Notre Dame announced Niele Ivey as its new women's basketball coach mere minutes after announcing that Hall of Fame coach Muffet McGraw was stepping down following 33 seasons.
But Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick revealed Thursday that one of the shortest coaching vacancies imaginable was actually the product of a plan at least two years in the making.
Speaking at Ivey's introductory teleconference a day after McGraw stepped down, Swarbrick noted that he and McGraw spoke after each season about the future of the program. McGraw never set a date for her own departure, but her preference on succession was clear.
"One of the questions annually in that conversation is 'Coach, if the proverbial bus comes along, who would you want to succeed you?'" Swarbrick said. "For some time, Coach McGraw identified Coach Ivey. But that wasn't news to me. I attended enough practices, saw enough interactions with the student athletes to know that Niele was a future head coach and hopefully a future head coach at Notre Dame."
Hired as an assistant at her alma mater in 2007, Ivey was promoted to associate head coach in 2016. She was instrumental in recruiting local high school star Skylar Diggins, which proved to be the cornerstone of a revival that propelled the program to seven Final Fours in nine seasons. But despite interest from other college programs, she remained at Notre Dame until taking a role as an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies prior to the 2019-20 season.
"She and I talked a lot over the past two years as other opportunities came her way, and as we were thinking about our future, to encourage her to hold on for this moment," Swarbrick said. "And when the Grizzlies opportunity came along, we thought it was the perfect sabbatical. We loved the notion of Niele seeing a different program, learning from the NBA's level of expertise and bringing that back."
Even as part of that plan, Ivey said the enormity of her new role didn't fully hit her until Wednesday, when she met with current Notre Dame players on a Zoom call.
A part of all nine of the program's Final Four teams as either a player or coach, Ivey was visibly and audibly emotional while thanking McGraw.
"I'm here because of you, you believed in me," Ivey said before a long pause. "You fostered my development and you instilled the confidence in me to prepare for this moment. You gave me my first opportunity, and there are no words to properly express the amount of love and admiration I have for you. I hope I make you proud."