Junior guard Madison Cable came off the bench to score 12 points and grab a season-high three steals in 19 minutes of Notre Dame's 86-70 win at No. 11/10 Tennessee Monday night.

#2 Irish Return Home Thursday To Meet ACC Foe Miami

Jan. 22, 2014

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2013-14 ND Women’s Basketball: Game 18

#2/2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (17-0 / 4-0 ACC) vs. Miami Hurricanes (11-7 / 3-2 ACC)

DATE: Jan. 23, 2014
TIME: 8:30 p.m. ET
AT: Notre Dame, Ind. – Purcell Pavilion (9,149)
SERIES: ND leads 14-3
1ST MTG: ND 59-53 (1/5/86)
LAST MTG: ND 93-58 (2/25/04)
TV: ACC-RSN/ESPN3 (live) (Tom Werme, p-b-p / Debbie Antonelli, color)
RADIO: Pulse FM (96.9/92.1) / WatchND (live) (Bob Nagle, p-b-p)
LIVE STATS:
TWITTER: @ndwbbsid

Storylines

  • Notre Dame plays at home for one of only two times in a month-long stretch.
  • The Fighting Irish are playing the second of three consecutive home games against former BIG EAST opponents now in the ACC (they defeated Boston College on Jan. 9 and play host to Virginia Tech on Jan. 30).

No. 2 Fighting Irish Return Home Thursday To Meet ACC Foe Miami
After passing a stern road test earlier this week to cap a three-game junket, No. 2 Notre Dame makes a brief stop in the familiar confines of Purcell Pavilion Thursday, returning to ACC play when it welcomes Miami to town for an 8:30 p.m. (ET) contest. The game will be televised live as part of the ACC-Regional Sports Networks package (CLICK HERE for the complete list of affiliates), while the Notre Dame Radio Network broadcast can be heard free of charge on the official Fighting Irish athletics multimedia platform, WatchND.

Notre Dame (17-0, 4-0) kept its unblemished record intact Monday, rallying from an early 12-point deficit to storm past No. 11/10 Tennessee, 86-70. The Fighting Irish used a 23-5 run crossing over halftime to seize control and earn their fourth consecutive win over UT.

Senior guard/tri-captain Kayla McBride led five Notre Dame players in double figures with 22 points, while guards Michaela Mabrey (15) and Madison Cable (12) combined for 27 points off the bench to fuel the win.

Rankings

  • Notre Dame is No. 2 in this week’s Associated Press poll and is No. 2 in this week’s WBCA/USA Today poll.
  • Miami is not ranked.

