Sun Devil Rising

Coach Charli Turner Thorne

By Kristine Hedlund
Photos by Andrew Grant

Eleven years ago, when the Arizona State women’s basketball program was struggling mightily, winning not more than eight games for three years, new coach Charli Turner Thorne fearlessly preached “potential.” “This program should be a top-20 program. With a few solid years of recruiting we will be back in business,” Turner Thorne enthused prior to the 1996-1997 season, despite the fact that the team had just one NCAA Tournament bid in 13 years.

To say that Turner Thorne’s words were prophetic—to say she has taken the Sun Devils from day to night—is an understatement. At the time of press, ASU is ranked as high as No. 8 in the nation, making a case for itself as one of the premier teams in women’s college basketball, a sport dominated by a small handful of perennial powerhouses (including the University of Connecticut, which ASU beat handily in 2004).

Turner Thorne, now the winningest coach in Sun Devil history, spoke with PW amid dealing with an injured star, traveling to take on the Southern California schools, and making yet another run at an ASU national championship.

PW: With over 200 career wins, what would you attribute your success to?
CHARLI TURNER THORNE: In regards to career wins, in athletics it is always a collaborative effort, there are a lot of people working together and working very hard. Success comes from work ethic and discipline and finding great people to work with—both on the coaching staff and players in the program. And certainly none of it could be done without a supportive administration, which is something we have at ASU.

In your 11 years at ASU, what would you say is your greatest accomplishment?
I think probably the greatest accomplishment is that every player who has exhausted their eligibility at ASU has graduated. Therefore they have worked their way through the program and left Arizona State with some great life skills and the ability to be successful in anything and everything they decide to do.

And then our first Pac-10 championship was pretty cool, too.

What are your long-term goals for the Sun Devils?
I’m hoping they are not too long term, but rather short term. We want to win it all. We want to win a national championship at Arizona State—that is our ultimate goal. And we would like to string together numerous Pac-10 Championships as well.

How are you different than the coaches before you?
I will say I have enormous respect for Maura McHugh (ASU women’s basketball coach from 1987-’88 until 1992-’93), and we are still breaking her records in my 11th year at ASU, with the great teams she had and the great job she did.

A lot of women paved the way for me to be in a position to make a living for my family and give our players a chance to play on national television and before all the big crowds.

I attended your February 8 game against the Oregon Ducks. In the first period, you were down by as many as 12 points. What strategy is going through your mind when the Sun Devils’ baskets just aren’t going in? (I must state that you did go on to beat the Ducks 61 to 48).
I have a lot of faith in this team. If I get discouraged, I am sending the wrong message. Our message to our team is positive emotional energy for an entire game all the time, and so when we went in at halftime, we took a deep breath and did a positive emotional energy check and we regrouped.

The cornerstone of our program has been built on great defense and great rebounding, and so in games like that we never get too worried because we know that we can hang in the game because of our defense and eventually our offense will kick in. There is never a need to panic.

Do you have any pre-game rituals?
I think we all have our pre-competition routines. I ask the players to write theirs up and really try to be diligent about preparing themselves and I’m sure a lot of our routines are similar. I always lie down for 20 to 30 minutes after shoot around (shoot around usually takes place 5 to 6 hours before the game) and just visualize situations and do a little bit of breathing and just get focused on what I can expect from the game. And I like to get a good workout in. That is a good stress reliever, if you will.

The biggest ritual for me is to try to take some time to shut out everything and lock in, in terms of being the best coach I can be for my team on that day.

Who taught you how to play basketball?
I think my dad taught me a little bit how to play basketball. I was a young girl who liked sports; I was always outside playing with the boys. I have an older brother who was a good athlete. I think I was born to play sports because I loved it from the moment I picked up really any ball, kind of like my 3-year-old, Quinn.

I didn’t play anything organized until I was about 9 or 10. I walked to the junior high, hopped the fence and I shot. Things were different then: You just played and taught yourself. I played a lot against guys, which I think helped me. Being a smaller guard playing against guys helped me get my shot off quicker and [taught me] how to protect the ball.

If you were speaking to 80,000 PW readers who are mothers who want their daughters to play college basketball, what advice would you give them?
What I would say to all the moms reading this is it really does not matter what they want, it matters what their daughters want. If their daughters want to play college basketball they have to have that intrinsic motivation. It is a tremendous sacrifice, a lot of hard work. And frankly, they probably have to have talent. They have to be athletic and have not just a great work ethic and be disciplined. To play at the college level, the athleticism and the intuition and skills are a necessity.

Getting involved in club ball when they are in middle school or approach high school is a good thing. That is where they can be in a more competitive environment instead of just a school team or a smaller recreational league, but I do not think that they have to pay thousands of dollars to play traveling basketball. I think a lot of people do that these days and when you are playing 60, 70, 80 games a summer, I ask you, when are you actually in the gym working on your game? You are not. Now, if there is a good balance of skill work and practicing and training with playing games then that is something I would highly recommend.

I recommend that athletes play more than one sport growing up, especially in high school. If they are good enough then they will probably play basketball somewhat year-round. But they can still play softball and compete in track and play volleyball, because once you get to college it pretty much does consume you year-round. Don’t get burned out by your sophomore year.

Other than recruiting, what do you like to do during the off-season?
Recruiting is a necessity and it is a year-round job, not just an off-season duty. I really like parts of it because it is an opportunity to meet some incredible families and some incredible young ladies, and that is a fun aspect of my job.

In the off-season, I get to spend a little more time with my family. When I transition out of the season, I try to volunteer in [my child’s] classes once a week or I go to a soccer game or a baseball game and spend more time with them.

And my husband and I like to play golf, but certainly I like to just to get to spend time with him.

And then one of my biggest vices is lying out in the sun. When it gets hot in the summer I always love it when the boys want to be in the pool, because then I get to be outside. I absolutely love to be out in the sunshine.

Tell us what the community can do to help you and your team be successful in the 2007-’08 season?
Buy a season ticket and come out and support the team! Or if that is not feasible, contact the women’s basketball office (480.965.6086) and see what we can do about providing tickets to groups you know of that might be very interested in coming to games but might not be able to afford tickets. Help us identify those groups and help them get to games. Also, we have never sold out Wells Fargo Arena—we want to do that for one of our Pac-10 games, either Stanford or University of Arizona, if anyone would like to help us or be a part of it.

Finally, if anyone knows of any groups that would benefit from having our coaching staff or players come out and speak to them, let us know. I think we have some powerful messages that we like to send in terms of making healthy life choices, especially to young groups. Anytime we can be a source of inspiration or comfort or offer a little bit of friendship to anybody … we really pride ourselves on how much outreach we do, and we want to have a presence in our community. We also do a health expo at one home game every year, so if anyone wants to help the team or support that, please contact us. We feel we have an obligation to give back, because we know we are very privileged to do what we do.

For more information on the team and Coach Turner Thorne, please visit http://thesundevils.cstv.com.