Achievements: While at Notre Dame, she earned a 848–251(.772) record, leading her team to nine Final Fours, seven championship games, and a pair of titles. She was the AP College Basketball Coach of the Year four times, three time Naismith Coach of the Year, and elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. Her teams won thirty-one twenty win seasons.
She passionately supports gender equality for women coaches. Any discussion of her career is incomplete without this emphasis. Leaders make leaders.
"We don't have enough female role models. We don't have enough visible women leaders. We don't have enough women in power. Girls are socialized to know when they come out, gender roles are already set. Men run the world."
"When you look at men's basketball and 99 percent of the jobs go to men, why shouldn't 100 or 99 percent of the jobs in women's basketball go to women? Maybe it's because we only have 10 percent women athletic directors in Division 1. People hire people who look like them. And that's the problem."
She doesn't believe in early sport specialization and thinks sports teaches valuable life lessons. “You learn so many things playing different sports. You may play something where you’re not the best player on the team. You learn what it’s like to be in that situation and how to handle it. It can help you down the line.”
Coaching Philosophy: She borrowed Joe Maddon's "never let the pressure exceed the pleasure." She remarked, “Where is the fun? Where is the excitement? Where is the joy? And we lost that.”
Coaching Notes: Spread Triangle Offense
Key point: "Rewatch video of big games and/or games lost. How did we score?"
Video: Shooting drills (corner-wing and elbow-elbow)
Trapping the post: (We've had an elite post defender for three years, so never trapped the post.)
A few Notre Dame sets:
Iverson second cut.
Horns bury, side PnR slip.
