Former Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Muffet McGraw has revealed the details of Caitlin Clark’s departure from her program during the star’s 2019 recruiting process.
McGraw appeared on the “Good Game With Sarah Spain” podcast Tuesday and said that if Clark followed through on her commitment to Notre Dame, then McGraw could remain the coach there. McGraw retired from coaching in April 2020, just months before Clark’s freshman year.
“I might still be coaching if Caitlin Clark came to Notre Dame,” McGraw said.
McGraw says he received a verbal commitment from Clark to play at Notre Dame, but he was never sure.
“She committed to us, but I got the feeling that it was a soft commitment when she did it, because she couldn’t decide, she couldn’t decide,” McGraw said. “And finally she said, ‘I want to come.’ But it wasn’t like, ‘I’m coming!’ It was like, ‘I made the decision.'”
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Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw reacts on the sideline against UConn during the Women’s Final Four at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida on April 5, 2019. (Jasen Vinlove-USA Today Sports)
Then, after a tense and dramatic wait, McGraw found out she would miss Clark, who announced her commitment to Iowa on Nov. 12, 2019.
“After that, we waited and waited for her to announce it, because as you know, we can’t announce anything. The players have to do it themselves,” McGraw said. “So she made the announcement a long time after that, and I kept asking ‘When is it coming out?’ And then when he made the announcement, he was going to Iowa. But, of course, he called me to tell me.”
McGraw’s retirement came shortly after the end of the 2019-20 season, five months after he found out he would not coach Clark, ending a 33-year career that included two national championships in 2001 and 2018.
McGraw went on to call Clark’s withdrawal from his program in favor of Iowa “probably a pretty good decision.”
Clark formerly he told ESPN that her own family wanted her to play for the Fighting Irish.
“My family wanted me to go to Notre Dame,” Caitlin said. “At the end of the day they told me you make the decision for yourself. But it’s Notre Dame! ‘Rudy’ was one of my favorite movies. How could you not choose Notre Dame?”
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Iowa guard Caitlin Clark applauds during the Big Ten women’s basketball championship against Nebraska at Target Center on March 10, 2024 in Minneapolis. (Angelina Katsanis/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Clark then spoke about his experience visiting Notre Dame and his consideration of playing for the Fighting Irish during an interview on the “New Heights” podcast on Jan. 2. He said he ultimately made the decision not to play there because of a feeling in his gut.
“I felt it in my gut, I thought, ‘Ahh, I’m not supposed to go there,'” Clark said.
“Basically, from the beginning, when I was doing my college recruiting, I realized that I wanted to be like in the Midwest, just a homebody. A family person. I just wanted to be pretty close to home. So that narrowed down a lot. “of things below.”
Clark then played his entire four-year collegiate career for the Hawkeyes, where he broke multiple program and NCAA records, including the all-time leading scoring record among all college basketball players, men or women, in the history.
Clark also met her current boyfriend, Connor McCaffery., while at Iowa. McCaffery played on the Iowa men’s basketball team for his father, head coach Fran McCaffery.
Caitlin Clark dribbles down the court at the All Iowa Attack Basketball Fieldhouse on April 22, 2017, in Ames, Iowa. (Luke Lu/Diamond Images via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, without Clark, Notre Dame did well, but not as well as Iowa. Under the leadership of current head coach Niele Ivey, the Fighting Irish made the NCAA tournament three years in a row between 2021 and 2024, but They lost in the regional semifinal all three times, while Clark led much deeper tournaments in 2023 and 2024.
Clark led Iowa to two consecutive national championship game appearances, en route to becoming the Indiana Fever’s No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. McCaffery was already in Indiana working on the Pacers’ coaching staff, and they are still together in town, as he now works on Butler’s men’s basketball coaching staff.
Clark was named WNBA Rookie of the Year, was selected to the All-Star team, led the WNBA in assists and helped lead the fever to the playoffs in his rookie season.
Clark was also named Time Magazine’s 2024 Athlete of the Year.
