Muffet McGraw Position: Head Coach Alma Mater: 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."

With those words, former Notre Dame athletics director Gene Corrigan announced the hiring of Muffet McGraw as the third head coach of the 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 Irish have achieved in the past 22 years:

• 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 to the NCAA Final Four (1997 and 2001). McGraw is one of just 14 active Division I coaches to lead her team to multiple Final Four appearances.

• Seven NCAA Sweet 16 trips, all in the past 13 seasons. The Irish are one of only 11 programs in the nation that can make that claim.

• 19 seasons with 20-or-more victories, including 15 in the past 16 seasons.

• 16 NCAA Tournament appearances, including a current string of 14 consecutive NCAA Tournament berths. During the present 14-year streak, Notre Dame has won at least one NCAA postseason game 12 times.

• 60 wins over ranked opponents, including 50 in the past 11 seasons alone (an average of 4.5 per year during that span). In addition, 20 of the past 50 wins vs. ranked teams have come against top-10 opponents.

• 178 appearances in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, putting McGraw 12th among active Division I coaches on that list (as of the end of the 2008-09 season). Notre Dame also has spent 76 weeks ranked among the top 10 teams in the nation, all in the past 12 seasons.

• 11 top-four finishes in the BIG EAST Conference during Notre Dame's 14 years in that league. The Irish also won a share of the 2001 BIG EAST regular-season title.

• 13 consecutive top-20 recruiting classes, dating back to the incoming class of 1997. Notre Dame is one of just three programs in the nation that currently owns a streak of that length.

• 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 57-for-57 success rate). The Irish have posted a perfect 100-percent NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) score in each of the past three years, and in 2007-08, they were one of only four teams in the country to combine a perfect GSR score with a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16.

McGraw also ranks among the top 25 coaches in NCAA Division I history with 584 career wins (19th), a .710 all-time winning percentage (25th) and 21 20-win seasons (tie-12th), entering the 2009-10 season.

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 patrolling the Irish sidelines through the 2014-15 campaign.

"For more than 20 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."

In 2008-09, McGraw led Notre Dame to a 22-9 record and the program's 14th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, not to mention a 10-6 mark and fourth-place tie in the rugged BIG EAST Conference. The Irish also were ranked among the top 25 teams in the country by both major national polls for the entire season, finishing 23rd in the Associated Press poll. At year's end, Notre Dame also ranked among the top 50 in the country in eight NCAA statistical categories, including scoring offense (27th at 71.5 points per game) and assist-to-turnover ratio (29th at 0.94).

"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 out administration, especially Father Jenkins and (director of athletics) Jack Swarbrick, 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 -- I know we're on the brink of even greater things in the future, and I'm incredibly motivated to get on the court with our team again this season."

• • •

Under McGraw's guidance, the past 14 seasons (1996-2009) have been the most successful in Notre Dame's history. The Irish have compiled an impressive 337-117 (.742) record, including a sparkling 176-56 (.759) regular-season mark in BIG EAST play, the second-best winning percentage in league history. Notre Dame also has averaged 24 victories per year during that span, with two 30-win seasons and six 25-win campaigns to its credit. The Irish have won at least one NCAA Tournament game 12 times in that 14-year span, advancing to the Sweet 16 seven times (1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2008) and the Final Four twice (1997 and 2001).

"At Notre Dame, we expect to play for national championships every year and this program has reached a point where we accept nothing less," McGraw commented. "We all have that one common goal in mind and, to see that collective energy and enthusiasm -- from the players, coaches and fans -- poured into achieving that goal has me convinced that we're just scratching the surface of what we can accomplish in the next few years."

• • •

To be sure, the night of April 1, 2001 is one McGraw and the Irish faithful will never forget. On that memorable Sunday evening in St. Louis, Notre Dame defeated Purdue 68-66 as McGraw's 14th Irish team won the school's first NCAA women's basketball championship. It was the second Final Four appearance in five years for McGraw's troops, who became the only NCAA champion to erase double-figure deficits in both of its Final Four contests. Having coached the Irish to their best ever regular-season record at 26-1 and a school-record 34 wins (the second 30-win campaign in school history), and having guided Notre Dame to its best record (34-2) and season winning percentage (.944), McGraw earned numerous national awards for her efforts. For the first time in her career, she won national coach-of-the-year honors from the WBCA, Sports Illustrated for Womenand Associated Press, as well as the Atlanta Tipoff Club, which named her the Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year. Ruth Riley joined McGraw for the latter two honors, earning AP and Naismith player-of-the-year laurels. Riley also was recognized as the nation's top student-athlete when she was named the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Team Member of the Year.

