SOUTH BEND, Ind. — What some from the outside see as a curious footnote on Niele Ivey’s coaching résumé, the Notre Dame women’s head basketball coach still considers foundational, if not life-changing.
After riding shotgun to Hall-of-Famer Muffett McGraw for 12 seasons as an assistant at her alma mater, the former Notre Dame point guard joined Taylor Jenkins’ staff on the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2019-20 season. Which was truncated by the COVID-19 pandemic, then suspended, then extended, then finished off in a bubble of sorts the following October.
At which time Ivey was roughly six months into her first year as Notre Dame’s head coach/McGraw’s successor.
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“I never would have thought I could learn so much about the game,” Ivey told Inside ND Sports of her time as one of 16 women who have served as full-time assistant coaches in NBA history through last season. “I learned, obviously, so much under Muffet McGraw, but being able to see the game from different points of view, a different leadership, that really, really helped me.
“I felt like I was getting my doctorate, because every day it was just so much knowledge, so much information. I’ve always been the type of assistant that just searched for knowledge. I was always going to try to talk to as many coaches as I could talk to. I always went to different practices — NBA practices, collegiate practices — just to learn and just to try to bring ideas back to Notre Dame.”
The 45-year-old mother of burgeoning NBA star Jaden Ivey is still as committed as ever to that knowledge quest as she enters year four of her regime with a 61-25 record (.709).
The Irish, ranked 10th in ESPN’s pre-preseason rankings, open their season Nov. 6 against No. 8 South Carolina in Europe — namely Paris — a continent Ivey has been refamiliarizing herself with this summer.
This past weekend she watched in person Irish incoming freshman Hannah Hidalgo help lead Team USA to a gold medal in the 16-team FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Madrid, Spain after taking in the pool-play games online back in South Bend.
The 5-foot-6 point guard was tied for second in scoring on a balanced USA team (10.7 per game), tied for first in minutes played (20.1), and was alone in first in assists (5.4) and steals (3.1). She also rebounded at a 3.4 per-game clip and set World Cup single-game records for steals (8) and assists (13).
After the 69-66 finals win over host Spain on Sunday, Hidalgo was named to the equivalent of an All-World Cup first team, joining USA teammate Joyce Edwards, Canada’s Toby Fournier, Spain’s Iyana Martin and France’s Lela Lacan.
Rising sophomore Cassandre Prosper has also surged on the international stage, averaging 16.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.8 blocked shots for Team Canada (6-1) before missing its bronze-medal-winning victory over France Sunday (80-73 in overtime) with an apparent minor injury.
Significantly, Prosper has found her shooting touch (.461 overall/.400 from the 3-point arc) after laboring for consistency in that area during her 22-game run as an early enrolled freshman (.321/.217) that replaced her senior high school season in Canada.
Six days later, this Saturday, Hidalgo, Prosper, Ivey and the rest of the Irish will begin their two-game, two-country foreign tour, playing games and taking in the cultures of Croatia and Greece. The Irish are scheduled to return to the U.S. on Aug. 8, two weeks before fall-semester classes commence.
The Irish are coming off a 27-6 season, finishing first in the ACC regular season at 15-3, and reaching the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 for the second straight year after missing the tournament with a 10-10 overall mark in Ivey's rookie year as a head coach.
“I feel like, as an assistant, you don't really realize that for a head coach it's less basketball and it's more of everything else but basketball,” Ivey said. “Now there’s NIL and the transfer portal. There’s managing budgets, managing a staff. Speaking engagements. I didn't realize the things that head coaches have to deal with on a daily basis.
“And so, for me in year four, I really kind of understand the balance of making sure that every aspect of the program is taken care of and knowing how much energy I need to spend on so many different things that I have to manage. So, I think, that's what I've learned the most.
“And, you know, my first year coming into the pandemic, coming in after a legend, not having a full season. We had COVID and the threat of COVID. That took a lot of my energy, and so now in year four, I feel like I really know what's important, where I can place my energy into and the battles I need to fight.”
Navigating NIL and Notre Dame’s strict policy regarding incoming transfers are two of the more formidable battles immediately in front of Ivey.
But the reigning ACC Coach of the Year is not doing it alone. She and head football coach Marcus Freeman have been sharing strategies, and now first-year men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry has joined the confab.
“We all kind of help each other as far as just trying to navigate through things and try to figure out what's been helpful or beneficial for each program,” Ivey said. "But recruiting has been a challenging piece of trying to find players that fit the academic rigor of Notre Dame and then also the NIL piece. It definitely has its own challenging layers.
“With the NIL and the portal, I try to navigate each year, and each year presents something else. Try to work through any hurdles that come my way, but that definitely created a challenging layer to recruiting. It’s not as simple as it was before as far as just trying to find the right fit and trying to fill positions.”
Limited to grad transfers and mostly freshmen among underclassman transfer candidates, Ivey was able to land two from the portal this offseason — grad guard Anna DeWolfe from Fordham and grad forward Becky Obinma from Pepperdine.
Hidalgo and freshman 3-point specialist Emma Risch are the other two new additions. The Irish lost just two players off last season’s roster, both former transfers and both to expired eligibility — guard Dara Mabrey and center Lauren Ebo.
Mabrey, like returning All-America junior point guard Olivia Miles, had her season cut short by a knee injury/surgery. Miles continues to make progress from her late-March surgery but isn’t a certainty to be ready by the time the Irish open the season.
Ivey can relate, having had multiple ACL tears during her Notre Dame playing career, though it ended well with a national title in her fifth and final season (2001).
She still looks like she can play.
“Oh no,” she said with a laugh. "Only half court. I definitely could jump in, but I don't. But there were a couple times in the season where I'm very hands-on as a coach. So, I'm down there. I'll defend posts or I'm making a post-feed pass or I'm kind of in the trenches with the players, because I really love being active. I love being hands-on.
“So, I'm very active in that space. I don't get up and down with them, five-on-five or anything, but I am in the workouts. I'm rebounding. I'm passing. I'm coming off ball screens. Trying to be a defensive presence against them. So, I love being on the court. That's the best part of it. I try to be as active as I can, but five on five, they won’t get me full court.”
But they can find her thinking about basketball constantly. And finding ways to improve her coaching game, including revisiting her time in the NBA.
“Watching coach Jenkins kind of take over the organization in year one and seeing how he established his own culture, established his philosophy and his vision, that was really helpful for me,” Ivey said, “because the next year I had to do the same thing — implement my vision, my messaging and implement my own personal culture. I never would have realized being in that environment that that's some of the things that were going to translate for me as head coach. Things like offensive schemes.”
And defensive schemes. And player development. And different ways to run practices. And practicing dealing with the media.
“That's just a snippet of things that I learned,” she said, “but the entire experience really, really helped me with my transition into being a head coach. But the learning continues. You can always gain knowledge. You can always find ways to be better.”
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