'Better Today!' Box's RedHawks Get Summer Workouts Underway

It's 7:47 a.m. Tuesday in Millett Hall, and Glenn Box is talking to himself.

The Miami University women's basketball team is midway through its second full-squad workout of the summer, and the RedHawks' head coach is already seeing signs of progress.

"Not bad," he mutters. "Here we go."

"Getting better!"

On the 'cup-half-empty' side of the ledger, the first-year head coach knows there's still plenty of tasks to accomplish. To be fair, it's felt that way since he was introduced on May 9.

Build a staff. Assemble a team. Recruit for the future. Finalize a schedule. The 'Day 1' to-do list went on and on and on.

But at the same time, Box knew it was important to immediately begin laying groundwork and focusing on the small details of development and growth that would ultimately help his program begin its quest for MAC championships.

And from the 'cup-half-full' perspective, Box knows that each step forward means the RedHawks are that much closer to reaching their goals.

"Right now, I feel like we have so much work to do," Box explained later. "And when you're thinking like that, you can't lose your eye on progression…you've got to see that you're getting better.

"So, in order to be consistent, I personally need to see, 'Man, she got a little better today. Man, she handled that a little better today. Man, as a team, we almost made that drill.'

"We have to individually get better, and it's the small things."

On this Tuesday morning in Oxford, Box's team is getting crisper and sharper in its offensive efficiency. He routinely stops drills to break down a term or a fundamental and how he wants to see it executed.

What lane should a wing fill on transition? What body position should a screener have? How many dribbles does it take to get up the floor?

Even down to the nuances of passing and catching, Box doesn't hesitate to blow a whistle and take time to explain or demonstrate exactly what he's looking for.

"Do what you practice!", he reminds his players.

- - -

Many of the people gathered in the gym on this early morning are beginning their first year with Miami Women's Basketball. Not only is a majority of the roster made up of new RedHawks (between transfers and freshmen), but Box has also brought three assistants to Oxford to round out his staff: Ben Wierzba, Evelyn Thompson and Keyanna Warthen.

"Ben is like the jack of all trades," said Box. "He can literally do everything; he's obviously a wealth of information and knowledge. I don't think there's anything that he's not good at.

"He's got a lot of wisdom…and he has an excellent eye for talent."

"Evelyn is a veteran coach," Box continued. "What drew me to her is that she has a huge chip on her shoulder. She wants to win. As we're trying to change the culture, I think it's important to have people like that around you. And she's obviously coached and played at a high level in the past."

Warthen, the youngest coach on staff, played for Indiana from 2017-2021, when Box was first an assistant and later the associate head coach there. "'Key' has the potential to be an incredible recruiter," said Box. "She has an infectious personality…

"She knows me, and she's been around me. She knows how my mind works. She's accustomed to the terminology that we'll be using. She's accustomed to the way we do things, and the way that we will play, so it's easier for someone like her to teach."

Warthen will work with the guards, Wierzba with the posts and Thompson will divide her focus between both position groups. Box and his staff are fashioning much of their approach after what worked so well for him at IU, where the Hoosiers won 20 or more games during each of his seven years in Bloomington, including a Big Ten title and No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in 2023.

"That's our model," said Box, who had also previously served as an assistant at Akron, St. Louis and Western Michigan. "Obviously with the success we had, it's what I know…

"I'm still taking [and implementing] little things from all over the place, but right now, a lot of the things we're doing, we did at Indiana."

- - -

Even before he first arrived in Oxford, Box expected 2023-24 to be more of a foundational year for the Miami program. But after 50 days on the job, he admits his outlook has already changed somewhat.

"My original thought was that it's going to be extremely hard to win our first year, which it will be," Box said. "But the players that I had to recruit to come here, I had to sell them that we're going to win. My mindset had to shift as far as being more than a foundational year. We're going to do everything we can to get better and position ourselves where we can be competitive and ultimately win.

"These kids are coming here and believing in me, so I owe it to them to give them everything I have and position themselves to be more than what they've been, so that we can win…

"We're going to get the best players we can, we're going to get the best people we can, and we're going to try and be competitive right now. We're going to try and win right now."

Ask Box to describe himself in a word, and it's exactly that: 'Winner.'

"I just expect to win," Box said simply. "That's pretty much our theme. If we don't win a game, it's not going to be due to lack of effort, preparation or belief. We're going to go in there and give it our all: every single game, every single practice."

And so it is, that well after breaking the final huddle on Tuesday ('1-2-3-WORK!!'), Box can be found getting extra reps with Madison Huhn on ball screen angles, demonstrating the proper approach for an overhead pass to Amber Tretter or watching twin sisters Jada and Jadyn Scott fire up jumper after jumper from the right wing.

He seems to revel in the most microscopic details, but any evident improvement makes his face light up.

"Much better, much better, much better!", he shouts.

"I can't lose sight of progression," Box said later. "I can't skip steps." He's mentored players to league championships and All-American honors, and he knows that the long journey ahead – from where a team starts to how it finishes – consists of countless incremental steps forward.

And while it's still early in the process for the 2023-24 version of the Red and White, Box is impressed with how his players have responded. "I haven't had to talk them into things," he said. "The willingness of our players to work…I've been very, very pleased. They've exceeded my expectations."

Bottom line? Miami Women's Basketball got better today.

And tomorrow will bring yet another step.

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'Better Today!' Box's RedHawks Get Summer Workouts Underway

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