After more than two decades of dominance, how have you handled the adversity of this season?
Muffet McGraw: “It’s all about lessons that we can teach this young team about how to handle adversity, how to fight through adversity and what it takes to be a champion. I think we’ve got an incredibly young team with virtually no experience in postseason play, and teaching them how hard you have to work, I don’t think coming in as freshmen you realize how hard it’s going to be, and I think we’ve made it look easy over the past few years . . . . And now [we’re] having to start over and to figure out how to lay the groundwork and build that foundation again.”
Did you expect this season would unfold this way?
MM: “Four points a game was what our returners had. And one of them, Abby Prohaska, we lost for the whole season because of a blood clot in her lungs, and so she was gone. The other one, Mikayla Vaughn, hurt her knee in the very first game. So we were in the season with zero experience and playing young freshmen — three freshmen — who have a great future, obviously . ... And the pressure on them of knowing they have a lot to live up to, the expectations were so high, that was hard for them to relax and just play because I think they always felt like they were not doing enough.”
Are you taking a nice vacation after this season?
MM: [laughs] “Yeah, we just talked about that with the coaching staff. We all need to get away.”
Where does the program go from here? MM: “We have a great recruiting class coming in. They were ranked third in the country . . . . We’re still going to be really young because we have nine freshmen and sophomores who are going to be playing a lot. And I see us being way better than this year. And in the future — I think two more years — is when we’ll be back to the elite level.”
Last season, Jackie Young decided to forgo her senior season at Notre Dame to play in the WNBA. And Oregon junior Satou Sabally announced her plans to enter this year’s draft last week. What are your thoughts on juniors declaring for the draft?
MM: “To leave school early and to be paid the salary of [$57,000] — you’re not going to be able to build your future on that salary. . . . Eventually, you’re going to have to fall back on your degree and do something, and you’re gonna need that degree. So if you come back and get it, great. If you continue to work to get it, great. I think the degree is the most important thing because, as women, we don’t have the same opportunities as men have to make millions. We’re making thousands, and it’s difficult.
“You have to look down the road. I think it’s difficult for young people to look ahead and see, ‘What’s life going to be like at 40 and 50?’ And prepare for that stage in life.”
Last season, you said you were done hiring men to be on your coaching staff. Have you received any backlash for not giving men opportunities?
MM: “People ask, ‘Would you hire a woman?’ And they always say, ‘Well, we’re going to hire the best candidate’ — as if the best candidate isn’t a woman. And so I’ve always taken a little bit of an offense at that — that your thinking is, ‘Well, men are obviously better, so why would you hire a woman?’ And I found that there’s so many extremely qualified women out there.
“I like to see it as an opportunity for women, and I think we have to get the opportunity from the athletic directors — they’re the ones doing the hiring. I also think that the male head coaches need to hire more women on their staff because these girls need to look up and see somebody that they can talk to, that they can relate to, that they can look at as a role model of how they can succeed. And sports is a great place for young girls to look up to see a woman leading.” ✶