Quick Hitters

  • At 17-0, the Fighting Irish are off to the second-best start to a season in program history, as well as the program’s best start since 2000-01, when they started 23-0.
  • Notre Dame stands at No. 2 in the AP and WBCA/USA Today polls, the third consecutive season that the Fighting Irish have earned the second position in both surveys.
  • Notre Dame leads the nation in field goal percentage (.516), three-point percentage (.442) and assists (22.4 apg.), part of seven NCAA statistical categories that the Fighting Irish rank among the top six (not including won-loss percentage, for which they are one of two remaining teams in the nation without a loss).
  • Notre Dame has won a school-record 40 consecutive regular season games and 20 consecutive home games, both dating back to Dec. 5, 2012 (a 73-61 loss to No. 3 Baylor).
  • The Fighting Irish have won a school-record 29 consecutive regular season road games (and 36 of their last 41 overall) since a 94-81 loss at top-ranked Baylor on Nov. 20, 2011, in the Preseason WNIT championship game.
  • Now in its inaugural season in the ACC, Notre Dame has won 24 consecutive regular season conference games, as well as 18 consecutive regular season league road games. The Fighting Irish last lost a regular season conference game on Feb. 12, 2012 (65-63 at home vs. West Virginia), and dropped a regular season league contest on the road on Feb. 28, 2011 (70-69 at No. 12/11 DePaul), both in BIG EAST play.
  • Since the start of the 2011-12 season, Notre Dame is 31-5 (.861) against ranked opponents, including a 10-1 record at home.
  • With a 106-72 victory over Central Michigan on Dec. 22, the Fighting Irish became the 27th NCAA Division I women’s basketball program to record 800 all-time wins.
  • Notre Dame has appeared in the AP poll for 128 consecutive weeks (including the past 58 weeks in the AP Top 10), extending a program record that dates back to the 2007-08 preseason poll, and ranking sixth in the nation among active AP poll appearances. What’s more, every current Fighting Irish player has competed for a ranked Notre Dame squad during her career, with the vast majority of that time (78 of 89 weeks) spent in the AP Top 10.
  • Senior forwards Natalie Achonwa and Ariel Braker, and senior guard Kayla McBride have helped Notre Dame to a 118-14 (.894) record in their careers, putting them on pace to challenge last year’s senior class of Skylar Diggins and Kaila Turner, who helped Notre Dame to 130 wins in their careers.
  • Of the 14 losses suffered by the current Fighting Irish senior class, eight were decided by single digits (and three others by 10-13 points).
  • Notre Dame aims to continue its remarkable success at Purcell Pavilion, with the Fighting Irish owning a 393-90 (.814) all-time record in 37 seasons at the facility, including a 70-5 (.933) record since the arena was renovated prior to the 2009-10 season.
  • Notre Dame ranks third in this week’s NCAA attendance rankings (8,571 fans per game), and is one of just two schools in the country to fill its arena to better than 90 percent capacity, something the Fighting Irish have done each season since 2009-10. The other school at 90-percent home capacity is Kentucky, which played one home game this year at a sold-out 23,000-seat Rupp Arena instead of its normal 8,000-seat home, Memorial Coliseum.
  • With 643 victories in her 27 seasons at Notre Dame, head coach Muffet McGraw ranks second on the Fighting Irish athletics all-time coaching wins list (across all sports), trailing only men’s/women’s fencing coach Michael DeCicco (774-80 from 1962-95).
  • With 731 career wins, McGraw needs eight victories to move into the top 10 on the NCAA Division I career list. She currently stands 12th behind two former ACC coaches — Virginia’s Debbie Ryan (739) and the late North Carolina State coach Kay Yow (737).

The Notre Dame-Miami Series
Notre Dame and Miami will be playing for the 18th time in their series history on Thursday night, with the Fighting Irish holding a 14-3 edge all-time against UM, including a 6-2 record at Purcell Pavilion.

Notre Dame also has won the past two games in the series and is 12-2 all-time against the Hurricanes when the two programs are competing as members of the same conference (as they were when they played under the BIG EAST banner from 1995-2004).

The Last Time Notre Dame And Miami Met
Jacqueline Batteast had 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Notre Dame forced Miami into a season-high 37 turnovers and beat the No. 21/19 Hurricanes, 93-58 on Feb. 25, 2004, at Purcell Pavilion.

Courtney LaVere added 13 points as all 12 Fighting Irish players scored. Notre Dame’s reserves outscored Miami’s 40-2 as the Fighting Irish shot 58 percent en route to scoring their most points since a 107-65 win over Cleveland State in the 2002-03 season opener.

It was the worst loss for the Hurricanes since they were beaten 96-50 by top-ranked Connecticut two years earlier.

Batteast had her ninth double-double of this season. Megan Duffy and Monique Hernandez added 10 points each for Notre Dame.

Tamara James led the Hurricanes with 17 points and Yalonda McCormick added 16. Chanivia Broussard, who turned the ball over 13 times, had 14 points. McCormick turned the ball over 10 times.

Batteast, who had 13 points and seven rebounds in the first half, hit a pair of free throws and a three-pointer to ignite an early 13-2 Fighting Irish run that broke the game open. She later made two more free throws with 3:33 left in the first half to give Notre Dame a 34-24 lead, and the Hurricanes never got any closer than 10 points thereafter.

