March 31, 2001

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2001 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship
National Championship Game

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (33-2)
vs. Purdue Boilermakers (31-6)

The Date and Time: Sunday, April 1, 2001, at 7:30 p.m. CST.

The Site: Savvis Center (20,000) in St. Louis, Mo.

Television: ESPN national telecast with Mike Patrick (play-by-play), Ann Meyers (analyst), Michele Tafoya (sideline), Pam Ward (sideline) and Tim Corrigan (producer).

Radio: All Notre Dame games are broadcast on WHLY-AM (1620 in South Bend) with Sean Stires (play by play). This live broadcast also is available through the Notre Dame athletic department web site at www.und.com.

NOTRE DAME'S PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP (NCAA tournament averages)No. Player  Pos.    Ht. Yr. PPG RPG Other   Notes50  Kelley Siemon F   6-2 Sr. 11.3 (12.4) 7.1 (6.4)   55.4 FG%    Matched season-high 5 assists, 16 pts. in win over Mich.3   Ericka Haney   G/F 6-1 Jr. 10.9 (9.0)  5.7 (6.8)   46.8 FG%    Has scored in double figures in 21 of 35 games00  Ruth Riley   C   6-5 Sr. 18.4 (22.2) 7.7 (8.2)   62.6 FG%    2,044 career points, needs 6 more reb. for 1,00022  Alicia Ratay   SG  5-11    So. 13.2 (14.4) 5.2 (6.6)   55.6 3PT%   Has made 80 of 144 three-pointers to lead nation in %33  Niele Ivey   PG  5-8 Sr. 12.1 (11.2) 4.1 (3.4)   6.9 APG One of two Irish players with 200+ assists in a season
NOTRE DAME OFF THE BENCHNo. Player  Pos.    Ht. Yr. PPG RPG Other   Notes4   Le'Tania Severe  G   5-9 Fr. 2.0 1.9 21 GP   Brings defensive and rebounding presence off the bench5   Jeneka Joyce   G   5-9 Fr. 5.3 1.3 30 3PT FG   Career-high 14 pts. on 5-9 shooting vs. Michigan11  Karen Swanson G   5-7 So. 1.3 0.5 95 minutes  Walk-on has played in 23 of 35 games23  Monique Hernandez G   5-9 So. 2.6 1.1 17 assists  Returned from MCL sprain to play 23 min. in last 4 gms.31  Amanda Barksdale   F   6-3 So. 1.4 2.2 56 blocks   1st  double-double, career-best 10 pts., 11 reb. vs. ASU41  Imani Dunbar   G   5-7 Sr. 1.4 0.7 22 assists  Career-high seven pts. vs. Georgetown in BE quarters44  Meaghan Leahy F   6-4 Sr. 3.2 2.9 15 steals   Has started five games in 00-01, four in place of Siemon

TONIGHT’S GAME
Seeded first in the Midwest Region of the NCAA tournament, the Notre Dame women’s basketball team advanced to its first NCAA championship game with a 90-75 victory over East Regional champion and defending NCAA champion Connecticut on Friday in the NCAA national semifinals at the Savvis Center in St. Louis, Mo. The Irish will meet Mideast Regional champion Purdue for the second time this season in the championship game. The Irish defeated the Boilers 72-61 on Dec. 9, at the Joyce Center, and bring a seven-game winning streak vs. non-conference top-10 opponents in the championship game vs. eighth-ranked Purdue. A Notre Dame win would make the BIG EAST Conference the first to feature different member school win back-to-back NCAA titles.

Notre Dame shot a school and Final Four record 8-11 (.778) from three-point range, including 4-5 in the second half, and limited Connecticut to under 40-percent shooting for the third time this season with a Husky season-low shooting of 26-77 (.338) in its semifinal win. All five of Notre Dame’s starters scored in double figures for the second time this season after the Irish starting five all reached double figures in the first win over the Huskies. Notre Dame overcame a Final Four record 16-point deficit with a 53-26 scoring advantage in the second half. Senior All-American and St. Louis native Niele Ivey led all scorers with 21 points — her second 20-point game of the season and first since the third game of the season (22 at Wisconsin). Sophomore Alicia Ratay made 4-5 three pointers to set the NCAA record for single-season three-point percentage (80-144 for .556).

