Head Coach
MUFFET McGRAW 25th Season • 556-211 (.725) 30th Season Overall • 644-252 (.719)
Saint Joseph’s (Pa.) ’77
“If we searched for an entire year. I don’t think we would find anyone better suited for our program.”
46
With those words, former Notre Dame athletics director Gene Corrigan announced the hiring of Muffet McGraw as the third head coach of the Fighting Irish women’s basketball program on May 18, 1987. Corrigan may not have realized it at the time, but he also ushered in an era of unparalleled success in women’s basketball at Notre Dame, brought to life on the shoulders of a 5-foot-6 dynamo who accepts nothing less than the very best from herself, her players and her program. Ask anyone familiar with women’s basketball about McGraw and her Notre Dame program and inevitably, you’ll hear the same two words — consistency and excellence. And it’s no wonder, when you consider what McGraw and the Fighting Irish have achieved in the past 24 seasons: • The 2001 NCAA Championship, defeating Purdue in the title game, 68-66. McGraw is one of only eight active Division I coaches to guide her team to a national title. • Two trips in the NCAA Division I national championship game, adding a berth in the 2011 final against Texas A&M. McGraw is one of just seven active Division I coaches (and 11 all-time) with multiple appearances in the NCAA national championship game — and one of only four active Division I coaches with multiple titlegame berths AND a national championship to her credit. • Three trips to the NCAA Women’s Final Four (1997, 2001 and 2011). McGraw is one of just nine active Division I coaches to lead her team to three Women’s Final Four appearances. • Ranks 10th among active NCAA Division I coaches with 644 career wins (reaching the 600-win milestone on Jan. 19, 2010, at Louisville in her 839th game, at the time tying for 10th-fastest to 600 wins in Division I history), and 18th among active coaches with a .719 alltime winning percentage. • Nine NCAA Sweet 16 trips, all in the past 15 seasons (1997-2011). The Fighting Irish are one of only 10 programs in the nation that can make that claim. • 21 seasons with 20-or-more victories, including 17 in the past 18 years (1993-2011). Notre Dame also has posted eight 25-win seasons and three 30-win campaigns in the past 15 years (19972011). McGraw herself is tied for ninth in NCAA Division I history (eighth among active coaches) with 23 career 20-win seasons, the first two coming during her tenure at Lehigh (1982-87). • 18 NCAA tournament appearances, including a current string of 16 consecutive NCAA
tournament berths (the sixth-longest active run of consecutive appearances and 10th-longest streak at any time in NCAA tournament history). During this current streak (1996-2011), Notre Dame has won at least one NCAA postseason game 14 times. • 74 wins over ranked opponents, including 63 in the past 13 seasons alone (1998-2011). In addition, 23 of those wins have come against top-10 opponents, including five against top-five teams and three against No. 1-ranked squads. • 216 appearances in the Associated Press Top 25 poll (including an active school-record streak of 77 consecutive weeks in the AP poll entering the 2011-12 season). McGraw is 12th among active Division I coaches and 22nd all-time in terms of AP poll appearances (through final 2010-11 poll). Notre Dame also has spent 103 weeks ranked among the top 10 teams in the nation, all in the past 13 seasons (1997-2011). • 13 top-four finishes in the BIG EAST Conference during Notre Dame’s first 16 years in that league (1995-96 through 2010-11). The Fighting Irish also won a share of the 2001 BIG EAST regularseason title. • 15 consecutive top-20 recruiting classes, dating back to the incoming class of 1997 (and including the incoming class of 2011, ranked as high as No. 9 in the nation). Notre Dame is one of just three programs in the nation that owns an active streak of that length. • Fourth on all-time coaching wins list at Notre Dame and one of only six coaches in the 125year history of Fighting Irish athletics to win 500 games at Notre Dame, joining men’s/women’s fencing’s Michael DeCicco (774) and Yves Auriol (525), men’s tennis/wrestling coach Tom Fallon (579) and baseball’s Jake Kline (558) and Paul Mainieri (533). • Far and away the winningest basketball coach (men’s or women’s) in school history, with noted men’s skipper (and current ESPN basketball analyst) Digger Phelps second on that list (393 wins). • A perfect 100-percent graduation rate for all players entering the program since 1987 who have completed their athletic and academic eligibility at Notre Dame (a spotless 64-for-64 success rate). The Fighting Irish have posted a perfect 100-percent NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) score in each of the past five years (2007-11), and they are one of only four programs in the country to combine a perfect GSR score with a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 three times in the past four seasons (2008, 2010, 2011) — and one of four to pair a perfect GSR and a berth in the NCAA national championship game at some point during the past four years (2011).
