ST. LOUIS  — Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw is the 2012-13 recipient of the Women’s National Coach of the Year Award, presented annually by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

McGraw, who last won the award in 2001 the year she led the Irish to the NCAA title, will be recognized by the USBWA Sunday at a 4:30 p.m. awards presentation in the New Orleans Sports Arena in advance of the NCAA Women’s Final Four, which will begin at the venue two hours later.

The winner of the Ann Meyers Drysdale National Women’s Player of the Year will also be announced in New Orleans at that time while the Pat Summitt most courageous women’s honoree will also be cited with Summitt’s son Tyler, now an assistant women’s coach at Marquette, helping to make the presentation.

Though McGraw lost four key seniors (who accounted for 40 percent of the Irish’s scoring and rebounding), including three starters from last year’s squad that advanced to the NCAA national championship game for the second consecutive season, McGraw, a former standout at Saint Joseph’s in Philadelphia in the mid 1970s, has her program right back in the national semifinals again this weekend.

Heading to meet Big East rival Connecticut this weekend for the third straight season, Notre Dame has already beaten the Huskies by a narrow margin in three previous meetings, including the Big East championship. Notre Dame is 12-1 against ranked teams this season and 6-1 against the Top 10, including the three wins over UConn and a loss to Baylor.

“We’ve made it to this stage in the season because of Coach McGraw,” two-time USBWA All-American senior Skylar Diggins said. “She’s the reason. She’s a great coach. She has a great basketball IQ. She knows what to do with her players, and she knows how to motivate her players. For me personally, she makes it easy for me, because she just allows me to play my game.”

McGraw was named the Big East Coach of the Year, her second such award since 2001 as her team went 16-0 through the Big East and won the conference tournament title.

 

All-Time USBWA Coaches of the Year
1990 Tara VanDerveer, Stanford
1991 Debbie Ryan, Virginia
1992 Christine Weller, Maryland
1993 Jim Foster, Vanderbilt
1994 Ceal Barry, Colorado
1995 Geno Auriemma, Connecticut
1996 Leon Barmore, Louisiana Tech
1997 Wendy Lary, Old Dominion
1998 Pat Summitt, Tennessee
1999 Carolyn Peck, Purdue
2000 Andy Landers, Georgia
2001 Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame
2002 Brenda Oldfield, Minnesota
2003 Geno Auriemma, Connecticut
2004 Joe Curl, Houston
2005 Pokey Chatman, LSU
2006 Sylvia Hatchell, North Carolina
2007 Gail Goestenkors, Duke
2008 Geno Auriemma, Connecticut
2009 Geno Auriemma, Connecticut
2010 Connie Yori, Nebraska
2011 Kim Mulkey, Baylor
2012 Kim Mulkey, Baylor
2013 Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame