For 24 consecutive years, Notre Dame reached the NCAA tournament. Until it didn’t.

At 13-18 and 8-10 in ACC play, there was little chance of the Fighting Irish making the 2020 NCAA tournament. Only then there was no NCAA tournament.

Instead, Hall of Fame head coach Muffett McGraw’s 33-year career ended with a 67-65 loss to Pitt in the first round of the conference tournament. And the streak lived on.

When McGraw announced her retirement, it came as a surprise to nearly everyone, including the woman who has been tapped as the successor, Niele Ivey. Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick was one of the only people who knew of McGraw’s decision ahead of time, and had a written agreement that the reigns would be passed off to Ivey.

Ivey, who was there for the first national championship in program history as a player and for the second as an assistant coach, has spent a total of 17 years at Notre Dame. This past season, she coached for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, a job she held when she received the shocking news that McGraw was calling it a career. After checking on her mentor, it was a quick process for Ivey to accept one of the most high profile coaching jobs in the sport.

Replacing Muffet McGraw is no easy task, one that was only made harder by the pandemic. Four months after her hiring, Ivey still had items in storage. After guidelines cost the team more than eight weeks together over the summer, Ivey and her players only initially met up in person on Aug. 1.

Usually, a coach would have all summer to install a new system, acclimate, and begin a new dynasty. Instead, Ivey, like everyone else, has had to make it up as she goes during an offseason dominated by Zoom meetings.

Notre Dame has never reached a Final Four without Ivey. Now, the team is hoping their new head coach will spark a tenth. But what do their prospects look like following 2019’s letdown?

During her time on the coaching staff, Ivey was often leading the charge on recruiting. She was instrumental in the recruitment of Skylar Diggins-Smith, and later Jewell Loyd and Arike Ogunbowale.

Ivey, like McGraw, is a former point guard. At the time of the hiring, Diggins-Smith posted this clip of her coach in action in the Final Four.

This was final four in Denver 2012.
I was playing soft and @irishcoachivey was NOT happy! She came on the floor and in my grill to speak her mind! ????????
This is great coaching! Half the kids nowadays couldn’t handle this, but I needed to hear it ???????????? pic.twitter.com/hSYvdOcAbE

— Skylar Diggins-Smith (@SkyDigg4) March 29, 2020

Now, Ivey can reap the benefits of her own recruiting as she inherits a stacked team. The freshman class was ranked third in the nation by ESPN HoopGurlz behind UConn and Oregon. After a number of small classes, Notre Dame signed five players to its roster, including four five stars. Madeline Westbeld, Allison Campbell, Natalija Marshall, Alasia Hayes and Amirah Abdur-Rahim should all be able to make an immediate impact.

The 2019 class was ranked 11th despite there being just two members: Sam Brunelle and Anaya Peoples. The two five stars started the season opener, becoming the first pair to do so for Notre Dame since Teresa Borton and Jacqueline Batteast in the 2001-02 opener.

Peoples played in 17 games before a shoulder injury cut her season short, still finishing with a team-high 8.1 rebounds per game and 12.6 points per game, which would have been the best among ACC freshmen if not for Brunelle. The forward averaged 13.9 points per game and will continue to be a factor in 2020-21.

Katlyn Gilbert made more field goals than anyone on the team last year. While fellow foreigner five star Jordan Nixon transferred to Texas A&M, Danielle Cosgrove caught fire from behind the arc to shoot 8-for-20 over the last nine games, and Abby Prohaska will be returning from a medical redshirt.

Last year, Mikayla Vaughn was the only player with significant on court experience returning from the 2019 national championship appearance, but missed 11 games with a sprain in her right knee, after tearing the ACL in her left knee as a freshman. In 20 games, all starts, Vaughn shot a team-high 58.4% from the field with 10.6 points and 7.0 rebounds.

Granted a sixth year, returning leading scorer will be back for her second year with the team after coming over from North Carolina. Dara Mabrey, who transferred from Virginia Tech, will not be eligible for the 2020-21 season, but will look to add her 3-point shooting and follow in her sisters’ footsteps in finding success in a Notre Dame uniform.

Ivey’s legacy as a fantastic recruiter is already showing up. Olivia Miles, the second highest rated player in 2021, and Sonia Citron, also in the top 20, verbally committed within the first week of Ivey’s tenure.

