National Coach of the Year?

[Vowelguy]

My picks:

1. Staley
2. Rueck
3. Bang hart
4. Bozzella
5. Turner-Thorne
6. Mulkey
7. Frese
8. Semrau
9. Tspsis
10. Stollings

 

[VAUConnFan]

The Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year Award, which has been awarded since 1987, has almost exclusively been awarded to coaches whose teams have gone into the NCAA Tournament as #1 seeds. The only exceptions occurred in 1987, 1988, 1992, 1993, and 1996 when the award went to coaches with #2 seeded teams. Number 1 seeded tournament coaches are currently on a 18 year consecutive win streak. There is no reason to believe that streak will be broken this year. While it would be nice if the award went to some of the coaches being considered in this thread, it does not appear very likely.

Geno Auriemma, a six time winner of the award, should not be discounted merely because his teams met expectations. His awards came in 1995, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2008, and 2009; All with great teams.
Dawn Staley will likely win because her team met expectations; Did not collapse or suffer a lapse.
Kim Mulkey is to be admired for maintaining a top level program in the wake of major superstar graduations with a team of lesser stars.
Muffet McGraw should give Niele Ivey a raise and elevate her to associate head coach. Coach McGraw's teams just continue to impress with superstar guard after superstar guard. (As a side note, given Ms Ivey's recruiting prowess, why not put her on the fantasy short list of Coach Auriemma's successors?)
Brenda Frese has pretty much tempered the Boneyard criticisms of her coaching ability with her team's Final Four appearance last year and the performance of this year's Lady Terrapin team post Alyssa Thomas; My darkhorse choice as NCOY.
Holly Warlick has done an outstanding job returning prominence to the Lady Vol program. If they continue to excel in Isabelle Harrison's absence, Coach Warlick will have a strong case.
Jeff Walz is turning in yet another stellar performance at the helm of the Cardinals. However, I do not like his chances.
Scott Rueck at Oregon State has done an outstanding job and will likely be the runner up in the voting; Likely as a result of playing in the Pac 12. Unseating this year's Stanford team does not score to many style points.
I fully agree with those who like the job Sue Semrau is doing at Florida State this year.
Beyond the current Top 8 teams and probable 1 and 2 seeds, one has to, at least, take a look at the coaches of Arizona State, Iowa, Mississippi State, Princeton, Chattanooga, and Florida Gulf Coast.

Dawn Staley is the choice among a number of worthy candidates; Augmenting an already impressive basketball resume.

 

[VAUConnFan]

IMO, Coach Auriemma did his best job at Connecticut coaching the 2006 team followed by 2003.

 

[rugbymate]

Should win: Banghart
Will win: Staley

Banghart has the same rules, scholarship constraints of the other Ivies and she has so outdistanced her program from that group. Her Margin of victory is third in the country and only behind UCONN and USC. Her overall execution of recruiting training and mentoring in an environment of obstacles that other Div 1 programs don't have is in a way, Genoesque.

 

[Bigpetunia]

I vote, as always, for Coach P!!

 

[Buzzyboy]

Her team was a 1 seed last year. This year she expected to vie for a NC. Getting completely destroyed by UCONN indicates what a huge gap there is between UCONN and everyone else. If SC had beaten UCONN, I'd say she'd be right up there in the conversation. But the award is not given out because a "coach improved every year". It's "coach of the year", not "coach of the past few years"...

But heck, 1 "voter" felt SC was the #1 team in the nation so there's obviously no accounting for logic in the way the voters actually vote.

BTW I was wrong. SC was actually #2 preseason in both AP and Coaches. They were "expected" to be a great team this year. The fact that they have one loss while not really beating a top 10 team this season (unless you count Duke and Kentucky who are percolating around the top 10), it's not like they beat UCONN, ND, Baylor, Louisville, Maryland, Oregon State and FSU.

