Geno Auriemma, Dawn Staley Headline 2026 Women's College Coach of the Year Semifinalists

Prior to the start of the NCAA tournament, the Atlanta Tipoff Club has narrowed down its list of candidates for the 2026 Women's College Coach of the Year award to 10 semifinalists.

The list was released on Thursday, led by Connecticut's Geno Auriemma and UCLA's Cori Close.

2026 Naismith Women's Coach of the Year Semifinalists

• Geno Auriemma, Connecticut
• Kim Barnes Arico, Michigan
• Cori Close, UCLA
• Krista Gerlich, Texas Tech
• Jan Jensen, Iowa
• Kara Lawson, Duke
• Shea Ralph, Vanderbilt
• Tammi Reiss, Rhode Island
• Vic Schaefer, Texas
• Dawn Staley, South Carolina

Auriemma has won the award a record eight times already, but he has not received it since the 2016-17 season. This might be his best chance to end that drought after leading the Huskies to a perfect 34-0 record and the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

UConn's plus-38.3 point differential per game is nearly five full points better than the No. 2 team in the country (LSU: 33.6). Those are the only two teams with an average point differential over 30.0.

The primary challenger to Connecticut for the top seed in the tournament was UCLA, led by head coach Cori Close. She led the Bruins to a 31-1 record and a dominant run through the Big Ten tournament, capped off with a 96-45 win over Iowa in the title game.

One big argument in favor of Close, who won this award last year, over Auriemma is opponent quality. UCLA had the sixth-hardest strength of schedule and played an NCAA-high 20 quad one games, winning 19 of them.

By comparison, Connecticut had just nine games against quad-one opponents. It played nearly as many games against quad-four opponents (13) as quad one and two teams combined (14).

Another semifinalist who could benefit from strength of schedule is South Carolina's Dawn Staley. The Gamecocks went 31-3 against the hardest overall schedule in the country, including the fifth-hardest non-conference schedule.

Despite coming up short in the SEC title game, losing 78-61 to Texas, South Carolina earned the final No. 1 seed in the tournament field thanks to an outstanding resume that includes a regular-season win over the Longhorns and two victories over LSU.

This could also be the year to reward Shea Ralph for the job she has done building up the Vanderbilt program. She was hired in April 2021 when the Commodores were on a run of five consecutive losing seasons and no tournament appearances since 2014.

After going 28-38 in her first two seasons, Ralph has led Vandy to at least 20 wins and the NCAA tournament in each of the past three years. The Commodores' 27 victories so far this season are their most since 2006-07 (28-6).

The four finalists will be announced next week, with the winner being revealed prior to the Final Four.