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EVENTS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
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My favorite time of the year
In 13 seasons as the head coach at Notre Dame, Muffet McGraw has led the Fighting Irish to seven NCAA tournament appearances. In 1997, Notre Dame went to its first Final Four, and in 1999-2000, recorded the best winning percentage in school history. The Fighting Irish are the No. 1 seed in the Midwest region of the NCAA tournament.. Check out McGraw's diary throughout the tournament on CNNSI.com.
March 19, 2001
If I ever quit coaching it will be on game day. The waiting for me is what I think purgatory must be like. (Hell would be having to watch game film of all of our losses). I wonder sometimes why God bestowed upon me the ability and passion to coach and forgot to add the patience to get me through the longest 30 days of the year. It's amazing how I can run the gamut of emotions during the day but once the game begins I feel so calm. My friends would say I am high energy, but even they would have trouble coming up with a positive word to describe my game face. I prefer "focused" but I know I'm not fooling anyone. Fortunately my team has grown accustomed to that face and it doesn't affect their preparation. We were rewarded for a great season with a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament -- the first in our program's history. You play the whole season just to get ready for March -- it's my favorite time of the year. What could be better than non-stop basketball? Everything is magnified, the team is more intense and all the little details become more important. This team has been focused all year, and they have prepared themselves well for the NCAA tournament. We are playing well and happy to be playing at home. Our crowds this year have been terrific and we have had two sellouts (11,418)! As I look at the NCAA tournament I see a lot of good teams. I think the fun part of the tournament is seeing who the Cinderella teams will be (and hoping they aren't in our bracket!). The women's tournament is not quite as upset prone as the men's, but eventually when we move to neutral sites it will be. Playing on St. Patrick's day was a lot of fun -- we painted our nails green and got to wear our green uniforms. Call it Luck of the Irish, but Alcorn State's road uniforms were gold and so are our home uniforms so the NCAA graciously allowed us to wear green. We'll keep the nail polish and maybe even a (washable) shamrock tattoo, and we always have our leprechaun with us. But hopefully we won't have to rely on luck!
-- Coach McGraw
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