ATLANTA, Ga. — With just four regular season games to go and a 20-4 record, Notre Dame’s Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey has been named to the 2023 Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year Late Season Watch List. The award is presented annually to the nation’s top men’s and women’s head coaches, ones who “achieve tremendous on-court success,” per the website.
Ivey, who is in her third season as the head coach, has her team in the conversation for a regular season ACC title. The No. 10 Irish boast an 11-3 conference record and are holding down the No. 2 seed as of Wednesday. She has led her team to multiple ranked ACC wins, topping Virginia Tech on the road in December and taking down Florida State at home on Jan. 26.
Prior to ACC play, the Irish topped UConn — which remains an AP Top 10 team — by a score of 74-60. Their only non-conference loss was on a buzzer beater against Maryland. The Terrapins checked in at No. 8 in the most recent AP Poll.
Notre Dame is also one of the best teams in the country statistically. The Irish are one of five squads to rank in the top 20 in both field goal percentage and field goal percentage defense. Their scoring margin of 18.0 ranks 10th nationally. Additionally, Notre Dame is hovering around the program record in the rebounding margin category; the program’s highest ever mark is +10.9, which was set in 2012-13. The Irish currently sit at +11.4 through 24 games.
The St. Louis native has coached multiple notable players in her near two decades of experience as an assistant and head coach, and current standout Olivia Miles is among the best of them. Miles, who is a sophomore and was the first player to enroll early in program history, leads the team in points (14.9), rebounds (7.1), assists (7.2) and steals (2.1) this season. She is one of just two players in the nation averaging at least 14 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists per game. The 5-11 point guard stands firmly in the ACC Player of the Year conversation.
On the whole, Ivey is 54-23 as a head coach. She took over for Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw and served as McGraw’s assistant from 2007-2018 before taking a job as an assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies. She returned as head coach in 2019. Ivey has been on staff for all nine of Notre Dame’s Final Four appearances.
On the topic of McGraw, she was the 2001, 2013 and 2014 recipient of the Naismith Coach of the Year Award. Ivey was a member of that 2001 national title team.
Notre Dame is back in action on Thursday, as the Irish host Louisville at Purcell Pavilion. The game tips off at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. Tickets can be purchased here.