Mary Murphy (basketball)

Mary Murphy (born December 12, 1957) is a basketball analyst who calls college and WNBA games for ESPN, BTN, and Pac-12 Network and select high school games for Comcast SportsNet California and Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. She has also worked with FSN.

Early life

Murphy was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She kept to her Chicago roots and attended Northwestern University from 1977-1980, acting as a two-year captain for the women's basketball team. During her senior season, Murphy was a finalist for the Wade Trophy as one of the top players in the nation.^[1]

Coach Murphy

Upon graduation, Murphy got into coaching. She would serve as a student graduate assistant at the University of Notre Dame for three seasons while she got her master's in business administration. An additional two years as a staff assistant at Notre Dame followed before Murphy was hired as head coach at University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1986-1994.^[2] In 1992 she led the Badgers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance, compiling a 20-9 overall record and a 13-5 conference record in the Big Ten.^[3] Over her eight seasons Murphy would compile an 87-135 record at Wisconsin and have only one winning season, but her time at Wisconsin was not without controversy. At least one player sued Murphy claiming she had caused her emotional harm and caused her to leave the team. The charges would later be dropped by the courts.^[4] After leaving Wisconsin, Murphy became the head coach at Cal State Hayward from 1995-1996.^[5]

Murphy would leave the college level of coaching to become the first head coach and the general manager of the Sacramento Monarchs in 1997.^[6] Murphy would coach the team for the first 15 games, compiling a 5-10 record, before being fired in the midst of a 5-game losing streak that dropped the Monarchs from first to third in their division.^[7][8]

Broadcasting

Eventually Murphy would leave coaching behind and become a basketball analyst. ESPN would bring Murphy on board for women's tournament games and WNBA broadcasts while FOX would bring her on board to call the Pac-12 women's games on FSN in the early 2000s. Others would follow suit. In 2007 Murphy was hired as one of BTN's announcers, and in 2012 she was hired as an analyst for Pac-12 Network. Today Murphy continues to act as an analyst for first round NCAA women's tournament games on ESPN, girls high school championship broadcasts on Comcast, Monday Night's BTN game of the week, and select Pac-12 games.

References

1. "Former Wildcat Mary Murphy Joins Big Ten Network Women's Basketball Analyst Team: Two-time team captain and Wade Trophy finalist teams with Vera Jones and Stephanie White in providing analysis, insight and first-hand knowledge of Big Ten Women's Basketball".
2. "Wisconsin`s Murphy Still Winning, Except At Her Old Nu Home".
3. "Talent Profile: Mary Murphy, Women's Basketball Game Analyst, Big Ten Network".
4. "Murphy's lawyers want suit dropped".
5. "The NCAA Record: August 4, 1997".
6. "Women coaches given many early opportunities".
7. "Monarchs 2nd Wnba Team To Replace Coach".
8. "Monarchs fire GM-coach Murphy, tab VanDerveer as replacement".