The Irish won a pair of games at the NCAA Midwest Regional on the strength of their defense and strong second-half performances from regional MVP Ruth Riley. Notre Dame held Utah to 36 percent shooting and limited Vanderbilt to 29 percent in the second half and 13 percent below its average. Two-time All-American Riley scored a BIG EAST season-high 32 points (22 of them in the second half) vs. Vanderbilt and scored 18 of her 24 points in the second half vs. Utah. Senior Kelley Siemon (11.0 pts., 6.5 rebounds) and Ratay (14.0 pts., 7.0 rebounds, 6-10 3PT) also were named to the all-tournament team.

Notre Dame enters the NCAA final with a 33-2 record and has recorded the second 30-win season in school history, surpassing the 1997 Final Four team (31-7, lost to Tenn.) for the most wins in a season by an Irish women’s basketball team. Notre Dame entered the NCAA tournament after reaching its fourth BIG EAST championship game in six years in the conference. The Irish earned a share of their first BIG EAST regular-season with a 15-1 record.

The 26-1 regular-season record marked the best in Notre Dame history and has guaranteed the Irish of finishing the 2000-01 season with their best record in the 24-year history of the program. The fewest losses in a season came in the first year (13-4 in 1977-78), while last year’s team sported the best season winning percentage (27-5 for .843). Notre Dame regained the No. 1 ranking on March 5, after being ranked second the previous two weeks. The Irish were ranked first for four weeks before its first loss on Feb. 17.

All five of Notre Dame’s starters average in double-figure scoring, and the Irish are led by three of the best players in the country at their respective positions. Senior two-time All-America center, BIG EAST player-of-the-year and Naismith player-of-the-year Ruth Riley (18.4) leads the BIG EAST in scoring and was the only player in the top 20 of the NCAA statistical rankings for blocks (2nd at 3.0) and field-goal percentage (4th at .626) according to the most recent NCAA statistics. All-America fifth-year point guard Niele Ivey (12.1 ppg) stands 11th in the country in assists (6.9) and has scored or assisted on nearly 40 percent of Notre Dame’s 985 field goals. Sophomore guard Alicia Ratay (13.2) leads the nation in three-point shooting (80-144, .556) and has made 24 of 35 (.688) since the start of the BIG EAST tournament.

A large part of Notre Dame’s success this season also is due to the play of its other two starters, junior Ericka Haney and senior Kelley Siemon, who returned to the lineup against Boston College after missing the three previous games. Haney (10.9) has scored in double figures in 21 games this season and brings a great defensive presence to the Irish lineup. Siemon (11.3) stands second on the team and sixth in the BIG EAST in rebounding (7.1). Playing with a broken left hand, Siemon scored 15 points and had eight rebounds vs. Connecticut on Jan. 15. She had a career-high 15 rebounds to go along with 19 points vs. Rutgers.

Ranked among the top five both in field-goal percentage (fourth at .497) and field-goal percentage defense (third at .335) according to the latest NCAA statistics, Notre Dame has a scoring margin of 21.9 points – third best in the country – and has outscored its opponents by an average of 13 points in the first half. The Irish have shot better than 50 percent from the field in 18 of 35 games (including a season-best 63.5 percent at Pittsburgh), better than 46 percent in 28 of 35 games and at least 40 percent in all but two games. Notre Dame’s defense has held its opponents to under 40 percent in 29 of 35 games – including 22 games under 35 percent and eight games under 30 percent.

The hot shooting of Ratay, strong point guard play of Ivey (243 assists, 88 steals) and dominating defensive presence and shooting touch of Riley (108 blocks, 236-377 FG, .626) have led the Irish to early leads. Forwards Siemon and Haney have given the Irish timely contributions. Notre Dame stands as one of two teams ranked among the top five NCAA leaders in both field-goal percentage and FG percentage defense according to the latest NCAA statistics.

