Dawn Staley Headlines 2022 Naismith Women’s Coach of the Year Late-Season Watch List
South Carolina's Dawn Staley is among the 15 coaches on the late-season watch list for the Naismith Women's Coach of the Year award.
The Gamecocks sit atop both the Associated Press Top 25 and Coaches Poll after having compiled a 23-1 record.
Tara VanDerveer, the reigning Naismith Coach of the Year and a three-time winner, is still in the hunt as well with her Stanford Cardinal the No. 2 team in the country.
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Naismith Women's Coach of the Year Late-Season Watch List
- Jennie Baranczyk, Oklahoma
- Adia Barnes, Arizona
- Kim Barnes-Arico, Michigan
- Bill Fennelly, Iowa State
- Kelly Rae Finley, Florida
- Nell Fortner, Georgia Tech
- Kellie Harper, Tennessee
- Jeff Judkins, BYU
- Wes Moore, North Carolina State
- Teri Moren, Indiana
- Kim Mulkey, LSU
- Karl Smesko, Florida Gulf Coast
- Dawn Staley, South Carolina
- Tara VanDerveer, Stanford
- Jeff Walz, Louisville
South Carolina opened with a road win over North Carolina State and hasn't looked back from there. The Gamecocks have piled up nine more victories over Top 25 opponents. Five of those were by double digits.
There's no question Staley's squad has solidified its status as the championship favorite this March, with double-double machine Aliyah Boston the front-runner for every major player of the year award.
The question is how the Coach of the Year voters determine the bar for success. Will Staley get the nod based on South Carolina's dominance, or will it be a coach who is judged to have overachieved the most?
In the case of the latter, Kim Mulkey might leapfrog the rest of the field. After winning nine games last year, LSU is 21-4 in Mulkey's first season at the helm.
The school made a major statement by poaching the legendary coach from Baylor, and her hiring is paying immediate dividends.
Along the same lines, Oklahoma could double its win total after going 12-12 and missing the NCAA tournament in 2020-21. The Sooners have wins over Texas and BYU and a sweep of Baylor on their 2021-22 resume, and they can avenge their 81-71 loss to Iowa State when the teams meet again Saturday.
Sherri Coale left big shoes to fill when she retired, and Jennie Baranczyk has immediately turned Oklahoma into a tournament team again.
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