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Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw Calls It A Day

She’ll be a hard act to follow.

By JD King
NCAA BASKETBALL: APR 01 Div I Women’s Championship - Quarterfinals - Notre Dame v Stanford
CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 01: Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Muffet McGraw celebrates with fans and teammates after cutting down the net during the net cutting ceremony after game action during the Women’s NCAA Division I Championship - Quarterfinals game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Stanford Cardinal on April 1, 2019 at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated the Stanford Cardinal by the score of 84-68.
Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw announced her retirement on Wednesday, which is a big hit for women’s basketball.

From 2010-11 to 2018-19, McGraw’s teams won at least 33 games every season and were one of the few that could stand up to UConn’s hegemonic juggernaut.

And obviously being Notre Dame, academics were respected and indeed insisted upon. We’re not aware of a single NCAA issue or scandal involving her program.

In other words, she did everything the way she was supposed to and did it at an insanely high level.

Last season was an exception to that - the Irish finished 13-18. We imagine it wasn’t easy for her to walk away after a poor season but she has staggering accomplishments and leaves on her own terms with her reputation intact. Not everyone can pull that off.

Her successor was named immediately which is not easy to do in a pandemic: it’ll be NIele Ivy, a former McGraw point guard who was a Memphis Grizzlies assistant before agreeing to return to South Bend.

We hope McGraw has a pleasant, long (and healthy) life in retirement.

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