In addition, the New York Athletic Club honored McGraw with the 2001 Winged Foot Award, which is presented annually to the coach of the NCAA champion. She also was selected as the WBCA District I Coach of the Year and was voted the BIG EAST Coach of the Year for the first time. The latter award gave McGraw a unique distinction -- she has earned coach-of-the-year honors in all four conferences with which she has been associated during her head coaching tenure (the East Coast Conference, North Star Conference, Midwestern Collegiate Conference and BIG EAST).

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McGraw has led the Irish to all 16 of their NCAA Tournament appearances, the first coming in 1992 and the second in 1994. Yet, Notre Dame's first NCAA Tournament win didn't come until after it joined the BIG EAST Conference in 1996 when, as the 12th seed in the Midwest region, the Irish stunned fifth-seeded and 15th-ranked Purdue, 73-60, in Lubbock, Texas. The success of that 1995-96 campaign and a 23-8 record earned McGraw national recognition as well, as she was named the WBCA District II Coach of the Year.

One season later, McGraw and the Irish made an even bigger national statement, going all the way to the Final Four. Notre Dame compiled a gaudy 31-7 record (at the time the most wins in school history) and the first 30-win season in the program's history. Also, for the first time ever, the Irish were ranked in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today polls from the preseason until the end of the year. Notre Dame earned its first-ever top 10 ranking at the end of November and achieved all-time high finishes in both final polls, finishing fifth in the ESPN/USA Today rankings and 15th in the AP poll.

McGraw and the Irish got to the 1997 NCAA Final Four the hard way, beating three consecutive ranked opponents on the road. In its NCAA first-round game in Austin, Texas, Notre Dame cruised to a 93-62 victory over Memphis. Its second round contest matched the Irish up with Texas. Undaunted by the hostile Longhorn crowd, Notre Dame pulled off an 86-83 upset of its 14th-ranked hosts.

Making their first-ever Sweet 16 appearance, the Irish erased a nine-point halftime deficit and went on to defeat eighth-ranked Alabama, 87-71 in Columbia, S.C. Notre Dame then claimed the East Regional championship and booked its first trip to the Final Four with a 62-52 win over No. 22 George Washington. An 80-66 loss to eventual national champion Tennessee couldn't dampen what remains a defining season in the program's history.

• • •

The 1997-98 campaign was expected to be a transition year as the Irish lost four starters from that first Final Four team. However, it turned out to be perhaps the best coaching effort of McGraw's career, punctuated by one of the most stunning upsets of the 1998 NCAA Tournament when Notre Dame beat sixth-ranked and top-seeded Texas Tech in the second round of the Midwest Regional before a stunned Lady Raider crowd at Lubbock Municipal Coliseum. That win propelled McGraw's team into the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row, resulted in a final ranking of 17th in the ESPN/USA Today poll and made McGraw a finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year award.

During the 1998-99 season, McGraw's charges posted an impressive 26-5 mark and spent a (then) school-record 16 consecutive weeks ranked in the top 10. Notre Dame was undefeated (8-0) against non-conference opponents, registering wins at home against UCLA (99-82) and Duke (84-57), both of whom were ranked sixth at tipoff.

The accomplishments of the Notre Dame program in `98-'99 made McGraw a finalist for the Naismith Award for the second consecutive season. In addition, Riley became the first player to earn first-team AP All-America honors. Riley also was a first team CoSIDA Academic All-America® honoree, the fourth player in the history of the program to earn Academic All-America® accolades.

The 1999-2000 campaign continued Notre Dame's rise up the national ladder, as the Irish duplicated their record-setting accomplishment of the 1998-99 campaign, finishing with, at the time, the best winning percentage in school history (.844) en route to a 27-5 campaign and return to the NCAA Sweet 16. Notre Dame spent all but two weeks in the top 10 of the AP poll and held down the No. 5 ranking (then an all-time high) for seven of the 18 weeks.

That would all set the stage for the memorable events of 2000-01 and Notre Dame's ascension into the ranks of college basketball's elite programs.

• • •

To understand the competitive fire that has fueled much of McGraw's success, you have to go back to her playing days. A four-year starter at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pa., she captained the 1976-77 Hawk team that finished 23-5 and was ranked third nationally. In four seasons at SJU, McGraw helped her team compile a 59-12 mark, while participating in the regional Eastern Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (EAIAW) tournament once and the national AIAW tourney once.