The 2001 BIG EAST coach of the year and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association national coach of the year, head coach Muffet McGraw is in her 14th year at Notre Dame with a 321-117 (.733) record and in her 19th as a collegiate coach with a 409-158 (.721) mark. She led the Irish to the No. 1 ranking for the first time ever earlier this season, to eight consecutive 20-win seasons, to six straight NCAA tournament appearances and to two Final Four appearances in eight overall NCAA berths.

IRISH, RILEY IN THE SECOND HALF
After outscoring Vanderbilt and Utah by a combined 16 points, Notre Dame more than doubled up Connecticut in the second half of the NCAA semifinals by a 53-26 margin.

Associated Press and Naismith player-of-the-year Ruth Riley has averaged 16.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in the second half of Notre Dame’s last four NCAA victories and 18.3 points and 5.7 rebounds in the last three.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME NOTES
The NCAA championship game will mark the 13th meeting between Notre Dame and Purdue with the Boilermakers holding a 9-3 edge in the series. The teams have split the last six games, including a 72-61 Irish win over the sixth-ranked Boilers on Dec. 9 earlier this season.

• Notre Dame and Purdue have met twice previously in the NCAA tournament — both times in Lubbock, Texas. The first Irish NCAA tournament victory came over the Boilers in the 1996 first round when 12th-seeded Notre Dame beat fifth-seeded and 15th-ranked Purdue 73-60.
• Notre Dame’s senior class hopes for a better ending to its final season than its first season when the ninth-seeded Irish lost to fourth-seeded Purdue 70-65 in the 1998 NCAA Midwest Regional semifinals after beating top-seeded Texas Tech in the second round.
• The Irish will be playing for their first ever women’s basketball national championship and Notre Dame’s first since the women’s soccer team won the 1995 NCAA title.
• The Notre Dame women’s basketball team will be looking to win the fifth NCAA championship by an Irish women’s team, joining the ’95 women’s soccer squad and the women’s fencing team, which won the 1987 and 1988 NCAA titles and the combined men’s and women’s title in 1994.

IRISH IN NCAA TOURNAMENT
Notre Dame earned an at-large bid into its sixth consecutive NCAA tournament and eighth overall. The Irish have compiled a 15-7 record in eight NCAA appearances, highlighted by Final Four appearances in 1997 and 2001. Notre Dame also reached the regional semifinals in 2000 and 1998. Here’s how the Irish have fared in the NCAA tournament (complete boxscores and recaps can be found at the end of the notes section):

McGRAW NAMED WBCA, NAISMITH NATIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR
Irish head coach Muffet McGraw has been selected as both the Naismith Women’s Coach of the Year and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Division I National Coach of the Year – both firsts for the 14th-year Irish head coach in her 19-year coaching career. McGraw and senior Naismith Women’s Player-of-the-Year Ruth Riley will be honored at an April 7 banquet at the Atlanta Tipoff Club. McGraw and the WBCA winners from the other five divisions was presented to the WBCA membership at a banquet on Wed., March 28, in St. Louis in conjunction with the NCAA Final Four.

McGraw’s 14th Notre Dame squad entered the season with high expectations with the return of senior All-American Riley, fifth-year point Niele Ivey and sophomore and 2000 BIG EAST rookie-of-the-year Alicia Ratay, and the Irish more than lived up to those expectations under McGraw’s guidance. The Irish began the season with their highest preseason ranking ever at sixth and quickly began their climb to the top of the rankings. McGraw guided Notre Dame through an early-season schedule that featured a pair of top-10 opponents, including a victory over Georgia to win the Coaches Vs. Cancer Challenge and a home victory over Purdue. After an 11-0 record vs. its non-conference opponents, Notre Dame began its BIG EAST schedule with a 5-0 mark, including a 67-46 win over ninth-ranked Rutgers, to set a matchup with Connecticut in a game between the only undefeated teams in the country. In front of the first sellout crowd in school history, Notre Dame recorded its first win over Connecticut and a first over a top-ranked team with a 92-76 victory to take over the No. 1 ranking for the first time. The Irish winning streak improved to 23-0 to start the season before a 54-53 last minute loss at Rutgers. McGraw kept the team’s focus as the squad had done all season long, and after three more BIG EAST victories, the Irish had clinched a share of their first BIG EAST regular-season title. A fourth trip to the BIG EAST tournament final in six years resulted in a last-second 78-76 loss at UConn. McGraw has led the Irish to their second Final Four appearance in five years and their second in overall NCAA appearances.

