Winners
Pat Summitt of Tennessee holds more awards (5) than any other female coach.
Geno Auriemma of UConn has won the award a record eight times.
| Awarded for | the most outstanding men's and women's basketball head coaches in NCAA Division I |
|---|---|
| Presented by | Atlanta Tipoff Club |
| History | |
| First award | 1987 |
| Most recent | Dan Hurley, UConn (men) Dawn Staley, South Carolina (women) |
The Naismith College Coach of the Year Award (officially known for sponsorship reasons as the Werner Ladder Naismith College Coach of the Year) [1] is an award given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to one men's and one women's NCAA Division I collegiate coach each season since 1987. The award was originally given to the two winning coaches of the NCAA Division I basketball tournament for the first two years of its existence; in 1989, the Naismith Award's governing board decided to give it out via voting process.
The men's side has had five multiple winners: John Calipari and Mike Krzyzewski with three each, and Tony Bennett, Mark Few, and Jay Wright with two each.
The women's side has also had five multiple winners: Geno Auriemma with eight; Pat Summitt with five; Dawn Staley with four; and Muffet McGraw and Tara VanDerveer with three each.
| * | Denotes coaches inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame |
| Coach (#) | Denotes the number of times the coach has won the award at that point |
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and preserving the history of basketball. Dedicated to Canadian-American physician James Naismith, who invented the sport in Springfield, the Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 1959, before opening its first facility on February 17, 1968.
The Big Ten Conference is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1896, it predates the founding of its regulating organization, the NCAA. It is based in the Chicago area in Rosemont, Illinois. For many decades the conference consisted of 10 prominent universities, which accounts for its name. As of 2014, it consists of 14 member institutions and 2 affiliate institutions, with 4 new member institutions scheduled to join in 2024. The conference competes in the NCAA Division I and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport.
The Naismith College Player of the Year is an annual basketball award given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to the top men's and women's collegiate basketball players. It is named in honor of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball.
Luigi "Geno" Auriemma is an Italian-born American college basketball coach and, since 1985, the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team. As of 2021, he has led UConn to 17 undefeated conference seasons, of which six were undefeated overall seasons, with 11 NCAA Division I national championships, the most in women's college basketball history, and has won eight national Naismith College Coach of the Year awards. Auriemma was the head coach of the United States women's national basketball team from 2009 through 2016, during which time his teams won the 2010 and 2014 World Championships, and gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, going undefeated in all four tournaments. Auriemma was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
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The NABC Player of the Year is an award given annually by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) to recognize the top player in men's college basketball across the three largest college athletic associations in the United States. The award has been given since the 1974–75 season to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I basketball players, and since the 1982–83 season to its Division II and Division III players. The award has been given since the 2007–08 season to National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and to two-year schools' players. The awards have previously been sponsored by State Farm Insurance.
The Nancy Lieberman Award, named for Basketball Hall of Fame legend Nancy Lieberman, was given annually by the Rotary Club of Detroit in the Award's first 14 years to the nation's top collegiate point guard in women's Division I basketball. Sue Bird won the inaugural award in 2000, making her the first of only three players to have won three Lieberman Awards. Paige Bueckers is the first freshman to win the award in 2021, and only three players have won as sophomores —Bird in 2000 and the other two three-time winners, Sabrina Ionescu in 2018 and Caitlin Clark in 2022.
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association is an association of coaches of women's basketball teams at all levels.
The 2012–13 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began in November and ended with the Final Four in New Orleans, April 7–9.
The Pac-12 Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year is a basketball award given to the Pac-12 Conference's most outstanding player. The award was first given following the 1986–87 season, the first year in which the league then known as the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) officially sponsored women's sports.
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The 2019–20 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began in November 2019 and concluded prematurely on March 12, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was scheduled to end at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 5, 2020, but was ultimately canceled. All other postseason tournaments were canceled as well. It was the first cancellation in the history of the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. Practices officially began in late September 2019.
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