I wouldn't have credited Dawn with COY this year. She has a roster that is by far the most talented and deepest in WCBB. Her second string is arguably more talented than the starters. And next year, even losing Cardozo, she will have an even more talented and formidable team. She has certainly recruited, and for years, the best talent in the nation. Recruiting is certainly a key metric of coaching, so hats off to her on that point. But she really didn't have to do much coaching after she'd finished recruiting.
By contrast, Bluder did have to coach the heck out of her team. She had a superstar, but surrounded with ordinary players without height. It took a tremendous coach to get that crew to the Final Four.
And Coach Geno's task of taking a team that had lost six of its best nine players to injury represents a coaching masterpiece. He got to the Final Four by starting two freshmen, both well regarded, but not superstars, plus a redshirt freshman forward who had incurred a devastating injury before her freshman year, and whose performance was arguably hobbled much of the season.
The voters appear to have gone with the undefeated season that Dawn Staley achieved. That is, undeniably, a tremendous achievement. But were I a voter, I would have gone with either Bluder o rAuriemma. They had the far more difficult task in getting where they are today.