Other Notre Dame-Miami Series Tidbits

  • Of the 17 games in the series, six have been decided by single-digit margins, including two of the last four. Notre Dame has come out on top in four of those six close affairs.
  • Miami has scored more than 70 points against Notre Dame four times in their 17-game series (just once in the past nine meetings). Conversely, the Fighting Irish have topped the 70-point mark 11 times in their history with the Hurricanes, all in the past 15 series matchups.
  • Notre Dame has had eight Florida natives suit up in the program’s 37-year history, with its most recent Sunshine State product being 2010 graduate Alena Christiansen (Fort Lauderdale/Cardinal Gibbons HS).
  • Sophomore guard Michaela Mabrey played for Miami head coach Katie Meier on the 2012 USA Basketball Under-18 National Team that won the gold medal at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Gurabo, Puerto Rico. Mabrey appeared in all five games (starting four times) for Team USA at the tournament, averaging 12.8 points, 4.8 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game with a .500 three-point percentage and .489 overall field goal percentage. She also scored in double figures four times (incuding 14 points against Brazil in the gold medal game), and led all players in the eight-team tournament in assists, assist/turnover ratio (2.67) and three-pointers per game (3.2).
  • Notre Dame assistant athletic trainer Anne Marquez also served on Meier’s staff with the 2012 USA Basketball U18 National Team.
  • Meier also coached a future Notre Dame player (2014-15 incoming freshman forward Brianna Turner) on last summer’s USA Basketball U19 National Team that won the FIBA U19 World Championships in Lithuania. As the second-youngest player on the American roster, Turner played in all nine games for Team USA at the tournament, averaging 5.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game with a .500 field goal percentage.

Sunshine State Success
Notre Dame is 28-5 (.848) all-time against Florida schools, including an 11-3 (.786) record against Sunshine State teams at Purcell Pavilion. Last year, the Fighting Irish went 2-0 against the state, defeated South Florida twice (75-71 in overtime during the regular season in Tampa; 73-66 in the BIG EAST Championship quarterfinals at Hartford, Conn.).

The Fighting Irish have won their last nine games against Florida schools, with South Florida the most recent team from the Sunshine State to defeat Notre Dame (an 87-78 overtime win in Tampa in 2007).

In addition, the Fighting Irish have won their last four home games against Florida teams, following a 68-64 overtime loss to USF on Jan. 28, 2006.

Doing Some Networking
Thursday’s game is the first of three appearances for Notre Dame on the ACC-Regional Sports Networks (RSN) television package during its inaugural season in the conference. The Fighting Irish also are slated to appear on ACC-RSN television Feb. 9 (vs. Syracuse) and Feb. 17 (vs. Georgia Tech), and like Thursday’s contest, both of those games will be played at Purcell Pavilion.

Fans wishing to tune in and watch Thursday’s ACC-RSN broadcast of the Notre Dame-Miami game are asked to CLICK HERE for a complete rundown of affiliates that will carry the game. In addition, ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app will broadcast the game (some blackout restrictions may apply).

Getting The Jump
At 17-0, Notre Dame is off to the second-best start in the program’s 37-year history. The only time the Fighting Irish opened with a better record than this season was in 2000-01, when they reeled off a school-record 23 consecutive wins en route to a 34-2 final record and the program’s first national championship.

Streak Stats
Notre Dame’s current 17-game winning streak is the fifth-longest success string in program history, and it’s the fourth time in the past five seasons the Fighting Irish have posted a winning streak of 17 games or longer.

Notre Dame also has strung together 14 double-digit winning streaks in the program’s 37-year history, with 12 of those coming during the tenure of Hall of Fame head coach Muffet McGraw (1987-88 to present).

