April 11, 2006
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Senior All-America guard Megan Duffy (Dayton, Ohio/Chaminade-Julienne) was named the recipient of both the Notre Dame Monogram Club Most Valuable Player Award and Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Student-Athlete Award, picking up the hardware at the 2005-06 Notre Dame Women’s Basketball Banquet, which was held Tuesday evening at the Joyce Center.
More than 350 people were in attendance to help the Irish recognize the achievements of this year’s club. Notre Dame went 18-12 and made its 11th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance in 2005-06 (13th overall), while also posting the program’s 14th consecutive winning season, 18th in the 19-year Muffet McGraw era and 25th in the 29-year history of Irish women’s basketball. In addition, Notre Dame rose in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll for the seventh time in the past 10 seasons, registered three wins over ranked opponents (now totaling 40 in the past eight years) and ranked 11th nationally with an average attendance of 6,601 fans per game (fourth-best in school history), marking the sixth consecutive year the Irish have been among the top 20 in the country in that category.
Other honorees on Tuesday night included: junior guard Breona Gray (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman), who was a repeat selection as the team’s Defensive Player of the Year; sophomore guard Tulyah Gaines (North Las Vegas, Nev./Cheyenne), who earned the Most Improved Player Award; and sophomore guard Amanda Tsipis (Perry, Ohio/Perry), who garnered the Spirit Award for the second year in a row. Each of the award winners was chosen based on a vote of her teammates.
Notre Dame will have three starters and eight monogram winners in the fold next season, along with a four-player freshman class that has been ranked 15th in the nation by All-Star Girls Report. It’s the 10th consecutive year that the Irish have attracted a top-20 recruiting class, with Notre Dame being one of only three schools in the country that holds that distinction.
Here’s a closer look at the 2005-06 Notre Dame women’s basketball award winners:
Megan Duffy (Sr., G, Dayton, Ohio/Chaminade-Julienne)
Notre Dame Monogram Club Most Valuable Player
Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Student-Athlete Award
Duffy closed out her brilliant career at Notre Dame by earning the 2006 Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, presented annually to the country’s top senior standing 5-foot-8 or under. Duffy is the second Irish player to receive the honor (also Niele Ivey in 2001), making Notre Dame one of just three schools with multiple winners in the award’s 23-year history.
Duffy also garnered Kodak/WBCA and Associated Press honorable mention All-America accolades for the second consecutive year, was one of three finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award (nation’s top point guard), and was a unanimous first-team all-BIG EAST Conference selection. She ended the 2005-06 campaign ranked among the top 10 in the league in scoring (8th – 15.6 ppg.), free throw percentage (1st – .888), assists (8th – 4.13 apg.), steals (6th – 1.97 spg.), three-point field goals per game (7th – 1.93) and assist/turnover ratio (9th – 1.72). In addition, she ranked 10th nationally in free throw percentage, marking the second consecutive year she placed among the top 10 in the country in that category.
For her career, Duffy registered 34 top-10 placements in the Notre Dame record books, not to mention her No. 13 ranking on the Irish all-time scoring list (1,290 points). She is one of just three players in school history with 1,000 points, 500 assists and 200 steals and she was exceptionally durable, starting 94 of her last 95 games, playing 40 minutes or more in 24 of her last 63 contests. Furthermore, she is 15th in NCAA history with a .859 career free throw percentage and sixth in BIG EAST annals with a .850 mark in regular-season league games.
In the classroom, Duffy has compiled a 3.555 cumulative grade-point average in the College of Arts and Letters as she completes work on her double major in psychology and computer applications. This season, she was named an ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA First-Team Academic All-American, joining Ruth Riley as the second first-team selection in school history (and eighth in BIG EAST annals). In addition, she was a second-team Senior CLASS Award All-America choice, honoring her strong combination of athletic and academic excellence.
On April 5, Duffy became the sixth Notre Dame player in the past six seasons to be selected in the WNBA Draft when the Minnesota Lynx chose her in the third round of this year’s draft (31st overall pick). Duffy is the second Irish point guard to be a WNBA Draft choice, following in the footsteps of Ivey, who is set to begin her sixth season in the league (and second with the Phoenix Mercury) this summer. With Duffy’s selection, Notre Dame now is tied for sixth among all schools in terms of WNBA Draft picks during the past six seasons. Four Irish alumnae will be in uniform when WNBA training camps open April 23 — Duffy, Ivey, Riley (Detroit) and Jacqueline Batteast (Detroit).
Breona Gray (Jr., G, Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman)
Defensive Player of the Year Award
Gray (first name pronounced bree-ON-uh) started 22 games for the Irish this season, averaging 4.5 points, 2.3 rebounds and 0.9 steals per game. She often was charged with defending some of the top opposing players and came up big on several occasions. Most notably, Gray clamped down on Tennessee’s Shanna Zolman (1-7 FG, five points), NCAA three-point percentage leader Julie Larsen of Utah (0-5 FG, two points), the nation’s No. 3 scorer Jessica Dickson of South Florida (6-21 FG, 16 points in BIG EAST Championship first-round game), St. John’s Kia Wright (2-10 FG, seven points), Wisconsin’s Janese Banks (4-13 FG, 11 points) and Indiana’s Cyndi Valentin (3-8 FG, six points).
Tulyah Gaines (So., G, North Las Vegas, Nev./Cheyenne)
Most Improved Player Award
A 20-game starter for Notre Dame this year, Gaines (first name pronounced tuh-LIE-uh) improved on every one of the statistical averages from her freshman season, most notably carding 4.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. She also played a pivotal role in a late-season surge for the Irish, logging 8.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in the team’s final six contests, including a memorable last-second layup to force in overtime in a victory at Cincinnati. Gaines ended up with her first career double-double in that contest, piling up career highs of 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Amanda Tsipis (So., G, Perry, Ohio/Perry)
Spirit Award
Throughout her first two seasons at Notre Dame, Tsipis (pronounced SIP-iss) has been a important and dependable contributor for the Irish, from her uncompromising work ethic on both the practice and game court, to her positive demeanor in the locker room and dedication in the classroom. Tsipis has appeared in 19 games for Notre Dame during her two-year career, scoring six points in 46 minutes of playing time, including a career-high five minutes earlier this season in a victory over Arkansas State at the Duel in the Desert in Las Vegas.
— ND —