Ann "Muffet" McGraw (born December 5, 1955) is an American former

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach, who served as the head

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It began being played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large part via women's college compet ...

coach at Notre Dame from 1987 to 2020, compiling a 848–252 (.771) record over 33 seasons. She led her team to nine Final Fours (1997, 2001, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019), seven championship game appearances (2001, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2019), and two

National Championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

in 2001 and 2018. McGraw was the sixth different Division I coach to win multiple NCAA titles, joining

Geno Auriemma Luigi "Geno" Auriemma (born March 23, 1954) is an Italian-born American college basketball coach and, since 1985, the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team. , he has led UConn to 17 undefeated conference sea ...

Pat Summitt Patricia Susan Summitt (; June 14, 1952 – June 28, 2016) was an American women's college basketball head coach who accrued 1,098 career wins, the most in college basketball history at the time of her retirement. She served as the head coac ...

Linda Sharp Linda Kay Sharp (born March 14, 1950) is an American former collegiate women's basketball coach. Her coaching career spans 31 seasons with stints on all levels from elementary, junior high and high school to the collegiate and professional ranks, ...

Tara VanDerveer Tara Ann VanDerveer (born June 26, 1953) is an American basketball coach who has been the head women's basketball coach at Stanford University since 1985. Designated the Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women's Basketball, VanDerveer led the Stanf ...

and

Kim Mulkey Kimberly Duane Mulkey (born May 17, 1962) is an American college basketball player and coach. She is the head coach for Louisiana State University's women's basketball team. A Pan-American gold medalist in 1983 and Olympic gold medalist in 1984, ...

McGraw was born in

Pottsville, Pennsylvania Pottsville is the county seat of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,346 at the 2020 census, and is the principal city of the Pottsville, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city lies along the west bank of th ...

. She graduated from

Saint Joseph's University Saint Joseph's University (SJU or St. Joe's) is a private Jesuit university in Philadelphia and Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. The university was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1851 as Saint Joseph's College. Saint Joseph's is the seventh olde ...

and briefly played professionally for the California Dreams of the

Women's Professional Basketball League The Women's Professional Basketball League (abbreviated WBL) was a professional women's basketball league in the United States. The league played three seasons from the fall of 1978 to the spring of 1981. The league was the first professional w ...

. She coached at Archbishop Carroll HS from 1977 to 1979, and worked as an assistant coach at Saint Joseph's from 1980 to 1982. From 1982 to 1987 she was head coach at

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Epis ...

where one of her notable players was

Cathy Engelbert Catherine Engelbert is an American business executive and Commissioner of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Before joining the WNBA, she had been with Deloitte for 33 years, including as its first female CEO from 2015 to 2019. E ...

. She became head coach at Notre Dame in 1987. Between 1987 and 2020, McGraw led the Irish to 26 NCAA tournament appearances including a streak of 24 straight seasons from 1995 to 2019. During the current streak, Notre Dame made it to the second round in all but one of the appearances, including 7 championship game appearances. McGraw compiled 50 wins over ranked opponents, including 40 over the last 8 seasons. Her teams appeared in the

AP poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

139 times during her tenure. Notre Dame finished in the Top 3 of the

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

in 9 out of the 11 seasons they were in the league and finished in first place in the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

in all 4 seasons since they entered the conference. McGraw was awarded the US Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Coach of the Year award, the

Women's Basketball Coaches Association The Women's Basketball Coaches Association is an association of coaches of women's basketball teams at all levels. The organization was formed in 1981, with the goal of addressing the needs of women's basketball coaches. The mission of the WBCA ...

Coach of the Year and the

Naismith College Coach of the Year Naismith College Coach of the Year Award is an award given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to one men's and one women's NCAA Division I collegiate coach each season since 1987. The award was originally given to the two winning coaches of the NCAA Divis ...

in 2001. She was inducted into the

Women's Basketball Hall of Fame The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame honors those who have contributed to the sport of women's basketball. The Hall of Fame opened in 1999 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. It is the only facility of its kind dedicated to all levels of women's ba ...

in 2011 and the

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

in 2017. In 2016, the John R Wooden award committee recognized McGraw with the 2017 Legends of Coaching Award. She is the 27th coach in NCAA history to win over 500 career games, and is currently tied as the eighth head coach in NCAA Division I basketball history to reach 800 career wins. On April 1, 2018, McGraw achieved her 800th career victory at Notre Dame with a win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the National Championship game, her second national title with the Fighting Irish. On December 30, 2018, she notched her 900th career win against Lehigh, the team at which she began her collegiate coaching career in 1982. On April 22, 2020, McGraw announced that she was stepping down as the head coach of Notre Dame.

Awards and honors

* 2001 –

AP College Basketball Coach of the Year The Associated Press College Basketball Coach of the Year award was established in 1967 to recognize the best men's college basketball coach of the year, as voted upon by the Associated Press (AP). A parallel award for women's coaches was added in ...

* 2001 – Russell Athletic/WBCA National Coach of the Year * 2009 –

Carol Eckman Award The Carol Eckman Award is an award given annually since 1986 to the women's college basketball coach that "best demonstrates the character of the late Carol Eckman, the mother of the collegiate women's basketball national championship". Given by t ...

* 2011 –

* 2013 – Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year * 2013 – AP College Basketball Coach of the Year * 2013 – Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division I Coach of the Year * 2014 – espnW Coach of the Year * 2014 – AP College Basketball Coach of the Year * 2014 – USBWA Coach of the Year * 2014 – Russell Athletic/WBCA National Coach of the Year * 2016 – Legends of Coaching Award (2017) * 2017 –

* 2018 –

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McGraw, Muffet 1955 births Living people American women's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from Pennsylvania Basketball players from Pennsylvania Guards (basketball) High school basketball coaches in the United States Lehigh Mountain Hawks women's basketball coaches Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball coaches Saint Joseph's Hawks women's basketball coaches Saint Joseph's Hawks women's basketball players Sportspeople from Pottsville, Pennsylvania Women's Professional Basketball League players

Awards and honors

Head coaching record

See also

References

External links