Note, I'm NOT saying they don't deserve to be ranked #2 - they totally do, BUT to imply that Dawn has done something "incredible" or "magically surprising" this year is just not correct. And IMHO NCOY should be for a coach who did way better than expected, or overcame serious obstacles (injuries, etc), to get their team near the top . Aside from getting crushed by UCONN, SC is about exactly what everyone expected of them this year (except maybe a tad less impressive - a 1 point miracle win over Duke is not exactly impressive)...

Preseason, FSU was ranked #37, and Oregon State wasn't even in the top 50. To me, it's amazing what those 2 schools have accomplished this season - far more than UCONN or SC or ND or any of those schools "expected" to be in the top 5 or 10. Princeton is another school, who, even tho they had an easy schedule, are undefeated and not ranked in the top 50 preseason. That's why I picked those 3 schools over a program like SC who was already expected to be there.

Coach of the year is supposed to be for this specific year and not "what she's done for the program over the past several years" type of thing. That's silly. Geno would have the perpetual Coach of the Year if that's what you voted on. Who had less than UConn when he arrived on campus. As you've mentioned, she's done a nice job and her team has performed pretty close to expectations but they were GIVEN that game against Duke earlier this year and absolutely did nothing to really win that game for 38 minutes and even in the last 30 seconds, Duke had to choke to death for them to win the game. I agree that there are at least a few coaches who are far more deserving and I think where FSU has come from says that their coach deserves serious consideration as does the Princeton coach and Oregon State coach. In big games over the last couple of years, SC has fallen short and that should mean something, as well.

 

[Intpseeker]

I vote, as always, for Coach P!!

It's the shoes, right?

 

[watanabe]

Coach McCallie. She never did anything wrong.

 

[UcMiami]

Coach McCallie. She never did anything wrong.

And we have her word for it!

 

[Striper69]

Should win: Banghart
Will win: Staley

Banghart has the same rules, scholarship constraints of the other Ivies and she has so outdistanced her program from that group. Her Margin of victory is third in the country and only behind UCONN and USC. Her overall execution of recruiting training and mentoring in an environment of obstacles that other Div 1 programs don't have is in a way, Genoesque.

Remember she's (Banghart) doing this with outstanding students who have to meet demanding academic standards. Unlike a lot of other programs whose students may take the easy road and mostly want to play basketball on scholarship.

She could've left her starters in and run up the score but she operates like Geno and starts putting reserves in when the team gets ahead.

 

[Orangutan]

Muffet McGraw should give Niele Ivey a raise and elevate her to associate head coach. Coach McGraw's teams just continue to impress with superstar guard after superstar guard. (As a side note, given Ms Ivey's recruiting prowess, why not put her on the fantasy short list of Coach Auriemma's successors?)
B

I'm all for Niele getting rewarded for her fantastic work, but Carol Owens already has the associate head coach title.

 

[VAUConnFan]

I'm all for Niele getting rewarded for her fantastic work, but Carol Owens already has the associate head coach title.

Ms Owens has done fantastic job at Notre Dame without question and is deserving of her position. Notre Dame has had some very good post players over the years for which Coach Owens is responsible. Timing being what it is, had Notre Dame's roster boasted an elite post player to go along with their elite guards, they might have pulled off a theft or two similar to 2001( I refer to 2001 as a theft because, despite Notre Dame's overwhelming victory earlier that season, UConn 2001, in my mind, will always be the better team that lost).

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Ms Owens has done fantastic job at Notre Dame without question and is deserving of her position. Notre Dame has had some very good post players over the years for which Coach Owens is responsible. Timing being what it is, had Notre Dame's roster boasted an elite post player to go along with their elite guards, they might have pulled off a theft or two similar to 2001( I refer to 2001 as a theft because, despite Notre Dame's overwhelming victory earlier that season, UConn 2001, in my mind, will always be the better team that lost).

VAUConnFan- - - -So true! Geno has always maintained the 2000-2001 team that lost Svet & Shea was the best team ever in WCBB! ND ought to thank God on bended knee for the title UCONN gave them! Otherwise Muffett would be crying she doesn't get any respect!