Mary Ellen Murphy (born December 12, 1957) is a basketball analyst who calls college and WNBA games for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, BTN, and

Pac-12 Network The Pac-12 Network (P12N), sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks, was an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities were headquartere ...

and select high school games for Comcast SportsNet California and

Comcast SportsNet Bay Area NBC Sports Bay Area (sometimes abbreviated as NBCS Bay Area) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and the San Francisco Giants, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquar ...

. She has also worked with FSN.

Early life

Murphy was born and raised in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. She kept to her Chicago roots and attended

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

from 1977 to 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.

Coaching career

After graduating from college, Murphy served as a student graduate assistant at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

for three seasons while earning a master's degree in business administration. She then moved to Notre Dame as an assistant coach for two year. Murphy was hired as head coach at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

in 1986. 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. Over eight seasons Murphy compiled an 87–135 record at Wisconsin. 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 were eventually dropped by the courts. After leaving Wisconsin, Murphy became the head coach at Cal State Hayward from 1995 to 1996. Murphy left college coaching to become the first head coach and the general manager of the WNBA's

Sacramento Monarchs The Sacramento Monarchs were a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. They played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 until folding on November 20, 2009. They played their home games at ARCO Aren ...

in 1997. 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.

Broadcasting

Upon being let go by the Monarchs, Murphy was hired by Brian Donlon, Lifetime Television's vice president of sports and executive producer, to be part of its WNBA broadcast team along with Michele Tafoya and Reggie Miller. Murphy started with her own halftime feature, "Murphy's Law" before joining Miller and Tafoya as a game analyst. When Lifetime ended its WNBA broadcasts in 1999, Murphy moved to ESPN for women's NCAA 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, select Pac-12 games, and as color analyst for the

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. The team plays its home games at Crypto.co ...

on Spectrum SportsNet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Mary 1957 births Basketball coaches from Illinois College basketball announcers in the United States Living people Sacramento Monarchs coaches Women's college basketball announcers in the United States Women's National Basketball Association media American women's basketball coaches Women's National Basketball Association announcers