NOTRE DAME-ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI CONNECTIONS
Fifth-year point guard Niele Ivey (Cor Jesu High School) is one of five all-time Notre Dame women’s basketball players who have resided in the state of Missouri, with the others including her predecessor at point guard-Mollie Peirick (Eureka/St. Joseph Academy). The women’s basketball program’s other Missouri native is Carrie Bates (Kansas City/Hickman HS, 1982-85) wile two others moved with their families to Missouri shortly before beginning their Notre Dame careers: current Notre Dame associate athletic director Missy Conboy attended high school in Leavenworth, Kansas, and overseas in Germany (her father was in the military) before settling for a couple of years in Columbia, Missouri, while starting her career at Notre Dame (1979-82), Beth Morrison (1985-87) joined the Irish program after moving to St. Louis, but she attended and graduated from St. Joseph (Mich.) High School (her family moved to St. Louis before her senior year of high school).

Ivey is one of several noteworthy student-athletes on current Notre Dame teams who hail from St. Louis, with the others including University of St. Louis High School product Joe Thaman (currently the starting first baseman as a freshman on the ND baseball team), sophomore hockey center Connor Dunlop and freshman hockey defenseman Neil Komadoski, Jr. (their fathers Blake Dunlop and Neil Komadoski played for the St. Louis Blues, with the sons honing their craft as members of the St. Louis Junior Blues before attending Chaminade Prep and then training with the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich.), and volleyball freshman middle blockers Katie Neff (Cor Jesu Academy) and Kim Fletcher (Nerinx Hall HS). Senior football offensive lineman John Teasdale (Kansas City/Rockhurst, HS) is the only current member of the Notre Dame football team from the state of Missouri (he is one of some 33 players from Missouri who have earned varsity monograms with the Notre Dame football program, including 11 from St. Louis).

More than 110 of Notre Dame’s all-time varsity monogram winners hail from the state of Missouri, including Dick Rosenthal (St. Louis/Bishop McBride HS), who played for the Irish basketball and baseball teams in the early 1950s before serving as Notre Dame athletic director from 1987-95 (he was a 1954 basketball All-American). Other Notre Dame student-athletes from St. Louis have included women’s soccer forward Michelle McCarthy (Visitation Academy), who helped lead Notre Dame to the 1995 NCAA title, and baseball pitcher Ed Reulbach (Manual Training HS), who went on to play in the World Series with the 1907 and ’08 Chicago Cubs, while brothers Peter and William Heinbecker played for the Notre Dame tennis team in the late 1950s/early 1960s (Bill was a member of the 1959 NCAA championship team). St. Louis native Vince Fehlig earned All-America honors as a member of the 1933 Notre Dame men’s golf team while the many Missouri natives to play for the Irish men’s soccer program have included twin brothers Paul and Steve Lavigne (St. Louis Uni. HS).

Notre Dame sports information director John Heisler is a 1976 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism while former Irish defensive back Todd Lyght (1987-90) has spent his entire NFL career with the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams.

RILEY WINS NAISMITH AWARD
Senior All-America center Riley Ruth has been named the recipient of the Naismith Player of the Year award – a first for the Notre Dame women’s basketball program. Riley was selected as one of 30 preseason candidates for the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year and one of the 15 finalists for the award. The two-time first-team Associated Press All-American becomes the second BIG EAST player to be named the Naismith Women’s College of the Player Year, joining Connecticut’s Rebecca Lobo, the 1995 recipient. Riley will be honored at an April 7 banquet at the Atlanta Tipoff Club.

IVEY WINS FRANCES NAISMITH POMEROY AWARD
All-America point guard Niele Ivey has been named the recipient of the 18th annual Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, presented by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the nation’s outstanding female collegian 5-feet-8 and under who has excelled athletically and academically. Ivey, the first Irish player to receive and first from the BIG EAST since UConn’s Jennifer Rizzotti in 1996, will receive her award on Sun., April 1 at a luncheon at the Adams Mark Hotel. The Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, named in honor of James Naismith’s daughter-in-law, is presented to the player who best demonstrates leadership, character, loyalty, all-around basketball ability and excellence in the classroom.

