Analysis: Following A Notre Dame Legend
Succeeding a legendary championship coach often is one of the most treacherous and thankless tasks in athletics.
Standards set by a coaching icon can become overwhelming and often result in constant comparisons that cannot be matched.
In men’s basketball, the successors for John Wooden, Dean Smith and Bob Knight at UCLA, North Carolina and Indiana lasted only two, three and six years, respectively — even though each achieved at least one Final Four run on his own résumé during his short stint.
It was pretty much a no-win situation to be the man who stepped in for a Knute Rockne, Vince Lombardi and Joe Torre, or down the road the ones who succeed Bill Belichick and Mike Krzyzewski.
In women’s basketball, the most legendary coach so far to replace was Tennessee eight-time national champion Pat Summitt. Successor Holly Warlick, who played for Summit, made the NCAA Tournament all seven seasons, won 72 percent of her games and advanced to the Elite Eight three times — but was ousted because the standards and expectations were not close to getting met.
So now, Niele Ivey takes on the immense task of filling the high heels of Muffet McGraw, who in 33 seasons with the Fighting Irish won 848 games, advanced to nine Final Fours and won two national titles (2001 and 2018) en route to getting enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
As onerous as the task might seem, the fact that Ivey started for McGraw as the point guard on one national title team (2001) and coached with her on another (2018) at least provides a blueprint no one else could replicate.
In her Thursday afternoon Zoom conference in which she was formally introduced as McGraw’s successor, Ivey said she was groomed not to be daunted by challenges, including coaching in the NBA last year.
The foremost advice she has been given by both McGraw and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick is to be herself and not put on a false façade, including attempting to emulate her mentor.
“Following a legend is not easy,” Ivey conceded. “I think I am always pretty much always true to myself. I try to stay as authentic as I can. I’ve developed a strong work ethic and I’m going to use that stepping into this role.
“I understand the value of Notre Dame. I understand the value of a Notre Dame education, because I was fortunate to receive one. I’m going to lead with my heart and soul and just try as hard as I can to bring the best out of our girls and for them to grow.
“My mission is to love, to serve and to mentor, and I’m going to live by those values. … My heart is full of gratitude. My love for Notre Dame is hard to capture in words.”
As an assistant, Ivey often played the “good cop” role that could make her popular, while McGraw brought the heat that wasn’t always well received yet highly effective. Former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz said he would often make himself the enemy to his players in order to better galvanize them and have a common bond.
“If I was ever murdered, they’d have to cancel the investigation because there would be too many suspects,” Holtz stated.
As a first-time head coach, Ivey recognizes that her role might need to be redefined in some ways.
“She would always say that she is not the warm and fuzzies — that’s why she had me [as an assistant],” Ivey said of McGraw.
Balancing that potential change as the leader of the operation while also remaining true to who she is can become the tricky part. Ivey’s love for McGraw was clear when, after going through a long list of thanks to people who helped make her dream job possible, she had to compose herself for about 15 seconds when she came to her mentor’s name.
“To Coach McGraw, I’m here because of you,” Ivey said with her voice shaking. “You fostered my development and you instilled the confidence in me to prepare for this moment.”
Swarbrick reiterated that Ivey was the lone candidate for the job and had been clearly identified as the successor, not just because of her background and understanding of Notre Dame but because of an insatiable “intellectual curiosity.”
“I’m not a big fan of coach-in-waiting designations, but in a sense she became a coach in waiting back when Muffet handed her the ball more than 20 years ago and to lead the team at point guard,” Swarbrick said. “… I’m not sure whether it was a question of if but merely a question of when.”
Through much of the past decade, Ivey had been reached out to for a number of head coaching opportunities, but she remained at Notre Dame for at least two prime reasons.
One was her affinity for the school that was thriving as a yearly national title contender and also highly popular in the community.
Two was her son Jaden Ivey, the nation’s No. 74-ranked basketball prospect by Rivals in 2020 who will be a freshman at Purdue later this year. Jaden sat beside her during the conference, donning his mother’s No. 33 jersey from the 2001 national title. A move by his mother elsewhere would have disrupted the stable environment she so wanted for him at an important point in his life.
“You are my why,” she said while turning to Jaden and clasping his hand during the conference. “You are the reason I am who I am.”
Because of a rare opportunity for a woman to coach/scout in the NBA presented to her by Memphis in August 2019, Ivey was able to spread her coaching wings in what Swarbrick referred to as a “perfect sabbatical,” while Jaden transferred to powerful La Lumiere, a boarding school in LaPorte that plays a national basketball schedule.
Under first-year coach Taylor Jenkins, the Memphis Grizzlies would have been in the NBA playoffs had the season not been postponed (if not yet canceled), and Ivey’s scouting and strategy for opposition earned tremendous praise from forward Jaren Jackson Jr., the No. 4 overall pick from Michigan State in 2018.
“She’s about to go crazy at Notre Dame,” Jackson said. “It’s a great fit for her. She was always getting wins when it was her scout. She’s unreal. I’m just really happy for her. Go Irish! That’s probably the only time I’ll say that, though.”
From a basketball standpoint, Ivey said she won’t veer from the up-tempo style McGraw thrived with at Notre Dame, but will also incorporate some elements learned in the NBA. Like McGraw, continuing the strong relationship with former players — “the heartbeat of our program, they laid the groundwork” — and the connections with the community are imperative for Ivey.
A supreme recruiter during Notre Dame’s run of seven Final Four appearances in the nine years from 2011-19, Ivey said she is not far removed from the scene and still has relationships with the current high school junior class that she is contacting already.
“It’s all about relationships, hit the ground running and reach out to top prospects,” she said.
With so many top schools also having recruited her son, Ivey took some of her own notes.
“It was really nice to be on the other side,” Ivey said. “I felt like a lot of coaches were very careful when they talked to me. I learned so much. … I really used that knowledge through mailers, through social media presence, the way they interacted with Jaden, the way they interacted with [me].
“I used a lot of those things that really mattered to me, that really spoke to my heart. It was like little nuggets for myself. The things that really stood out to me I tried to take heed and learn.”
That is how one can become a coaching legend of her own.
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