Dating back to the start of last season, the Fighting Irish are 52-2 (.963) and have won 40 consecutive regular season games. In that span, their lone losses have come against a pair of third-ranked teams — Baylor (73-61 on Dec. 5, 2012, at Purcell Pavilion) and Connecticut (83-65 on April 7, 2013, in the NCAA Women’s Final Four national semifinals at New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, La.).

The Comforts Of Home
Notre Dame has won 20 consecutive home games since a 73-61 loss to third-ranked Baylor on Dec. 5, 2012, at Purcell Pavilion. Entering this week’s action, the Fighting Irish own the nation’s fourth-longest active home winning streak, with this run also tied for the third-longest in school history (longest since another 20-game stretch from Jan. 12, 2011-Feb. 5, 2012, a run that ended a week later with a 65-63 loss to West Virginia).

What’s more, Notre Dame has won its last 12 conference home games since that loss to WVU in 2012, when both the Fighting Irish and Mountaineers were members of the BIG EAST Conference.

Road Warriors
Notre Dame has won a school-record 29 consecutive regular season road games (and 36 of its last 41 overall), including the Jan. 20 victory at No. 11/10 Tennessee. The Fighting Irish last tasted defeat on the road in the regular season on Nov. 20, 2011, a 94-81 setback at No. 1 Baylor in the Preseason WNIT championship game.

The highlight of this current run came on Jan. 5, 2013, when Notre Dame edged No. 1 Connecticut, 73-72, in Storrs, Conn., earning its fourth all-time win over a top-ranked opponent and first-ever victory on the road.

The Fighting Irish also have won a school-record 18 consecutive conference regular season road games, with their last loss coming as part of the BIG EAST Conference on Feb. 28, 2011 (a last-second 70-69 loss at No. 12/11 DePaul).

A Helping Hand
The Fighting Irish enter the week leading the nation in assists at 22.4 per game. Notre Dame has dished out at least 21 helpers in 13 games thus far (including a season-high 31 dimes against UCLA on Dec. 7), with the Fighting Irish piling up assists on 65.4 percent of their made field goals this year (381 of 583).

Notre Dame also ranks fifth in the nation (and tops in the ACC) in assist/turnover ratio (1.57).

That’s Some Sharp Shooting
Notre Dame currently is setting the pace nationally with a .516 field goal percentage, highlighted by 10 games this season in which the Fighting Irish have shot better than 50 percent, including five games where they topped 60 percent from the field.

In addition, Notre Dame had a remarkable three-game stretch from Dec. 7-22 when it connected at better than a 55-percent clip in each contest. It was the first time the Fighting Irish had three consecutive 55-percent outings since Nov. 20-29, 1997, when they did so in victories over North Carolina State (.565), Bowling Green (.558) and Ohio University (.567).

Notre Dame’s sharpshooting brigade has been led by senior forward/tri-captain Natalie Achonwa, who ranks fifth in the ACC with a .581 field goal percentage, including a .600 mark in conference play (tied for third in the ACC).

Freshman forward Kristina Nelson (.647) and junior forward Markisha Wright (.600) actually have higher field goal percentages than Achonwa, and two others aren’t far behind (junior guard Madison Cable at .557 and freshman guard Lindsay Allen at .538), but neither has made the minimum number of shots (three per game) to qualify for ACC ranking.

Dialing Long Distance
Although not usually a primary part of the Notre Dame arsenal, the Fighting Irish have found the three-point shot much to their liking this season. Notre Dame leads the nation with a .442 three-point percentage, with four different players connecting at 40 percent or better from beyond the arc.

Senior guard Kayla McBride leads the way for the Fighting Irish with a .475 three-point percentage that ranks third in the ACC, while sophomore guard Michaela Mabrey also stands among the top five in the conference, ranking fourth at a .442 three-point rate.

In addition, Mabrey is tied for 10th in the ACC with 2.0 three-pointers per game, a mark she bolstered on Jan. 9 against Boston College with a career-high five triples (on six attempts). It was one of five times this season Mabrey has canned at least three treys in a game, and the second time a Notre Dame player has made five three-pointers in a contest (junior guard Madison Cable posted an identical 5-for-6 effort against UCLA on Dec. 7).

