Dawn Staley AP Coach of the Year

[visitingcock]

I wouldn't have credited Dawn with COY this year. She has a roster that is by far the most talented and deepest in WCBB. Her second string is arguably more talented than the starters. And next year, even losing Cardozo, she will have an even more talented and formidable team. She has certainly recruited, and for years, the best talent in the nation. Recruiting is certainly a key metric of coaching, so hats off to her on that point. But she really didn't have to do much coaching after she'd finished recruiting.

By contrast, Bluder did have to coach the heck out of her team. She had a superstar, but surrounded with ordinary players without height. It took a tremendous coach to get that crew to the Final Four.

And Coach Geno's task of taking a team that had lost six of its best nine players to injury represents a coaching masterpiece. He got to the Final Four by starting two freshmen, both well regarded, but not superstars, plus a redshirt freshman forward who had incurred a devastating injury before her freshman year, and whose performance was arguably hobbled much of the season.

The voters appear to have gone with the undefeated season that Dawn Staley achieved. That is, undeniably, a tremendous achievement. But were I a voter, I would have gone with either Bluder o rAuriemma. They had the far more difficult task in getting where they are today.

How many coaches have NOT been chosen COY in undefeated seasons ?

 

[Mediocrites]

A well-deserved honor! Success breeds imitation, so I would expect to see more programs recruit with the philosophy that wbb games are essentially wars of attrition. Rebounding dominance, fierce defense and a deep bench will trump skilled offenses over the course of a 40-minute game.

 

[maple]

Congrats to Dawn, can't say I'm surprised. As I am biased I think Geno did a phenomenal job this year. But Dawn managed to fix all the flaws from last season and brought home the title this year.

 

[ConnManFan]

How many coaches have NOT been chosen COY in undefeated seasons ?

2014 Geno - 2010 Geno - 1995 Geno. A bit surprising, glad you asked and I looked it up. BTW - Dawn is extremely deserving. She is also winning me over. I don't think she's as brash as she was a few years ago. We are seeing a kinder gentler Dawn the last two years.

 

[MSGRET]

2014 Geno - 2010 Geno - 1995 Geno. A bit surprising, glad you asked and I looked it up. BTW - Dawn is extremely deserving. She is also winning me over. I don't think she's as brash as she was a few years ago. We are seeing a kinder gentler Dawn the last two years.

I believe that Geno won his first in 1995 and was undefeated.

While in 2010 the winner was Tara who had only one loss going into the Championship game it was at UConn 80-68 and just after their win against #3 Tennessee. Many people thought that the PAC was a tougher conference and that Stanford was a better team.

In the 2014 season Notre Dame was also undefeated going into to the NC game because she dodged playing UConn saying that they couldn't get it on their schedule with them going to the ACC while UConn went to the AAC. All the powers to be thought that McGraw deserved it because the ACC was the better of the two conferences.

Also I believe that there is a bias when it comes to Geno because almost half of the time he has UConn in the Final Four so there is some bad vibes towards him.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

I cannot understand how Geno, Lisa Bluder, Wes Moore and some others were NOT even nominated for this award!
Let SoCar lose 6 players, 3 possible starters, and see where that team winds up! Geno hands down was the Outstanding COY!
Guiding a roster with 70+ points sitting on the bench not playing for 3/4 of the season and getting UConn to the FF and being 1 basket from reaching the Finals!
Dawn had a great season for sure but what Geno and his staff had to deal with couldn't have been handled any better than Geno did this, the 3rd injury riddled season in a row!

 

[hoopsfan22]

I cannot understand how Geno, Lisa Bluder, Wes Moore and some others were NOT even nominated for this award!
Let SoCar lose 6 players, 3 possible starters, and see where that team winds up! Geno hands down was the Outstanding COY!
Guiding a roster with 70+ points sitting on the bench not playing for 3/4 of the season and getting UConn to the FF and being 1 basket from reaching the Finals!
Dawn had a great season for sure but what Geno and his staff had to deal with couldn't have been handled any better than Geno did this, the 3rd injury riddled season in a row!

I believe Bluder was in the mix. Not sure about Moore. Didn't Dawn lose her entire starting five from last season and still went undefeated with a national championship? I think she won it fair and square. There were a handful of good choices this season that I felt were all worthy for different reasons.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

I believe Bluder was in the mix. Not sure about Moore. Didn't Dawn lose her entire starting five from last season and still went undefeated with a national championship? I think she won it fair and square. There were a handful of good choices this season that I felt were all worthy for different reasons.

hoopfan22- - -Yes Dawn had to replace all 5 starters but she didn't have deal with 6 players out for the season including 3 starters losing 70+ points on average!