McGRAW VOTED BIG EAST COACH OF THE YEAR
For the third time in her 14 seasons at Notre Dame, head coach Muffet McGraw has been voted conference coach of the year – her third coaching honor by three different conferences. She was named the North Star Conference coach of the year in 1988 in her first year at Notre Dame and was MCC coach of the year in 1991. Her BIG EAST coach-of-the-year award marks her first since Notre Dame joined the conference in 1995-96.

RILEY, IVEY NAMED AP ALL-AMERICANS
Senior center Ruth Riley has earned first-team All-America honors by the Associated Press for the second consecutive year, while fifth-year point guard Niele Ivey earns All-America honors for the first time in her career as a third team pick. Riley was the only unanimous selection, as all 39 voters placed her on their first-team ballots.

• Ivey becomes Notre Dame’s first All-America point guard and the fifth Irish player to earn AP All-America honors but just the second to be named to one of the three teams (Beth Morgan and Kathryna Gaither were honorable mention picks in both 1996 and 1997 and Alicia Ratay in 2000).
• Notre Dame and Connecticut – with Svetlana Abrosimova on the second team and Sue Bird on the third team – stand as the only schools with more than one player voted to the 15-player three teams.

RILEY VOTED VERIZON ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN OF THE YEAR
Senior All-America center Ruth Riley has been voted the Verizon Women’s Basketball Academic All-American of the Year from among the five first-team Verizon Academic All-Americans. The psychology major and Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year boasts a 3.64 cumulative grade-point average and became the first Irish women?s basketball player to earn first-team Academic All-America honors last year. Riley advanced to the national ballot as a first-team all-district selection, while sophomore Alicia Ratay was a second-team pick.

MORE NCAA NOTES
The Irish played 11 of their first 30 games vs. the other 63 teams in the NCAA field and compiled a 9-2 record against those teams. Notre Dame has posted wins vs. top-seeded Connecticut, second-seeded Georgia, third-seeded Purdue, fourth-seeded Rutgers, fifth-seeded Villanova, seventh-seeded Wisconsin and three wins vs. seventh-seeded Virginia Tech. The two Irish losses came at Rutgers and Connecticut by a combined three points.

• The Irish were one of a record five BIG EAST teams to receive bids into the 64-team field. No BIG EAST team earned a seeding lower than seventh and all five advanced to the second round.
• The BIG EAST grabbed two of the four No. 1 seeds – with Notre Dame leading the Midwest Regional and Connecticut seeded first in the East – and three of the 16 subregionals.

IRISH PLAY INSIDE-OUTSIDE
A large portion of Notre Dame’s success this season is due to its potent inside-outside game. The Irish boast their best center ever in Naismith Player-of-the-Year Ruth Riley and the two best three-point shooters in school history in fifth-year Niele Ivey and sophomore Alicia Ratay.

• Riley reached the 2,000-point plateau in the win over Vanderbilt and is one of just three Notre Dame players ever to reach 2,000 points. She is set to leave Notre Dame with school records in field-goal percentage (.632), free throws made (508) and blocked shots (363).
• Among players with at least 40 three-point field goals, Ratay (147-286, .517) and Ivey (190-465, .409) boast the best three-point field-percentages in Irish history and stand third and fourth in all-time three-point field goals.

RATAY HOLDS NCAA THREE-POINT RECORDS
Sophomore Alicia Ratay, currently 80 of 144 for 55.6 percent, is on pace to shatter the NCAA single-season mark for three-point field-goal percentage (min. 80 made) set by Mary Just (87 of 174 for 50 percent) of Loyola (Ill.) in 1988. She also could set the NCAA sophomore record, held by Valparaiso’s Sarah Lenschow (52.8 in 1998).

RILEY APPROACHES REBOUND RECORD
Senior All-American Ruth Riley (994) needs five rebounds to match the Irish career rebounds mark of 999 set by current director of basketball operations Letitia Bowen (1991-95). With six rebounds, Riley would become the first Irish player to reach 1,000 rebounds.