In fact, Cable (.500) would be tied for the ACC lead in three-point percentage, but she is one made triples shy of the minimum 1.0 3FG/game to qualify for ranking. Freshman guard Lindsay Allen (.476) also doesn’t meet the minimum standard despite her efficiency from distance.

As a team, the Fighting Irish have twice connected on 10 three-pointers in a game this season (victories over UCLA and Tennessee), their highest production outside the arc in nearly four years, dating back to a similar 10-triple performance on Jan. 30, 2010, at Syracuse.

What’s more, Notre Dame’s .750 three-point mark (9-of-12) on Jan. 16 at Pittsburgh was its best performance from long range (with a minimum of five attempts) in more than five years, stretching back to Nov. 23, 2008, against Boston College at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass., when the Fighting Irish made 7-of-8 three-pointers (.875) in a 102-54 win.

A Class By Themselves
For the third consecutive season, a Notre Dame senior class is threatening to re-set the bar in terms of career wins by one group. The current class of tri-captains Natalie Achonwa, Ariel Braker and Kayla McBride is second all-time with 118 wins, behind only the seniors from 2012-13.

Last year, led by its two-player senior class of Skylar Diggins and Kaila Turner, Notre Dame posted the best four-year record (130-20, .867) in school history, topping the win total (117) compiled by the previous year’s seniors (Brittany Mallory, Fraderica Miller, Natalie Novosel and Devereaux Peters).

Prior to the 2011-12 season, the highest four-year win total by a senior class was 109, set by the Class of 2001 that included (among others) consensus national player of the year and 13-year WNBA veteran Ruth Riley and current Fighting Irish assistant coach Niele Ivey.

Spreading The Wealth
Notre Dame has had at least four players score in double figures in 13 games this year, going 13-0 in those contests. Since the start of the 2009-10 season, the Fighting Irish are 88-5 (.946) when they have four or more players reach double digits in the scoring column, including wins in 58 of their last 59 such outings (the lone loss coming in last year’s NCAA Women’s Final Four national semifinal against Connecticut).

Notre Dame Trio Named To Wooden Award Midseason List
Senior forward/tri-captain Natalie Achonwa, sophomore guard Jewell Loyd and senior guard/tri-captain Kayla McBride are among 21 student-athletes who were named to the 2013-14 John R. Wooden Award Women’s Midseason List, it was announced Jan. 17 by the award’s presenter, the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

The Fighting Irish were one of two programs in the nation (along with Connecticut) to feature three candidates on the Wooden Award rundown. Only one other school (Duke) had multiple players chosen for the list, although one of the Blue Devils’ two selections (Chelsea Gray) will miss the remainder of the season with an injury.

Led by Notre Dame and Duke, the Atlantic Coast Conference had more players (seven) selected to the Wooden Award Midseason List than any other conference. The American Athletic Conference was second with five, followed by the Big Ten (three), the Pac-12 (two) and the Big 12 (two).

The Wooden Award Midseason List is made up of players who are considered the front-runners for one of college basketball’s elite national player of the year awards. The list is determined by the Wooden Award National Advisory Board and is based upon individual performance and team records.

This marks the second consecutive year that McBride has made the Wooden Award Midseason List, while both Achonwa and Loyd are appearing on the rundown for the first time in their respective careers. Achonwa and McBride were on the Wooden Award Preseason Watch List, while Loyd was added to this week’s Wooden Award Midseason List based upon her performance through the first half of the 2013-14 season.

This year’s Notre Dame trio will be aiming to follow in the footsteps of three-time Wooden Award finalist Skylar Diggins (’13), who went on to earn a spot on the Wooden Award All-America Team in both 2012 and 2013.