Add it all up and you have the framework for a Hall of Fame career. And, on June 11, 2011, that’s exactly what McGraw became, as she officially was the first Notre Dame representative to be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She also is one of seven active Division I Hall of Fame coaches who were enshrined on the basis of their work on the sidelines. Still, with all of those accomplishments in hand, McGraw has shown no signs of slowing down any time soon. In July 2008, the veteran head coach signed a contract extension that will keep her at the helm of the Fighting Irish through the 2014-15 campaign. “For nearly 25 years, Muffet has led our program with integrity and passion, and, of course, to much success,” said Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president. “As we look forward to many more years together, I am confident that the excellence she has achieved on and off the court will continue.” McGraw led Notre Dame to the brink of history in 2010-11, as the Fighting Irish registered a 31-8 record and advanced to the NCAA national championship game for the second time while making their third trip to the NCAA Women’s Final Four. Along the way to the title game, Notre Dame knocked off Tennessee and Connecticut in consecutive games, becoming the first school ever to pull off that feat, let alone to do it in the pressure-packed NCAA tournament. What’s more, Notre Dame was ranked among the top 20 teams in the country virtually throughout the season, peaking at No. 7 in the land, and extending the program’s streak of consecutive Associated Press poll appearances to a school-record 77 weeks, dating back to the 2007-08 AP preseason poll. In addition, the Fighting Irish ended the year ranked among the top 11 teams in the nation in seven NCAA statistical categories — field goal percentage (4th - .480), scoring margin (7th - +20.8 ppg.), steals (7th - 12.7 spg.), assists (9th - 17.2 apg.), three-point field goal percentage defense (10th - .269), rebounding margin (10th - +8.2 rpg.) and scoring offense (11th - 77.0 ppg.). As if that weren’t enough, Notre Dame won the 2010 WBCA Classic and State Farm Holiday Hoops Classic titles, advanced to the BIG EAST Tournament championship game for the first time since 2001, and set no fewer than 10 single-season school records , including new marks for games played (39), total points (3,004), total rebounds (1,582), free throws made (667), free throws attempted (930), steals (495), opponent turnovers (864). Furthermore, the Fighting Irish finished among the top five in the country in attendance for the second consecutive season, ranking fifth with a school-record average of 8,553 fans per game (surpassing the old mark of 8,377 set just one year earlier). Bolstered by a second consecutive year in which all season ticket packages (approximately 7,500) were sold out prior to opening night, the 2010-11 campaign marked Notre Dame’s 11th consecutive top-16 attendance ranking, and the Fighting Irish had five sellout crowds last year (and five others within 500 fans of a sellout), giving them 11 full houses in the past two seasons alone. “I’m immensely proud and grateful to continue representing the University of Notre Dame and this wonderful basketball program,” McGraw said. “The support we have received from the University community and our administration, especially (athletics director) Jack Swarbrick and Father Jenkins, continually reminds me of why I consider my role as head coach at Notre Dame to be truly the greatest job I could ever ask for. This is such an exciting time for our program
2001 NCAA National Champions | 2011 NCAA National Finalists | 3 NCAA Final Fours 45-60CoachingStaff.indd 46
11/9/11 1:14 PM