They text after almost every game, and Muffet McGraw still spends plenty of time on the Notre Dame campus teaching a sports leadership class in the Mendoza College of Business these days.
So, she’s experienced up close the impressive evolution of her successor, Niele Ivey, as a college head basketball coach. Apparently plenty of others have taken notice, too.
On Tuesday the third-year Notre Dame head coach was named ACC Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year by the league’s head coaches and a Blue Ribbon Panel. And it wasn’t close.
Ivey received 211 voting points to 142 for Duke’s Kara Lawson. Virginia Tech’s Kenny Brooks was third with 137.
“It’s so well deserved,” McGraw told Inside ND Sports on Tuesday. “I thought she did a tremendous job in terms of her strategy, in terms of her in-game adjustments, substitutions, how she handled adversity — just in every way. You could just see how she has just grown into a terrific coach.”
Hall-of-Famer McGraw was the last ND coach to win the top ACC honor in 2016.
Tenth-ranked Notre Dame (24-4) is headed to Greensboro, N.C., for the ACC Tournament as the No. 1 seed with a double-bye into Friday’s quarterfinals. They’ll face the winner of Thursday’s NC State-Syracuse game on Friday at 2 p.m. ET (ACC Network). The first round tips off on Wednesday.
Ivey led the Irish to their seventh regular-season ACC title and first since McGraw’s 2019 team.
McGraw is headed to Greensboro as well to continue her analyst work for ESPN and the ACC Network. All the ACC tournament games will be on the ACC Network, with the exception of Sunday’s title game, which will be on ESPN.
Irish Players Honored
Sophomore guards Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron were named first-team All-ACC on Tuesday, while junior forward Maddy Westbeld was named to the second team.
Guard KK Bransford made the league’s all-freshman team. Grad senior center Lauren Ebo, meanwhile, finished second to NC State’s Saniya Rivers in the voting for the ACC’s Sixth Player Award for top bench contributor.
Miles suffered a right knee injury Sunday in the team’s regular-season finale, a stirring 68-65 comeback win at Louisville, and her status for the ACC Tournament is still unknown. She finished second in the voting for ACC Player of the Year to Virginia Tech senior center Elizabeth Kitley, who also won the award last season.
The 5-10 Miles is ND’s leading rebounder (7.2) and seventh nationally in assists (6.9), while averaging 14.3 points and 2.1 steals per game. Until Sunday, she was ND’s leading scorer this season.
On Monday, she was announced as one of five finalists for the 2023 Nancy Lieberman Award, which is given to the nation’s best point guard.
The 6-1 Citron was last season’s ACC Rookie of the Year. She is averaging a team-leading 14.5 points per game along with 5.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists. Her .451 shooting percentage from the 3-point arc would rank eighth nationally if she met the NCAA minimum of made 3-pointers per game.
The 6-3 Westbeld leads the team in blocked shots with a career-high 35 and is eighth in the ACC (1.3 per game). She averages 10.9 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists. Her next point will be the 1,000th of her career.
Just 24 hours after being named ACC Rookie of the Week and a couple hours after earning USBWA Freshman of the Week honors for performances against Georgia Tech and Louisville, Bransford is one of five freshmen to earn a spot on the ACC All-Freshman team.
The 5-11 Ohio product averages 8.6 points per game off the bench, which is second in the conference in a non-starting role.
ACC HONORS
Player of the Year: Elizabeth Kitley, Sr., C, Virginia Tech
Defensive Player of the Year: Celeste Taylor, Sr., G, Duke
Rookie of the Year: Ta’Niya Latson, G, Florida State
Coach of the Year: Niele Ivey, Notre Dame
Sixth Player of the Year: Saniya Rivers, So., G, NC State
Most Improved Player: Makayla Timpson, So., F, Florida State
All-ACC First Team
Elizabeth Kitley, Sr., C, Virginia Tech 1447 points
Olivia Miles, So., G, Notre Dame 1385
Ta’Niya Latson, Fr., G, Florida State 1304
Hailey Van Lith, Jr., G, Louisville 1156
Georgia Amoore, Jr., G, Virginia Tech 1083
Dyaisha Fair, Sr., G, Syracuse 1060
Deja Kelly, Jr., G, North Carolina 1037
Celeste Taylor, Sr., G, Duke 898
Sonia Citron, So., G, Notre Dame 878
Alyssa Ustby, Jr., G, North Carolina 710
All-ACC Second Team
Makayla Timpson, So., F, Florida State 700
Jewel Spear, Jr., G, Wake Forest 676
Diamond Johnson, So., G, NC State 394
Haley Cavinder, Sr., G, Miami 364
Destiny Harden, Gr., F, Miami 326
Amari Robinson, Sr., F, Clemson 310
Camryn Taylor, Sr., F, Virginia 292
Maddy Westbeld, Jr., F, Notre Dame 285
Kennedy Todd-Williams, Jr., G, North Carolina 279
Taylor Soule, Gr., F, Virginia Tech 220
All-Defensive Team
Celeste Taylor, Sr., G, Duke 227
Mykasa Robinson, Gr., G, Louisville 195
Elizabeth Kitley, Sr., C, Virginia Tech 163
Makayla Timpson, So., F, Florida State 153
Dyaisha Fair, Sr., G, Syracuse 81
All-Freshman Team
Ta’Niya Latson, G, Florida State 374
Taina Mair, G, Boston College 251
Tonie Morgan, G, Georgia Tech 162
Ruby Whitehorn, G, Clemson 120
KK Bransford, G, Notre Dame 82
ACC Most Improved
Makayla Timpson, Florida State 292
Dontavia Waggoner, Boston College 160
Camryn Taylor, Virginia 86
ACC Sixth Player
Saniya Rivers, NC State 226
Lauren Ebo, Notre Dame 211
D’asia Gregg, Virginia Tech 119
ACC Coach of the Year
Niele Ivey, Notre Dame 211
Kara Lawson, Duke 142
Kenny Brooks, Virginia Tech 137
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