Players that are not part of the 21-member Wooden Award Midseason List still are eligible for the award’s National Ballot, which consists of 15 top players who have proven to their universities they are making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a 2.0 cumulative grade-point average (GPA).

The 15 Wooden Award finalists named to the National Ballot will be announced in mid-March. The Wooden Award All-America Team, consisting of the nation’s top five players, will be unveiled during the week of the NCAA Women’s Final Four (April 6-8 in Nashville, Tenn.), and the quintet then will be honored at the 38th annual Wooden Award Gala the weekend of April 11-13 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

Crown Jewell
Sophomore guard Jewell Loyd has continued her development as one of the top young talents in the country this season, building on last year’s selection as the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) National Freshman of the Year.

The Lincolnwood, Ill., product currently ranks 11th in the ACC in scoring (16.9 ppg.), while sporting career-high marks in scoring, rebounding (6.1 rpg.), assists (2.5 apg.), steals (1.6 spg.) and field goal percentage (.509). She also has five 20-point games thus far (including a career-high 30 points against Central Michigan on Dec. 22) after scoring 20 points twice during her rookie campaign.

Loyd stormed out of the gates this season, piling up 63 points in Notre Dame’s first three games, wins over UNC Wilmington (19 points), No. 19/18 Michigan State (22 points) and Valparaiso (22 points).

Loyd’s point production was the highest for a Fighting Irish player in the opening three contests of a season since 1998-99, when Danielle Green had 66 combined points in wins against No. 6 UCLA at home (23 points), at Butler (23) and No. 6/4 Duke at home (20).

Notre Dame’s 1,000-Point Scorers
Senior tri-captains Kayla McBride and Natalie Achonwa will spend their final season at Notre Dame steadily climbing the program’s all-time scoring list, after both entered the Fighting Irish 1,000-Point Club last year.

McBride currently ranks 12th in program history with 1,490 career points, closing in on Ashley Barlow (1,492 from 2006-10), as well as becoming the 11th player in school history to score 1,500 career points.

Meanwhile, Achonwa stands 21st in Notre Dame history with 1,245 points, rising another rung on the ladder in her last outing at No. 11/10 Tennessee with 15 points to pass Mary Beth Schueth (1,233 from 1981-85).

Coming Up Aces
Senior forward/tri-captain Natalie Achonwa (nicknamed “Ace”) also is making her way up Notre Dame’s career charts in both rebounds and double-doubles. She currently ranks seventh on the rebounding list (834) and is tied for seventh on the double-doubles chart (25), moving up one spot on the rebounding rundown with her seven boards at No. 11/10 Tennessee on Jan. 20.

Achonwa continues to remain among the top 10 in school history with a .548 career field goal percentage, presently ranking eighth in program annals.

Youthful Leader
Freshman Lindsay Allen got the call from head coach Muffet McGraw to start at point guard in Notre Dame’s season opener against UNC Wilmington on Nov. 9 at Purcell Pavilion. Allen finished with 11 points in her debut game, including the team’s first five points of the season.

It was the first time a Fighting Irish rookie point guard started the season opener since Nov. 26, 1994, when Mollie Peirick cracked the lineup and played 38 minutes (two points, five rebounds, three assists) in a 65-60 overtime loss at No. 25 Seton Hall.

Allen has not disappointed in her debut campaign, averaging 7.2 points and 3.6 assists per game (the latter ranking 13th in the ACC). She also is fifth in the ACC with a 2.07 assist/turnover ratio, and is just outside the top 15 in the conference with 1.41 steals per game.

Leading a winning lineup is not an unfamiliar feeling for Allen, who is a combined 44-1 in her last 45 games as a starting point guard. Last year as a senior at St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., she guided her squad to a 27-1 record and the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) title — the highest level of play in the District of Columbia, which does not have a state tournament.

The Second Platoon
Another reason for Notre Dame’s success this season has been the performance of its reserves, who are averaging more than 30 points per game and have outscored the opponent’s bench by close to a 2-to-1 margin (30.1 ppg. to 15.4 ppg.).

