Former Miami University women’s basketball head coach Megan Duffy signed a six-year contract to become Marquette’s women’s basketball head coach, athletic director Bill Scholl announced Wednesday morning.
The announcement comes after former head coach Carolyn Kieger left Marquette last Wednesday to become the next head coach at Penn State. Kieger took Marquette to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and three BIG EAST titles.
Scholl credited having the Women’s Final Four for making such a quick decision. He went with deputy athletic director Mike Broeker and executive associate athletic director Sarah Bobert to interview candidates in a small hotel room in Tampa.
Duffy led Miami to two Women’s National Invitation Tournament appearances during her tenure with the program. For the first time since the 1980s, the team had 20 wins in back-to-back seasons. She was the only female rookie coach in 2017-’18 to record 20 wins.
Before working as head coach at Miami from 2017-’19, Duffy served as an assistant coach at St. John’s University from 2009-’12, an associate head coach at George Washington University from 2012-’14 and an assistant coach at University of Michigan from 2014-’17.
“She coaches for the right reasons, utilizing basketball to help develop the women in her program and position them for success, both on and off the court,” Scholl said in a statement. “I am looking forward to working with her as we continue the great momentum we have established in women’s basketball.”
Duffy was a two-time Associated Press All-American as a player at Notre Dame and was a finalist for the John Wooden Award and the Nancy Lieberman Award in her senior season. Scholl was working at Notre Dame when Duffy was playing there.
“Megan Duffy is one of the bright young coaches in the women’s game,” Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw said via the Miami University website. “She is a great teacher with a high basketball IQ but, most importantly, she relates well with her players. Megan is ready for the challenge of being a head coach and I know she will be successful.”
She also played in the WNBA for the Minnesota Lynx and New York Liberty before playing overseas in Romania, Slovakia, Italy and Wales.
Scholl chose Duffy over several in-house candidates, such as Ginny Boggess, Vernette Skeete and Scott Merritt.
Duffy has not said whether Kieger’s previous staff will stay with Duffy at Marquette, but Pam Brown, who served as director of basketball operations under Kieger, will go to Happy Valley, per an Instagram post by a team spokesperson.
Duffy will have a young team to work with following the graduation of a six-person senior class that had five 1,000-point scorers. She also has to retain an eight-person recruiting class for next year. Shemera Williams has already reopened her commitment, but no other recruits have publicly done so.