She received her bachelor's degree in sociology from SJU in 1977. Following graduation, she coached for two seasons at Philadelphia's Archbishop Carroll High School where she guided her teams to a 50-3 record, including a 28-0 mark during her second year. In that `78-79 season, she led her squad to the Catholic League title and was named coach of the year for the Philadelphia Catholic League.

McGraw then played point guard for one year with the California Dreams in the Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL). She returned to her alma mater in 1980, serving as an assistant coach for two seasons under Jim Foster.

In 1982, McGraw was named head coach at Lehigh University, leading that school to unprecedented success. Her teams were 88-41 (.683) during her five-year tenure. She was named East Coast Conference Coach of the Year following her first season with the Engineers in 1982-83. Her `84-85 and `85-86 teams posted back-to-back 20-win seasons, finishing 20-8 and 24-4, respectively. The latter squad won the most games in women's basketball history at the school, while claiming both the ECC regular-season and tournament titles.

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In her first season at Notre Dame (1987-88), McGraw took a team which finished 12-15 the previous year and guided that squad to a 20-8 mark, including the program's first-ever win over a ranked opponent (78-66 at No. 17 Duke) as she was named North Star Conference Coach of the Year.

The following year, McGraw and the Irish moved into the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (MCC) -- now known as the Horizon League -- and set about establishing a standard of excellence in that conference that has never been duplicated.

In seven years as a member of the MCC, Notre Dame won five regular season and tournament championships, including four consecutive tournament crowns from 1989-92. McGraw's teams never finished lower than second in the regular season standings and advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament all but once. Notre Dame wound up compiling an 87-15 (.853) record in MCC regular-season games and was 13-2 (.867) in tournament play.

While her teams' successes in the MCC were impressive, McGraw and the Irish had their sights set on bigger goals. The first of those aims was achieved on Dec. 28, 1990, when Notre Dame announced its presence on the national basketball scene with a historic 71-66 win over No. 11 Louisiana Tech in the first round of the Hawk Classic in McGraw's hometown of Philadelphia. The next evening, the Irish upended McGraw's alma mater, Saint Joseph's (Pa.), 72-53, in the championship game, causing Hall of Fame sportswriter Mel Greenberg to note in the Philadelphia Inquirer the following day, "They were the kind of wins that get a team noticed on the national level."

Those words proved prophetic only days later when, on Dec. 31, 1990, the Irish women's basketball program earned the school's first national ranking. Notre Dame entered the Associated Press poll at No. 25 and remained in both the AP and USA Today polls for the next nine weeks, climbing as high as 19th in the AP and 18th in the USA Today poll.

The next important step in the growth of Notre Dame women's basketball under McGraw's tutelage came in 1992, when the Irish, despite a 14-17 mark (the only losing season McGraw has experienced during her head coaching tenure), rallied to win the MCC Tournament with a 59-54 upset of top-seeded Xavier in the championship finale. The win earned Notre Dame its first-ever berth in the coveted NCAA Tournament field via the league's automatic bid.

Two years later, the Irish was back in the NCAA Tournament, once again earning the MCC's automatic bid. This time, Notre Dame garnered additional respect from the NCAA Selection Committee, picking up a home game in the first round against Minnesota. However, the plucky Gophers pulled out a tough 81-76 decision at the Joyce Center, abruptly ending the season for the Irish. Still, the lessons McGraw and her charges learned in those first two NCAA Tournament appearances would prove invaluable -- since that time, Notre Dame has won at least once in all but two of the 14 NCAA Tournaments it has played in (1996-2009), posting a 25-15 (.600) record in NCAA postseason play that ranks among the top 15 in NCAA Tournament history.

• • •

Throughout her storied coaching career, success for McGraw has meant developing great players. Ruth Riley, the 2001 BIG EAST Player of the Year, became the third Notre Dame player to earn AP All-America honors when she was named in `99 to the third team. Riley, who was a unanimous first-team all-BIG EAST selection in 2000 and was the `99 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year, also earned Kodak/WBCA honorable mention All-America honors. She also was a member of the `99 U.S. World University Games team and proudly represented her country as a member of the gold medal-winning 2004 U.S. Olympic Team.