Notre Dame can also expect Ivey, like McGraw and so many others throughout the women’s game, to continue to be a champion for issues off the court.

“What sets Niele apart is her ability to connect with all generations — alums, her current team and future student-athletes,” McGraw said. “She will be a fantastic role model and a leader in the women’s empowerment movement, and she will represent Notre Dame in a way that will make our fans proud.”

The Chicago Sky showed up in a big way on Tuesday night, taking down 2023 WNBA Finals runners-up New York Liberty by an impressively wide margin. 

The Sky walked away with a 101-53 win, boasting a 48 point swing that still looms large despite the fact that it's only preseason. Perhaps the team felt extra pressure to perform — not only did WNBA League Pass follow through on their promise to stream the game for free, but Chicago Bears rookies Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze also happened to be watching on from the stands.

“I’m gonna just say — it’s about time," said Sky guard Dana Evans in response to the star-studded turnout at Wintrust Arena. "Everybody wants to watch women’s basketball. I feel like we’ve been doing a really good job of doing stuff on the court and off the court. So just having them support us is great — but keep bringing them out."

Chicago's Marina Mabrey was lights out with four threes and 20 points on the night, while training camp addition Chennedy Carter racked up 11 points and two steals. 

Sky rookie Angel Reese proved that she can do it all, putting up 13 points, five rebounds, and two steals in 19 minutes — all less than 24 hours after she walked the Met Gala red carpet in New York. The 6-foot-3 top draft pick out of LSU even knocked down a layup over 2023 WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart in one of the night's many highlights.

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"So now yall can delete them drafts & tweets saying i shouldn’t have gone to the met gala & i can’t do both," she later wrote on social media. 

While some may chalk it up to preseason coaching choices and the fact that it was the Liberty’s first real game outside of training camp scrimmages, New York head coach Sandy Brondello still voiced disappointed in her team’s result.

"We just got our butts kicked, everywhere. I mean everything. It’s an embarrassing effort, I don’t care that it’s preseason," she said in a postgame press conference. "Our starters didn't get us off to a good start. We missed a lot of layups early, but they just took us out of everything."

On a lighter note, the third-year Liberty coach had some kind words for undrafted rookie Jaylyn Sherrod, who showed real effort on defense.

"She has speed," remarked Brondello. "She could guard Dana Evans. No one else could."

As the WNBA plans to implement league-wide charter flights, the NWSL is struggling with some travel issues of its own. 

Missed flights, inclement weather, and a stretch of midweek games have spurred workload and logistical concerns for a number of NWSL teams. Last week, three games were played Wednesday night, while another three games are set to be played tonight. 

"You can't play your best XI right now because of the amount of games you have," said Red Stars head coach Lorne Donaldson after last Wednesday's 4-2 loss to Washington. Donaldson emphasized the importance of rotating through the team’s depth so as to avoid injury.

"You have to get to about 16 deep where you can," he continued. "Or else your best XI is going to be injured or walk off the field and they can’t finish the season."

Kansas City has faced some of the league's most extreme turnaround times this season. On Sunday, the Current missed an evening flight to Seattle due to a multi-hour rain delay in Houston, throwing off their training schedule ahead of their midweek match against the Reign. The NWSL eventually gave them the green light to charter a plane, but not before frustration spread throughout the team.

"We lost the whole day of the opportunity to recover," said Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski after the Current's weekend draw against the Dash. "So the schedule, it's already challenging to begin with. We have by far the worst schedule in the league, and this just made it even worse.

"We don't have a hotel, we got to figure out a hotel. We don't have flights for tomorrow, we got to figure out flights. We had trainings for some players that we believe needed training time to be able to perform on Wednesday.”

While the team was given permission to charter a plane, navigating such approvals has proven difficult in the past. This past July, the NWSL fined Kansas City $55,000 over the unauthorized use of a charter flight.

Recently retired WNBA superstar Candace Parker has her next gig lined up: president of women’s basketball at Adidas.

Parker announced her retirement at the end of April, bringing a close to a 16-year professional career spanning three WNBA championship titles with three different teams. And now, she’s stepping into a slightly different role — this time off the court — with longtime sponsor Adidas.

