Misery in the sports world apparently does gravitate toward company.
For North Carolina men’s basketball coach Roy Williams and Notre Dame’s women’s basketball coach Muffet McGraw, a bond has been forged during the 2019-20 season that prompted Williams to call McGraw earlier this month while both were in the throes of nightmare campaigns.
Both are multiple national title winners — most recently Williams in 2017 and McGraw in 2018 — who have been enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Williams is 881-243 (.784 winning percentage) in his 32-year career while McGraw is 835-233 (.782) in 33 seasons at Notre Dame, and has 923 victories overall.
However, this season has seen Williams lose a school record six straight ACC games (10-10 overall), including getting swept by Pitt, which tied for last in the 15-team league last year.
What’s more, his Tar Heels had been 59-0 at home against Clemson since their series began in 1926 — until losing in overtime to the Tigers on Jan. 11.
Similar to McGraw, Williams’ Tar Heels have been ravaged by attrition and injuries, prompting him to refer to his team as the “least gifted” he’s ever coached. He then waxed even more dramatic after the loss at home to Clemson.
“If I die tomorrow or 20 years from now, that'll be the biggest regret I have in 32 years as a coach,” the 69-year-old Williams stated.
A day later, the 64-year-old McGraw broke into tears at her press conference following a 90-56 defeat at home to North Carolina State.
The misery was recently compounded with a 90-60 pounding last Sunday to a Virginia team that entered the game 7-12, and on Thursday night at home with an 86-54 blowout defeat at home to No. 5 Louisville. It has gone well beyond a crisis of confidence this season.
Last night's loss dropped the Irish to 7-14 overall — they had been 279-23 for a .924 winning percentage the previous nine years combined — and 2-7 in the league.
Furthermore, they are now 3-8 at home — the most defeats ever suffered in one season at home. With four more home games left, this also clinched the first losing season at home since 1980-81, the first year the program competed at the Division I level.
When asked if she saw any bright spots from the loss to the Cardinals, McGraw responded with a typical matter-of-fact demeanor.
“No,” she said. “Did you? Did anyone?”
Crickets.
“Okay,” she continued. “We’ve cleared that up.”
She did divulge the pleasant surprise of Williams reaching out to her.
“We sort of vented to each other,” revealed McGraw of a conversation she estimated lasted about 20 minutes. “That was nice and it was really good to know … We both had just won a championship the last couple of years, and just how it is to come from always winning to now always losing.
“It picked me up. I think that’s been the only good thing about this whole stretch, the number of people that have been reaching out and sending notes of encouragement. That’s been really uplifting.”
The gist of the conversation was the theme of rising again from the ashes someday — a message she is trying to impart to her players.
“Just knowing that you’ve had success, you know it’s going to come back,” she said. “You’ve got to go through the valleys. That’s been hard but I think we’re both trying to figure that out.”
Another figure to add this year would be Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who has been to the NBA Finals each of the past five years and won three titles in a four-year stretch — but this year has the worst record (10-39) in the league.
“I should call him,” McGraw joked. “I thought I’d start a support group, Steve, Roy and me, and see if we can go on Twitter.”
While she has accepted the current reality a little better than a month or two ago, some habits are difficult to break after so much prolonged dominance.
“I go into every game expecting to win, which is why it makes it so much harder,” she said. “I keep saying we have to lower the bar, and it’s just not happening. I’m just not capable of accepting that.”
The young nucleus is led by sophomore Katlyn Gilbert and freshmen Sam Brunelle and Anaya Peoples (out the rest of this year after shoulder surgery), who all have three years of eligibility remaining after this season. Center Mik Vaughn also has two years following this campaign.
“The more that we can get out of them now and the learning experience that we’re going through, that’s just what we’re looking at — just individuals and how can we get better,” said McGraw of what she hopes to salvage from this season.
Maintaining some sense of humor during the down times is also vital.
“Petitioning the NCAA for more timeouts is what I need,” replied McGraw when asked what can be done to limit the consistent scoring runs of the opposition. “I thought all the ones we accrued over the years could be used now.
“That’s our biggest problem, because we cannot score and so you take a timeout and say, ‘Okay let’s try this or that.' And we get a great shot … how many layups did we miss? We get great shots and we can’t put the ball in the basket.
“It deflates you when the other team is scoring, and now I know what it has felt like for our opponents for the last five years or so.”
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