Besides Riley, two players whose names are forever linked to elevating the Notre Dame program to national prominence are `97 graduates Beth Morgan and Katryna Gaither. The two-time Kodak and AP honorable mention All-Americans both scored more than 2,000 points during their careers, becoming the first two players from the same team in NCAA history (male or female) to reach that milestone. They rank one-two, respectively, on the Irish career scoring list, while Gaither also stands as the school's second all-time leading rebounder behind Riley. Both players went on to careers at the professional level with the American Basketball League (ABL) and the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).

The trio of Riley, Morgan and Gaither highlight an impressive list of nine Irish players who have garnered All-America honors during McGraw's career. In addition, the Notre Dame mentor also has worked with five players who have been selected for USA Basketball National Teams, with those players going on to win a total of nine medals (led by Riley's gold with the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team). What's more, McGraw has coached three conference players-of-the-year, three league rookies-of-the-year, and 21 players who have earned all-conference recognition a total of 45 times (including 15 first-team picks who have been chosen a total of 26 times) since arriving in South Bend. In addition, she has helped to shape several other national award winners, including two Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award recipients (Niele Ivey in 2001, Megan Duffy in 2006) and 2002 United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) National Freshman of the Year Jacqueline Batteast.

• • •

Another sign of McGraw's success has been her ability to prepare her players for the next level. No less than 18 Notre Dame cagers have gone on to play professionally, including nine who either have been drafted or signed as free agents with WNBA teams.

The past nine years have seen the greatest influx of Irish talent into the WNBA, with seven Notre Dame players having been selected in the league's annual draft since 2001. Four of those players were starters on the `01 Irish NCAA championship squad, and five of the recent WNBA draftees earned All-America status during their careers at Notre Dame.

Perhaps no former Irish player has achieved greater success at the professional level than Ruth Riley. Less than a month after being named the 2001 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player, Riley was taken with the fifth overall pick in the WNBA Draft by the Miami Sol, where she spent her first two pro seasons. When the Sol folded in 2003, she was the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA dispersal draft by the Detroit Shock, quickly becoming a crowd favorite in the Motor City.

With Riley in the starting lineup, Detroit rolled to the league title with a storybook "worst-to-first" finish in `03, and Riley herself was named the WNBA Finals MVP, becoming the only player in women's basketball history to earn Finals MVP honors at both the NCAA and WNBA levels. She also is one of only six players in women's basketball lore to earn championships in NCAA, WNBA and Olympic competition. Riley came back to earn a second WNBA title with Detroit in 2006, before being traded to the San Antonio Silver Stars in 2007. Since arriving in the Alamo City, Riley has helped the Silver Stars to three consecutive playoff appearances, including the franchise's first trip to the WNBA Finals in 2008.

Niele Ivey was another important cog in the 2001 national championship machine for Notre Dame, and she translated that into a extensive playing career on the professional circuit. A second-round pick of the Indiana Fever in the `01 WNBA Draft, Ivey spent four seasons with the club, helping pilot the Fever to their first-ever playoff berth in 2002. She also spent time as a free-agent signing with the Detroit Shock and Phoenix Mercury in 2005 before retiring to begin her coaching career, which has led her back to her alma mater, where she is in her third season working with the next generation of Notre Dame point guards.

In three of the past five years, the Irish have had three more All-Americans selected in the WNBA Draft. Jacqueline Batteast was a second-round pick (17th overall) by the Minnesota Lynx in 2005 before being traded to Detroit for the 2006 campaign and winning a WNBA title alongside Riley. A year later, the Lynx once again dipped into the Notre Dame talent pool, choosing All-America point guard Megan Duffy in the third round (31st overall pick), with Duffy spending two years with the Lynx before signing with the New York Liberty as a free agent in 2008 and helping that team make the WNBA's Eastern Conference finals.

Most recently, Charel Allen took her game to the next level, as the high-scoring guard was chosen in the third round (43rd overall pick) of the 2008 WNBA Draft by the Sacramento Monarchs. She went on to contribute to the Monarchs' run to the WNBA's Western Conference playoffs, where they fell in three hard-fought games to Riley's San Antonio club.

• • •

McGraw's teams also have been stellar in the classroom. Since she arrived at Notre Dame in 1987, every women's basketball player who completed her athletic and academic eligibility at the University has graduated (a perfect 57-for-57 success rate). Additionally, two Irish players -- Ruth Riley and Megan Duffy -- have been named ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA first-team Academic All-Americans® with Riley twice earning that honor and going on to be named to the 2001 Academic All-America Team Member of the Year (for all sports, besting such notables as Duke men's basketball player Shane Battier [now with the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies] and Purdue football player Drew Brees [now with the NFL's New Orleans Saints]), in addition to earning the NCAA Top VIII Award and an NCAA postgraduate scholarship.