"The brand and I have grown together, and we’ve done some amazing things," she told Fast Company in an exclusive interview published Wednesday morning. "I’m excited about what the future holds on this side of things, because I’m so passionate about growing the game of basketball."

Parker initially signed with Adidas at the end of her first professional season in 2008, going on to spend the vast majority of her illustrious WNBA career linked to the German athletic brand. In 2010, she became the first woman to receive a signature Adidas shoe: the ACE Commander.

Her most recent Adidas collaborations include basketball sneakers Exhibit B (2022) and Exhibit Select (2023) in a variety of different colorways, as well as limited edition off-court apparel.

In 2022, Parker led a mentorship program for the brand’s first class of NIL-sponsored college athletes, a stacked roster that involved the likes of rising star Hailey Van Lith, among others. In her new position, she’ll be "overseeing pretty much everything" when it comes to the brand’s women’s basketball operations.

That "everything" includes weighing in on shoe and clothing design, navigating new and existing athlete partnerships, and taking control of Adidas' grassroots growth strategies. She’ll also help with "how we actually speak to the women’s basketball consumer," Eric Wise, who leads the brand’s global basketball business, told Fast Company.

According to Parker, the decision to accept the offer hinged on her desire to be more than just "the face" of Adidas women’s basketball.

"I said to [Adidas], 'I don’t want to be a mascot,'" Parker said. "'I really want to be in the meetings, and I want to be a part of making decisions.'"

Charter flights are on the horizon for the WNBA, with commissioner Cathy Engelbert saying on Tuesday that the league will provide teams with full-time private travel services beginning as soon as this season. 

The move is set to address years of player safety concerns, among other issues. Engelbert told AP Sports Editors that the league aims to launch the program "as soon as we can logistically get planes in place."

The initiative is projected to cost around $25 million per year over the next two seasons.

The WNBA has previously provided charter flights on a limited basis, including during the postseason and when teams were scheduled to play back-to-back regular season games. Individual owners seeking to independently provide their teams with private travel — such as the New York Liberty’s Joe and Clara Wu Tsai back in 2022 — faced significant fines for using unauthorized charters.

While players and team staff have been calling for league-wide charters even before Caitlin Clark and other high profile rookies joined the league, Engelbert has routinely cited steep year-to-year costs as the reasoning behind sticking to commercial flights. 

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However, the WNBA's surging popularity means increased visibility, and a subsequent uptick in security concerns — especially when it comes to big name newcomers like Clark — has Englebert reconsidering her previous decision. 

WNBA Players Association president Nneka Ogwumike called the move "transformational," and credited the WNBPA as well as the league for its implementation. 

"Our league is growing, the demand for women's basketball is growing," Ogwumike told ESPN. "That means more eyes on us, which is what we want, but that means more protection from the organization that we play for, the whole W that we play for.

"Chartering flights not only is a safety measure, the biggest thing, and then obviously what it means to be able to play a game and go home and rest and recover and be the elite athletes that we try to be every single night when we step out onto this court."

Aces coach Becky Hammon called the immediate response to the charter announcement "great" but noted that there are still kinks to be worked out. 

"What it all looks like, we’re still gathering information, we don’t know," she said Tuesday.

Several players emphasized the importance of safety, highlighting how last season the Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner was harassed in an airport while traveling commercial.

"All these players and these faces are becoming so popular that it really is about that as much as it as about recovery," Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier said.

"Above everything else, I think it's the safety of our players," Mercury player Natasha Cloud added. "We have a prime example with BG on our team that needs to be safe. At airports, it's like a madhouse. You see Caitlin Clark walking through airports, people following her, people trying to touch her, get pictures with her. It's just a safety measure, through and through. You would never have an NBA team walk through an airport."

Prior to Tuesday's announcement, the league had said it would charter flights for the playoffs and back-to-back games via a program introduced last year. The latest news, however, promises that teams will also be provided charters to and from all regular season games.

"Our safety is being taken seriously now, finally. In no world should our security not be a priority," Griner told ESPN. "If we want to be the league that we want to be and have the respect that we have, it comes with some risks. Sometimes people want to get close to you and it's not people you want, so I'm just glad that we don't have to deal with that anymore."