Naismith women’s basketball coach of the year candidates

[Kat]

Naming finalists before the most important part of the season is finished is strange. COY should be whoever wins it all.

 

[HuskyNan]

Sportswriter for The Athletic.

It’s not just us.

 

[fomalhaut]

Moren should be the frontrunner, but leaving Auriemma off is beyond ridiculous. Any team with injuries like Connecticut might not even be in the NCAA tournament, much less regular season and tournament champion.

 

[fomalhaut]

Naming finalists before the most important part of the season is finished is strange. COY should be whoever wins it all.

I disagree. Staley should not win even if South Carolina wins. She's coaching the defending national champions with a virtually injury-free team. Indiana, Notre Dame, and some other team I'm forgetting have had very strong seasons with significant injury issues.

 

[triaddukefan]

Sportswriter from Maryland and USBWA voter

Actually he is Triangle based.. Born in Maryland.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Actually he is Triangle based.. Born in Maryland.

Kara Lawson should be on here.

 

[Hist-teacher]

Brooks from VT

 

[cancontent]

What about Shauna Green for Illinois? Talk about a significant turnaround.

 

[bballnut90]

I disagree. Staley should not win even if South Carolina wins. She's coaching the defending national champions with a virtually injury-free team. Indiana, Notre Dame, and some other team I'm forgetting have had very strong seasons with significant injury issues.

Her team has been the clear cut #1 team all year and better than everyone else. They're undefeated against the #3 SOS while the #2 in the country has 6 losses right now. I'd probably pick Moren but Dawn would absolutely deserve it if she won. She's done a heck of a job this year and I think you could argue this is her best coaching job yet.

And keep in mind, Geno has won many COY awards when he's had more talent than anyone else in the country and minimal health issues. Overcoming adversity isn't a requirement for winning the award, though I agree it should be taken into consideration. The only times he hasn't won COY during an undefeated season is when another team had an undefeated regular season as well (Nebraska in 2010, Notre Dame in 2014, Mississippi State in 2018).

 

[Dillon77]

What about Shauna Green for Illinois? Talk about a significant turnaround.

Did an absolutely fantastic job in her first year. The team leveled off/came back to earth a bit during the grueling B1G schedule, which might be one reason why she's not on the list.

 

[#1florida]

Dawn!

 

[tomcat]

I'd go with Moren, Brooks and Dillon.

 

[Jackcatscal]

I’m a little surprised that no one has mentioned Tara VanDerveer.

 

[darrell]

I’m a little surprised that no one has mentioned Tara VanDerveer.

Shared the Pac’s regular season title and couldn’t win the tourney title with the best roster in the P-12. A bit of an underperformance, imo. South Carolina should’ve been their only loss.

 

[bballnut90]

I’m a little surprised that no one has mentioned Tara VanDerveer.

She hasn't done a great job this year IMO. Her squad should be the clear cut #2 team in the country and shouldn't have 5 losses.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

...
As far as Geno. 5 losses to him is like 12 to anyone else. He always talks about the expectations at UCONN for a player are very high, will they are for him too. He did a good job this year for sure but no worthy of COA consideration. But then again neither is Vic.

Expectations do not diminish performance. If anything, expectations inhibit performance.

Lombardi said fatigue makes cowards of us all. Fatigue, also, makes losers of us all. This team played games with the minimum players required. This team had a game postponed because the minimum players required weren't physically able to play. The postponed game had to be rescheduled into an already crowded schedule contributing to fatigue, which, when paired with expectations, contributes to injury which contributes to fatigue which contributes to losses.

Coach Auriemma had a year worthy of inclusion on the list. Those that compiled the list do no one a favor by leaving him off.

 

[FormerCTrez]

I think it should be Moren or Brooks. BUT, with 10 candidates to choose from, it is absolutely a joke Geno isn't there. I didn't expect him to win, but not to be recognized with what he went through this year is a slap in the face. Lets win this thing and finish what we started.

I concur with you!!

 

[southofnorth]

And you know he won't be on it next year either because everyone will say a senior laden team that has Paige, Azzi, Aubrey, Nika, Aaliyah, and Caroline is expected to go 39-0 and win the national championship.

This is exactly why Dawn shouldn’t be on the list this year; she had too much returning talent to NOT win. I’d also say Mulkey has not played a schedule worthy of COY and she even admitted she made an easy schedule based on who she thought she had coming in/back this year.

 

[hard2please]

how do you choose coy without waiting for ncaa championship?

 

[cancontent]

how do you choose coy without waiting for ncaa championship?

How does any league (professional/amateur)?

 

[hoopsfan22]

How does any league (professional/amateur)?

Beats me, but shouldn't a team or coach's season be considered in totality for season awards and not just the season ex-the final 3-4 weeks?

 

[HuskyNan]

how do you choose coy without waiting for ncaa championship?

The award is supposed to be for the season. Some teams might underachieve seriously in the season then get a Cinderella run through the tourney. Would the coach deserve Coach of the Year for six games?

 

[cancontent]

Beats me, but shouldn't a team or coach's season be considered in totality for season awards and not just the season ex-the final 3-4 weeks?

It's a fair question to ask and I'm sure it's been asked a lot ever since this type of award came into existence. And @HuskyNan's reply makes a good point. It's hard to consider a coach of a Cinderella team during the NCAA tournament being the coach of the year if their team underperformed during the regular season.

 

[hoopsfan22]

It's a fair question to ask and I'm sure it's been asked a lot ever since this type of award came into existence. And @HuskyNan's reply makes a good point. It's hard to consider a coach of a Cinderella team during the NCAA tournament being the coach of the year if their team underperformed during the regular season.

But at least you could consider the tourney run while currently you cannot. There likely would not be enough votes to push the cinderella's coach to the top spot in such a scenario anyway. That's a corner case being used to defeat common sense that the season in totality should be considered. Unless we are saying the voters simply aren't smart enough to see such unlikely scenarios for what they are?

 

[cancontent]

But at least you could consider the tourney run while currently you cannot. There likely would not be enough votes to push the cinderella's coach to the top spot in such a scenario anyway. That's a corner case being used to defeat common sense that the season in totality should be considered. Unless we are saying the voters simply aren't smart enough to see such unlikely scenarios for what they are?

1) I'm not saying they shouldn't consider, but that's not how it works here or in a lot of sports. And there could be an issue with people remembering what happened recently and forgetting what happened over the course of the season.

2) We'd be saying this for a lot of Coach/Player of the Year award in most sports.

Take the NFL for a comparison. Brian Daboll won over Sean McDermott, Doug Pederson, Kyle Shanahan, and Nick Siranni. Daboll earned it for getting an anemic Giants team to the play-offs, yet Siranni took his team to the Superbowl. Andy Reid who won the Superbowl wasn't even in the running.

Daboll's work was impressive considering no one saw the Giants making the play-offs, let alone having a winning season. If the play-offs were considered, his success could have been overshadowed by Siranni and Reid because their teams made it to the Superbowl.