• • •

McGraw's knack for developing talent also extends to the coaching ranks. No less than 12 of her former players and/or assistant coaches currently are serving as coaches at either the high school or college level. In addition, seven of her former pupils are presently NCAA Division I head coaches: Sandy Botham, a 1988 Notre Dame graduate who is at Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Beth (Morgan) Cunningham, the leading scorer in Irish history from 1993-97 and now the skipper at Virginia Commonwealth; Bill Fennelly, another former aide who is piloting Iowa State; Kevin McGuff, a Notre Dame assistant for six seasons who now is the head coach at Xavier; Carol Owens, who spent a decade working with McGraw before taking the reins at her alma mater, Northern Illinois; Coquese Washington, a 1991 Notre Dame graduate and eight-year veteran on McGraw's staff who now is in charge at Penn State; and most recently, Kristin (Knapp) Cole, a 1994 Notre Dame graduate who was named head coach at New Hampshire in June 2007. McGuff, Owens and Washington comprised McGraw's assistant coaching staff on the 2001 Irish NCAA national championship squad, while McGuff and Owens also were on McGraw's staff for Notre Dame's run to the 1997 NCAA Final Four.

• • •

On a national level, McGraw has been widely regarded as a champion for student-athletes. In June 2002, she accepted an invitation from U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige to join the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics. Created 30 years after the passage of the Title IX anti-discrimination law, the 15-member panel examined ways to strengthen enforcement and expand opportunities to ensure fairness for all college athletes. McGraw was the only women's basketball coach on the Commission, which also included former WNBA great Cynthia Cooper, former U.S. National Soccer Team captain Julie Foudy and two-time Olympic gold medalist Donna DeVarona.

In the summer of 2004, McGraw served with the WBCA's Special Committee on Recruiting and Access, which helped create numerous proposals to the NCAA that clarified and strengthened national recruiting guidelines. McGraw's work on that committee led to her selection in 2005 as a member of the WBCA's Board of Directors, serving as the Division I Legislative Chair for that body. Her continuing efforts to preserve and improve the status of college athletics were recognized by the WBCA in 2009, when she was chosen to receive the prestigious Carol Eckman Award, which goes annually to an active WBCA coach who exemplifies Eckman's spirit, integrity and character through sportsmanship, commitment to the student-athlete, honesty, ethical behavior, courage and dedication to purpose.

• • •

On top of her tireless work at Notre Dame, McGraw often is in demand as a featured speaker at various camps, luncheons and other fundraisers around the country. For several years, she has been a co-chair for the annual "Run, Jane, Run" golf tournament in South Bend, which benefits local chapters of the YWCA. McGraw also has helped coordinate the annual Coaches' Car Wash, with proceeds going to the University's fundraising efforts for United Way, and in the summer of 2006, she served as honorary chair of "Jazz on the Terrace," a concert and silent auction whose proceeds went to benefit RiverBend Cancer Services in Michiana.

In addition, McGraw had her first book published in 2003, teaming with Bradley University professor Paul Gullifor to pen Coaching Success: Muffet McGraw's Formula for Winning -- In Sports and In Life.

Besides basketball, she has cultivated a passion for golf, sporting a 15-handicap. In fact, one of her favorite moments off the hardwood came just two months after winning the 2001 national championship, when she stepped to the fourth tee at Notre Dame's Warren Golf Course and promptly drained her first hole-in-one.

Born Dec. 5, 1955, in Pottsville, Pa., and raised in nearby West Chester, McGraw remains one of the predominant women's basketball figures ever to come from the Philadelphia metro area. In 1986, she was inducted into the Saint Joseph's University Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, followed by her enshrinement into the Philadelphia Big Five Women's Hall of Fame in 1989. In November 2002, McGraw's alma mater came calling once again, inducting her into the SJU Athletics Hall of Fame.

McGraw's accomplishments also have not been overlooked by her current employer. In 1997, she was named an honorary alumna by the Notre Dame Alumni Association and received an honorary monogram from the Notre Dame Monogram Club.

McGraw is devoted to maintaining a strong family as well. She and her husband, Matt, celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary in 2009, and they have a 19-year-old son, Murphy, who is a sophomore at Indiana University. The McGraws live in Granger, Ind.