The Fighting Irish second unit has outscored its opposite number in 13 games this season, including a season-high 55 points on Jan. 9 against Boston College, outscoring the entire BC roster by two points (not to mention the Notre Dame starters by 15).

Sophomore guard Michaela Mabrey (9.8 ppg.), freshman forward Taya Reimer (9.1 ppg.) and junior guard Madison Cable (6.4 ppg.) head up the strong Fighting Irish bench contingent, which has seen players score in double figures 16 different times, including nine by Mabrey.

Call Her Mabrey
While the regular season is just half over, certainly an early favorite as one of the nation’s most improved players would have to be Notre Dame sophomore guard Michaela Mabrey. The Belmar, N.J., resident has emerged as a key reserve for the Fighting Irish, averaging 9.8 points and 3.1 assists per game, while leading the ACC (and ranking 24th in the nation) with a 2.52 assist/turnover ratio, after logging 3.0 ppg. and 1.3 apg. with a 1.06 A/TO mark last year.

Mabrey also has proven to be a dynamic three-point threat for Notre Dame, ranking fourth in the ACC with a .442 three-point percentage and tying for 10th in the conference with 2.0 three-pointers made per game.

What’s more, Mabrey already has scored in double figures nine times this year (including a career-high 19 points in the season opener against UNC Wilmington) after doing so three times in 30 games last season.

What We’re Put On This Earth To Do
According to veteran women’s basketball broadcaster Debbie Antonelli, we were put on this Earth to score, and Notre Dame has certainly done that this season, averaging 88.6 points per game (well above the program record of 81.2 set last year).

Of course, it should come as absolutely no surprise that the Fighting Irish have the nation’s fourth-highest scoring offense heading into this week’s action — they’ve got a high-octane coaching staff to show them the ropes.

According to research initially compiled by the Purdue Sports Information Office, the Notre Dame coaches (head coach Muffet McGraw, associate head coach Carol Owens, associate coach Beth (Morgan) Cunningham and assistant coach/recruiting coordinator Niele Ivey) have the highest combined point total from their playing careers of any staff in the country, scoring an aggregate 6,415 points while in uniform. The next closest coaching quartet that could challenge the Fighting Irish staff would be Delaware’s foursome (led by head coach Tina Martin) that chalked up 6,119 points.

And, you could make a case that McGraw herself would have added more to that total had she played in a different era other than her days at Saint Joseph’s (Pa.) from 1973-77. While on Hawk Hill, McGraw was a true “pass-first” point guard who not only played before the introduction of the three-point line, but also at a time when colleges often played only 20-25 games per season instead of the current 30-40 game slates.

In addition, Notre Dame’s coaching staff point total doesn’t even include the output of its associate director of operations & technology Angie Potthoff, who blistered the nets for 1,725 points as a three-time All-America forward at Penn State from 1993-97.

The Benefits Of Leadership
Notre Dame is in the unique position of essentially having three head coaches on its bench, with current Fighting Irish skipper Muffet McGraw enjoying the expertise of two former head coaches on her staff — associate head coach Carol Owens (who guided her alma mater Northern Illinois from 2005-10) and associate coach Beth Cunningham (who piloted VCU from 2003-12).

Collectively, the Notre Dame staff has 46 seasons of head coaching experience, which ranks third among Division I schools behind only Villanova (51) and Rutgers (47).

Next Game: Maryland
Notre Dame makes its second appearance in as many weeks on ESPN2’s Big Monday telecast, when the Fighting Irish travel to College Park, Md., Monday night for a 7 p.m. (ET) ACC matchup with No. 6 Maryland at the Comcast Center. The Terrapins, whom Notre Dame will be facing in the regular season for the first time since 2007, will be the fifth ranked opponent (and third top-10 foe) of the season for the Fighting Irish.

— Chris Masters, Associate Athletic Media Relations Director