Both worked for Muffet McGraw for 8 years. Both coached on a national championship staff. Both have been head coaches with some decent success. Both played at ND. Not a lot of difference in terms of legacy.
Other possible decision factors (all speculative):
- Washington coached Ivey in college. Niele might have been thinking of reuniting whenever and wherever her first head coaching job happened.
- Cohesiveness: I have no insight into the relationships among the coaches. From the outside, the staff always appeared to be cohesive. However, Washington and Carol Owens have worked together before; so Ivey isn't exactly wading into uncharted waters. She might believe this will be a better functioning team.
- Complementary skills: Ivey was a good offset to McGraw when they worked together. Muffet could be the caustic critic while Niele would be the shoulder to cry on. I don't know the individual personalities well, but it could be that Washington will be the complementary personality to Ivey better than Cunningham will.
- Economics: Brey mentioned strained budgets because of the shutdowns in his recent press conference. It's conceivable that Ivey preferred Washington as a replacement for Mabrey but had to make a different choice because of the budget.
It would seem that Muffet's recipe for success always included a strong PG coach in Coquese and then Niele. There are a million factors into what occurred last season. But it is at least notable that there was not a true PG coach.
CW comes back to coach a position and program that she has coached previously through a national championship. She coached Niele and college and played with her in the WNBA. She was a President of the Player's association.
They have similar credentials and yet CW has some very specific differentiating factors from BC.
One of Ivey's strengths is her recruiting ability. It may be that Washington was ND's lead recruiter of Ivey when NI was in high school. If so, Niele would know just how good a recruiter CW is. Washington also had several top recruiting classes at Penn State, another tribute to her recruiting ability.
Not to slight Beth, but I can't recall anyone touting her recruiting ability. It's always how she excelled with X's & O's.
In every interview she's given since her hiring (including the announcement), Niele's talked about how she's focusing on recruiting. I think this was a major factor, and perhaps the top one, in her staff selection process.
Washington was on the staff from 1999 to 2007. Ivey arrived in 1997.
However, you're right about Washington being the recruiting coordinator her last few years working for McGraw. That was Ivey's job at ND, and it wasn't really filled when she went to Memphis. Washington might be filling that void.
The 2020 class was ranked 3rd- she was heavily involved with Maddy and her recruitment. They had secured a verbal commitment of Caitlin Clark prior to her official visit in late October and she was the lead on that, and she was all over Ali Campbell who everyone was calling Beth Jr on the the staff. She was the lead on Sam Brunelle throughout her recruitment.
Beth isn't a big personality but is a great relationship builder and families really like her, and her family.
She was pushing on MM to get the roster past 11 scholarships something that MM was reluctant to do prior to the transfer portal.
This option that I mentioned abobe: Washington coached Ivey in college; and as noted in NDMike2001's post, they were WNBA teammates. Because of their longstanding relationship (respect, trust), I think it's likely that Ivey intended to have Washington on her staff whenever and wherever her first head coaching job happened whether that was at Notre Dame or elsewhere.
Adding Washington necessitated a choice, quite possibly a choice Ivey really didn't like making. Nobody would have criticized keeping all three of McGraw's assistants. Right or wrong, it tells us a lot that Ivey made a tough choice when it would have been easy to go with the path of least resistance.
in the Class of 2020 recruitment. And Carol was there for her part with post/big forwards. Congrats to all of them for reeling in this highly ranked class.
As many of you know, I've been taking copious notes over the last two to three years on the recruiting scene and will point out that:
- Muffet oversaw the whole operation and had input from all her coaches but make no doubt that Niele was in day-to-day charge of recruiting while she was here.
- Niele was actively involved in the recruiting of three of the 2020 recruits: Alli Campbell, Nat Marshall and Alasia Hayes.
(For more see an ND Insider article penned by the always reliable Anthony Anderson on April 22 -- scroll below)
- Alli committed to ND in Sept. 2018, the first of the Class of 2020 to do so.
- Both Alli and Nat Marshall attended Recruitapalooza and it went from there.
- In one of her early interviews, Niele acknowledged she didn't have much to do with two of ND's 2020 recruits, so by process of elimination we're talking about Maddy Westbeld and Amirah Abdur-Rahim. So, good check mark for Beth and whomever else worked with her on those two recruits.
- As for Clark, that was just a mash-up (I've heard a few variations on that "silent commitment" -- in the future, beware of 'em!) Suffice, no one came out of that with a happy face when I look at the sum total of the explanations.
- However, let's look at the rebound efforts in 2021. Niele most certainly started the efforts on Miles and Citron, Beth certainly kept the push going and Niele closed the deal.
ND Insider Article....................................................
“I’m sad, I’m shocked, and I’m also excited for coach (Niele) Ivey,” Campbell said.
Campbell and Nat Marshall, two members of an ND recruiting class that is ranked No. 3 nationally by ESPN, both said they plan to honor the Letters of Intent they’ve signed to play with the Irish.
“This doesn’t make me reconsider at all,” Marshall said Wednesday evening from New York. “Of course, my hope was to be playing under coach McGraw, but I also love coach Ivey.”
Marshall and Campbell participate in a regular group chat with fellow 2020 recruits Maddy Westbeld, Alasia Hayes and Amirah Abdur-Rahim.
“No one has said they’re reconsidering,” Campbell shared. “We’ve been talking, and I think we’re all so shocked. But I think we’re all excited as well, because we’ve all built a relationship with Coach Ivey as well.”
“It sounds like everyone’s still on board,” Marshall concurred. “We all really love coach Ivey.”
Marshall and Campbell both said that Ivey, a longtime former ND assistant, was actively involved in their recruitments before she left after the 2018-19 season to join the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies as an assistant.
Campbell, a guard and three-time reigning Pennsylvania Class 2A state player of the year, said the possibility of McGraw leaving was never discussed while she was being recruited.
both Mabreys, Brunelle, etc.
From my perspective, Coquese and Beth have similar coaching credentials. Coquese reached a higher level of success as a head coach at a school with strong athletic resources, but then hit a downward spiral after three conference titles. Beth made steady progress at a school with fewer resources. They were both successful assistants at ND.
My guess is that Niele must feel more comfortable with Coquese in a daily working environment. It is interesting to remember that Niele replaced Coquese on Muffet's staff.
and will add:
- Coaching responsibilties of this staff match up well with positions.
-- Carol Owens obviously will continue to work with the posts/big forwards;
-- I'm guessing Washington will have primary dibs on the point guards, given the fact that she's played the position and developed PG's like Niele and Megan Duffy (Yes, the fact that those two are now D1 Head Coaches is not lost on me).
This will be important this year with expanding Katlyn Gilbert and Alasia Hayes' skill sets (if that's still the plan). And it will become huge when prized recruit Olivia Miles will probably be handed the keys to the car when she arrives in 2021.
- Michaela Mabrey was the point guard coach last year and while she knows the position, she was, after all, an off-guard at ND. My guess is that she'll do very well with shooters like Destinee Walker and Sam Brunelle and will be attached to the hip of players like Alli Campbell and Sonia Citron.
- As MPG and I went back and forth on, Niele will probably be her own de facto recruiting director for the first two years (details below), but Coquese and Michaela will be involved on macro and mico issues, while Carol will focus on bigs. Coquese, btw, has always done well with Michigan recruiting, so will be interesting to keep track of that. I'd love to see Michaela hit the Jersey Shore, now that nearby metro players Miles and Citron are aboard.
idea.
Then she founded the WNBA Players Ass’n in 1999 and negotiated the first CBA. Again, no idea.