South Carolina Basketball: Dawn Staley named semifinalist for Naismith Coach of the Year award

In the least surprising news you’ll hear all day, South Carolina basketball’s head coach was named a semifinalist for the Naismith National Women’s Coach of the Year. The Atlanta Tip-Off Club announced Coach Dawn Staley as one of the fifteen semifinalists for the award on Thursday. She has won the award two previous times, both in the last three years, and the most recent being in last season’s national championship season.

Staley joins Geno Auriemma (UConn, 8-time winner), Tara Vandermeer (Stanford, 3-time winner), Lisa Bluder (Iowa, 1-time winner), Kim Mulkey (LSU, 1-time winner while at Baylor), Teri Moren (Indiana), Kenny Brooks (Virginia Tech), Denise Dillon (Villanova), Lisa Fortier (Gonzaga), Shauna Green (Illinois), Niele Ivey (Notre Dame), Kara Lawson (Duke), Kevin McGuff (Ohio State), JR Payne (Colorado), and Lynne Roberts (Utah) as semifinalists.

Staley and Ivey also played on teams whose coach won the Naismith National Coach of the Year Award. Staley played for Debbie Ryan at Virginia when she won the award for the 1990-1991 season, and Ivey played for Muffett McGraw at Notre Dame when she won the award in the 2000-2001 season.

National Championships do not necessarily equate to coaches winning Naismith awards, but over half of the 41 seasons of the award have seen the trophy go to the coach of the National Champions. The only undefeated coach to not win the award was Geno Auriemma (2x), but Auriemma (3x), Kim Mulkey, and the late Pat Summitt all won the award with undefeated teams. Auriemma (5x) and Summitt (2x) also hold the distinction of being the only two coaches to not win the award after back-to-back championships.

Staley’s case for winning the award in back-to-back seasons is simple: she has led her team to one of the most impressive seasons of all-time. With a championship victory, Staley will have navigated a very difficult schedule (6th nationally in strength of schedule) with dominance (over +30 points per game scoring margin) to an undefeated record (1 of just 5 coaches ever to accomplish the feat) and back-to-back titles (1 of just 4 coaches ever to do so).

If the Gamecocks go on to win the title again, their win streak of 44 games would be the third-highest win streak in women’s college basketball history for any team other than the UConn dynasty. As a player, Mulkey’s Louisiana Tech team won 54 in a row in the early ’80s, and Summitt’s Tennessee won 46 in a row in the ’90s. Both of those numbers would be within reach during the out-of-conference schedule next season.

Regardless of how award voting goes for the Gamecocks’ head coach, those who follow women’s college basketball know the truth: Dawn Staley is the best coach in the game.