Riley Edges Stiles as Player of Year

Ruth Riley remembers watching Notre Dame in the 1997 Final Four as an eager recruit and wishing she could be there playing.

Thanks in large measure to Riley’s contributions, Notre Dame is in another Final Four and this time, she’ll get her wish.

Riley received the Associated Press player-of-the-year award Thursday as part of a sweep for the Irish. Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw was named coach of the year.

Tonight, the Irish play Connecticut in the national semifinals.

McGraw had already signed Riley when she took Notre Dame on its ’97 trip to Cincinnati. It made quite an impression on the 6-foot-5 center watching back in Macy, Ind.

“It was so exciting to watch knowing that was where I was going to go,” Riley said. “You just can’t help but wish that you were a year older and be a part of that already. But I think it showed a lot of potential. It showed me that was possible for where I was going.”

Riley edged Southwest Missouri State’s Jackie Stiles for the player award and became the first player from a school other than Connecticut or Tennessee to receive the AP honor, which was started in 1995.

McGraw, in her 14th season at Notre Dame, was an overwhelming choice in the voting by AP member newspapers.

“I just look at my staff and think, I know I’ve got the best staff in the country,” McGraw said.

Riley, who averages 18.4 points, 7.7 rebounds and three blocks, received 30 votes, while Stiles had 26.

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Geno Auriemma, the Connecticut coach, was interrupted at a news conference by a reporter who tripped trying to find his seat and crashed heavily to the floor.

Auriemma pointed to the embarrassed scribe and quipped: “I hope Notre Dame plays like that tomorrow night.”

This might be Auriemma’s best season of coaching. This is his fifth Final Four and he did it without two first-team All-Americans. Seniors Shea Ralph and Svetlana Abrosimova suffered season-ending injuries, with Ralph’s coming in the Big East tournament championship game victory over Notre Dame.

The teams have both been ranked No. 1 this season and split their two games.

Connecticut was atop the rankings Jan. 15 when Notre Dame beat the Huskies at South Bend, 92-76. Connecticut evened it, 78-76, to win the Big East.

It’s also a rematch of two of the nation’s best point guards, Notre Dame’s Niele Ivey and Connecticut’s Sue Bird.

Said Ivey Wednesday: “Bird is an amazing point guard and she is a huge challenge for me. But I love a challenge.”

In 1982, when Coach Pat Summitt took Tennessee to the first women’s Final Four, 37 media members showed up to watch along with the 9,531 spectators who paid $7 to get in.

This year, the 20th anniversary of that first Final Four weekend, there are more than 600 media members in St. Louis to chronicle the event for the thousands who lost out on a chance to spend $100 for a ticket.

Staff Writer Earl Gustkey contributed to this story.