 

[hoopsfan22]

hoopfan22- - -Yes Dawn had to replace all 5 starters but she didn't have deal with 6 players out for the season including 3 starters losing 70+ points on average!

The injured players do not account for 70+ points on average. Azzi in her best season averaged 15 ppg. Ducharme 10. Aubrey 11. Ayanna 2. Shade replaced most of Azzi's points, and we had Paige to make up for the others. The team averaged 79.7 ppg this season and 75.9 ppg last season.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

The injured players do not account for 70+ points on average. Azzi in her best season averaged 15 ppg. Ducharme 10. Aubrey 11. Ayanna 2. Shade replaced most of Azzi's points, and we had Paige to make up for the others. The team averaged 79.7 ppg this season and 75.9 ppg last season.

hoopsfan22- - -I'm just going by what Paige said in the IA post game press conference!
She said "We had 70-something points sitting on the bench and got this far!"

 

[RadfordRam]

I cannot understand how Geno, Lisa Bluder, Wes Moore and some others were NOT even nominated for this award!
Let SoCar lose 6 players, 3 possible starters, and see where that team winds up! Geno hands down was the Outstanding COY!
Guiding a roster with 70+ points sitting on the bench not playing for 3/4 of the season and getting UConn to the FF and being 1 basket from reaching the Finals!
Dawn had a great season for sure but what Geno and his staff had to deal with couldn't have been handled any better than Geno did this, the 3rd injury riddled season in a row!

The right coach won the award!

 

[Dogdude]

As time moves on past the final, more quotes are coming out from Dawn across social media, and i love the vibe she's sending off. It's essentially the same as Geno's, where a certain amount of playing time is not guaranteed, it's earned. That, and the little entitled kids with the over-indulgent parents who think they have all the skills needed should find another program. It's pretty clear that if you want a hugely successful program for the long run, it's the way to go. Yeah, Dawn's impressing me more and more also.

 

[Viet Vet]

Recruiting is part of coaching. Dawn deserved the award.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Not from where I am sitting. From a press orientation I get it, but it is pretty shallow.

 

[NYCHUSKIES]

Does Lisa Bluder ever get any respect? Yeah, she's got Clark, but she also has a well coached TEAM, and has had success (though more limited) before Clark. Should Geno's coaching ability be overlooked because he has Paige?

Let's face it Geno and Dawn have teams with ten future pros. Lisa has one - maybe two.

I respectfully think Lisa is an ok coach. I really dislike her ideology of letting scorers just score to win games. There is no fundamental learning on that team. That's why Caitlin went to Iowa, because she knew she could do whatever she wanted. If you look at Caitlin's game, there is nothing about that has changed from freshman year to senior year other than her assist total and that's because literally every defense against Iowa is really against Caitlin, therefore having a plethora of open teammates. Lisa lucked tf out with Caitlin and now she is looking to add Lucy Olson from Villanova as the heir to her one sided style of coaching which is shoot until we win games.

 

[packwrap]

I respectfully think Lisa is an ok coach. I really dislike her ideology of letting scorers just score to win games. There is no fundamental learning on that team. That's why Caitlin went to Iowa, because she knew she could do whatever she wanted. If you look at Caitlin's game, there is nothing about that has changed from freshman year to senior year other than her assist total and that's because literally every defense against Iowa is really against Caitlin, therefore having a plethora of open teammates. Lisa lucked tf out with Caitlin and now she is looking to add Lucy Olson from Villanova as the heir to her one sided style of coaching which is shoot until we win games.

I think CC went to Iowa because it was her home state school. Like if Paige had gone to Minnesota and played for then I'm coach Whalen. It's an option that every recruit in every sport has, stay home and lift your home school, or go cross country to an established powerhouse. It probably was an accident that she became a scoring machine, but most importantly they won with that scheme.

I also questioned Bluder, but they had smart defensive plans against SC in '23 and LSU and UConn in '24. And this was a team that supposedly could play no defense.

 

[jumpstart]

I expected Staley to win and deservingly so but I do have to say something that annoys me.

Yes, they replaced all 5 starters but are we really gonna look over the fact that Johnson and Cardoso averaged more minutes than 2 of those starters ( Fletcher/Saxton). They returned those 2 players who played starter minutes. Fletcher started and Raven Johnson was in the lineup by the first official timeout.

All this nonsense about a whole new team just drives me insane.

I know it’s a semantics i guess but still. View attachment 98952

Trying to water it down with that is a bit petty. Give them props and move on.