Ruth Riley

Ruth Ellen Riley Hunter (born August 28, 1979) is a retired American professional basketball player (a center), playing most recently for the Atlanta Dream in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).

In 1999, Riley led the nation in field goal percentage shooting 68.3% to become the first Irish player to rank first in an NCAA statistical category.

In addition, she was the 2000-01 Verizon Academic All-American of the Year for the University Division I.

The only player in Notre Dame women's basketball history to score 2,000 career points and grab 1,000 career rebounds, Riley was a two-time first-team Academic All-American in both 2000 and '01.

Her Notre Dame team won the NCAA women's championship in 2001, and her Detroit Shock team won the WNBA championship in 2003 and 2006.

Riley was the Most Valuable Player in the 2001 and 2003 championship series, becoming the first person to win the MVP awards in both the NCAA and the WNBA championships.

The highlight of her college career came in the 2001 NCAA tournament.

In the championship game, Notre Dame was trailing Purdue, 66–64, when Riley scored the tying field goal.

Then, with 5.8 seconds left and the score still tied, Riley drew a foul.

She made both free throws to give Notre Dame its final 68–66 edge and its first women's national championship.

Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw, when asked about the critical play on which Riley was fouled, said, "it's the same play we've been running all season. It's called: 'Get the ball to Ruth.'" Riley was the Most Outstanding Player of that year's Final Four.

Riley graduated from Notre Dame in 2001 with a degree in psychology, having made the Dean's List every semester.

She finished her Notre Dame career with 2,072 points, and school records for rebounds (1,007), blocked shots (370), and field goal percentage (.632).

Source

Bachelor of Arts - Psychology - Magna Cum Laude - University of Notre Dame (2001)

On April 20, 2001, Riley was selected by the Miami Sol as the fifth overall pick in the 2001 WNBA draft.

She came off the bench for the first 12 games.

On July 1, she made her first professional start, on the road against the Los Angeles Sparks, and started for the rest of the season.

Her second season (2002) was a difficult one.

After playing well in the preseason, she broke a finger the day before the regular season started.

She could not play for the Sol's first several games – the first time in her career she had missed a game because of an injury.

She returned, playing with a splint on her hand, but lost her starting spot.

During the WNBA's off-season, she played in Valencia, Spain.

She has also played on teams that won the National Women's Basketball League (NWBL) championship, the gold medal at the Olympic Games, and the 2010 EuroCup Championship.

In March 2016, Riley participated in Mogul's IAmAMogul campaign for inspiring women to believe that they have the "power to shape the world through their voices and actions."

She was the general manager for the San Antonio Stars from May 2016 until the team's sale and relocation to Las Vegas in the 2017–18 off-season.

In 2022, she joined the Miami Heat front office as the Senior Director of Team Development.

Riley was born in Ransom, Kansas and grew up in Macy, Indiana.

She has always been tall, measuring 25 in at birth, and six feet (1.83 m) by the time she was 12 years old.

While attending North Miami Middle/High School outside Denver, Indiana, she was on the basketball, volleyball and track teams.

It was in high school that she began her practice of wearing a headband while playing.

During her four years at high school she scored 1,372 points, acquired 1,011 rebounds and blocked 427 shots.

She averaged 26 points a game as a senior, and had her jersey number (25) retired by the high school.

In her freshman year at Notre Dame, Riley played in all 32 of the team's games, starting in the final 26.

Thereafter she was the starting center in all but one of Notre Dame's games.

She was a mainstay of the team in all four years, and consistently ranked high in the nation among women basketball players in field goal percentage and blocked shots.

In both her junior and senior years she was an Associated Press First Team All-American selection.

As a senior, she won the Naismith Award and was the Associated Press Player of the Year.

Executive MBA –Magna Cum Laude - University of Notre Dame (2016)

In 2019, Riley was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.