SOUTH BEND — Megan Duffy couldn’t assist herself.
There was a observe later within the day that the Marquette ladies’s basketball coach wanted to be prepared for; there have been media obligations; and there was extra movie examine beckoning, as a result of sufficient by no means appears like sufficient when the stakes are the NCAA Match.
Nonetheless, Duffy put all that apart for some time Friday to take her Golden Eagle gamers on a tour of the Notre Dame campus, the identical place she known as house throughout her personal taking part in days, the identical place she acquired married — a unusual story coming there — and a spot she nonetheless calls house in her coronary heart.
Noie:March Insanity Predictions: Why Notre Dame ladies can attain the Last 4 in 2024
“I made them take the tour,” Duffy admitted with a sheepish smile after a few her gamers occurred to say factors of curiosity alongside the brief tour.
Duffy and Tenth-seeded Marquette (23-8) face seventh seed Mississippi (23-8) in a 4:45 p.m. first-round sport Saturday at Purcell Pavilion.
The competition marks the primary time a former Irish ladies’s basketball participant apart from ND’s Niele Ivey is serving as head coach in an NCAA Tourney sport at Notre Dame.
Duffy, a three-time All-Large East choose who wrapped up her Irish taking part in profession in 2006, didn’t even instantly notice on Choice Sunday that the Eagles had been ND-bound.
“It’s fascinating. Whenever you see your title, you’re so excited,” Duffy stated of the at-large bid Marquette obtained. “We had been extraordinarily ecstatic to see that, after which, OK, we’re taking part in Ole Miss, and also you type of overlook (to examine) the place you’re going, and you then type of must ask, OK, the place are we being despatched to?
Extra:Which AP All-American crew did Hannah Hidalgo land for Notre Dame ladies’s basketball?
“It was fairly good to listen to, at the very least for me personally, that it’s a spot I’m accustomed to, and a spot that our followers can come over to for the sport (three hours from Milwaukee).”
Duffy is making her third NCAA Tourney look in 5 years as head coach at Marquette, and it will be her fourth in 5 if the 2020 occasion hadn’t been canceled attributable to COVID.
She’s joined by Ivey (three straight occasions now in 4 years at ND), Coquese Washington (4 occasions total at Penn State), Sandy Botham (twice with Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and Beth Cunningham (as soon as at Virginia Commonwealth) amongst ex-Irish gamers beneath Corridor of Famer Muffet McGraw who’ve guided groups of their very own into the Large Dance.
“I don’t know if I’d be right here if it wasn’t for my expertise taking part in for Coach McGraw and being at this establishment,” Duffy stated. “It’s such a constructive expertise. It actually propelled me to some extent to teach, to wish to train and mentor.”
Duffy is 110-45 at Marquette, making her the winningest coach by proportion in program historical past, and 154-65 total together with two years at Miami of Ohio.
She says she’s tried to glean from McGraw.
“She simply had that excellent steadiness of powerful love, that excellent steadiness of pushing you to your max and pushing you to a stage you by no means thought you had,” Duffy stated, “however on the similar time, she’d have her arm round you. She simply confirmed the love and help you want as a younger woman and younger girl to make it at this stage.”
Now Duffy’s gamers are singing her praises, too.
“Taking part in for Coach Duffy, you’re taking part in for a passionate head coach who actually loves the sport,” All-Large East second-team senior guard Jordan King stated Friday. “She actually trickles right down to us and has an important IQ for the sport. She’s taught us nice issues concerning the sport and about our particular person video games as nicely.”
Typically in a hands-on method.
“You realize, there’s not many head coaches that may get on the courtroom and truly present us the best way to do drills or like present us the best way to do a go typically,” All-Large East first-team senior ahead Liza Karlen added, “so it’s actually, actually cool to have a head coach that does that with us daily.”
Simply as Duffy was reflective Friday about her taking part in days at Notre Dame, she additionally shared particulars from her “COVID wedding ceremony” on campus in the summertime of 2020, when she married Kevin Hoyng, a former College of Dayton soccer assistant.
“We acquired into just a little little bit of a pickle when issues had been shutting down,” Duffy stated. “We had been speculated to get married again within the Dayton, Ohio space,” the place they’re each from.
Their meant venue and lots of others grew to become unavailable.
“We needed to discover a place — we’re just a little bit older and we gotta get this performed by some means,” Duffy recalled with a smile.
Finally, she contacted ND’s Basilica of the Sacred Coronary heart, the place different weddings had been being canceled.
“(Individuals) wait years to get married within the Basilica,” Duffy stated, “(however) a pair cancellations occurred, and I type of checked out my husband like, ‘You wanna do it?’ We walked down the aisle and we had possibly 25 complete folks. Take into consideration the Basilica (with an estimated capability of 1,000), and so they’re unfold out.
“We had been on the altar and we had been searching on the crowd, and all people’s masked up, and we’re simply type of taking a look at one another like, ‘Let’s create one of the best second we will.’ It was an outstanding afternoon. … Simply tried to make it as particular because it could possibly be with the circumstances. So it’s one thing we’ll always remember and only one extra added reminiscence concerning the place right here.”