u2026,\u201d it suggests that merit alone is inadequate, that her accomplishments, no matter how substantial, are measured against the narrow standard of physical attractiveness. In spite of a career defined by tangible success, Miller\u2019s worth is still implicitly weighed more heavily towards her appearance than the impact she has made.<\/p>\n A compliment here or there about Miller\u2019s looks is unsurprising, but the broader pattern tells a different story. Whether it\u2019s a player like Paige Bueckers being targeted with sexualized TikTok edits or stalked online<\/a>, or a journalist like Taylor Rooks being memefied as if her rapport with NBA players exists solely because they find her attractive, the message is clear. These women are denied the credit of their own professional merit, their success instead repackaged as a performance for male consumption.<\/p>\n