2025 Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Preseason Watch List
20 coaches representing 14 conferences named to preseason watch list
HOPEWELL, N.J. (October 23, 2024) — We are proud to announce the 20-person watch list for the 2025 Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award presented by Her Hoop Stats. This is the second season of the award, named after the legendary former Harvard head coach. Gonzaga’s Lisa Fortier was named the inaugural winner of the award last season. This year’s watch list includes coaches from 14 conferences.
Bart Brooks, Belmont
Brooks and the Bruins have made the NCAA Tournament in all but two of his seasons in Nashville (2019-20 season excluded), including first-round victories in both 2021 and 2022.
Chris Kielsmeier, Cleveland St.
Kielsmeier worked magic last season, holding his team relatively steady even after losing Destiny Leo and her 20-plus points per game just six games into the season. With Leo back in action this season, Kielsmeier will have a full deck to reach even greater heights.
Megan Griffith, Columbia
Griffith has grown the Columbia program to the upper echelon of the Ivy League, and she has done it rapidly in the presence of a Princeton squad that hasn’t made it easy. They were rewarded with an at-large NCAA Tournament bid last season, even up against the steep odds of doing so outside of a power conference.
Gayle Fulks, Davidson
Few teams in recent memory have had to maneuver the level of injury troubles as Fulks and Davidson had to deal with last season. They defeated Duke and Wake Forest at full strength and played North Carolina within four points on the road en route to a 12-1 start. However, their mounting injury troubles were so overwhelming they had to cancel their season in early March, ending the year with an 18-8 record.
Allison Pohlman, Drake
Save for a single stumble against Illinois State in late January, Pohlman and the Bulldogs nearly ran the table on an otherwise very competitive MVC, going 22-1 against conference foes for the team’s first regular-season conference title since 2018-19.
Joddie Gleason, Eastern Wash.
Gleason has had the Eagles on an upward trend since taking over a team that won just five Division I games the year before she arrived, finishing last season with 27 such wins. Their 29 total wins surpassed their previous program high of 21, set in 2014-15 and 1983-84.
Carly Thibault-DuDonis, Fairfield
Thibault-DuDonis’s Stags squad lost just one game entering the NCAA Tournament, a three-point road loss to Vanderbilt. Despite that 31-1 record, the selection committee gave them a 13 seed and a meeting with an Indiana team that reached the Sweet 16 and nearly knocked off South Carolina. This year’s non-conference schedule – including Arkansas, Richmond, Oklahoma State, and Villanova – appears designed not to let that happen again.
Karl Smesko, FGCU
Smesko has established himself as one of the most consistent coaches in the nation ever since taking over at FGCU when the program was still in Division II. In the 17 years that the Eagles have been in Division I, Smesko has compiled an overall record of 479-89 (84.3%) and a conference record of 264-19 (93.3%).
Vanessa Blair-Lewis, George Mason
In 2021-22, Blair-Lewis took over a program that had won just three games against Division I opponents the year before. In her third season, GMU won 22 games against Division I foes, with six of its eight losses coming by single digits.
Lisa Fortier, Gonzaga
The reigning winner of this award, Fortier reached new heights, leading Gonzaga to a 32-4 record and a Sweet 16 appearance. Her 80.8% winning percentage (265-63) trails only Geno Auriemma for the best percentage among head coaches who have only coached one team.
Amy Vachon, Maine
Vachon has continued to recruit very well internationally, finding gems overlooked by other programs and finding ways to win with a high degree of difficulty. She will face a challenging task with preseason Becky Hammon Award watch list member Adrianna Smith’s recent season-ending injury.
Rick Insell, Middle Tenn.
Insell has been at the helm in Murfreesboro since 2005-06, compiling a 463-156 record across 19 seasons. In that time he has coached four WNBA draft picks, including Cheyenne Parker and Alysha Clark.
Carla Berube, Princeton
When a coach takes over for a highly successful coach, the question is often whether they can keep the momentum going. Berube elevated the momentum to a new level in some ways, even as conference foes have risen around them.
Aaron Roussell, Richmond
Roussell led the Spiders to easily their strongest offensive season in the HHS Era (since 2009-10). Their HHS Offensive Rating ranked 30th in Division I, more than 20 spots higher than their previous best rank, set in 2011-12.
Cindy Griffin, Saint Joseph’s
Griffin’s Hawks played at one of the slowest paces in Division I last season, disrupting opposing offenses and holding them to 54.5 points per game, the fifth-lowest average in the nation.
Aaron Johnston, South Dakota St.
Thanks to Johnston, South Dakota St. has been a consistent mid-major powerhouse for nearly two decades. Not even two major injuries keeping Kallie Theisen and Haleigh Timmer out for the entire season stopped the Jackrabbits from putting up a 27-win season and earning a 12 seed.
Ashley Langford, Tulane
After an incredibly successful run with Stony Brook, Langford heads to New Orleans to lead Tulane in the AAC with plenty of room to grow.
Missy Bilderback, ULM
Bilderback’s Warhawks were behind the nation’s top year-over-year improvement last season, rising from 339th nationally in HHS Rating to 138th. Their increase of +23.9 in HHS Rating is the seventh-highest since 2009-10.
Lindy La Rocque, UNLV
One of the nation’s fastest-rising programs, La Rocque and her UNLV team continued their upward trend to the top of the Mountain West, recording their second consecutive 30-win season after not winning more than 26 games this century. The Las Vegas native has a chance for a fourth-consecutive sweep of the MWC regular season and conference tournament titles.
Beth O’Boyle, VCU
O’Boyle orchestrated a major defensive overhaul, jumping from the 186th-ranked defense, according to the HHS Defensive Rating, to the 36th-ranked defense last season.
Award Eligibility & Schedule
To be eligible for the award, coaches must compete in one of the 26 conferences deemed to be “mid-major.” The following conferences are considered high-major for the purposes of this award and thus ineligible: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, and SEC. Additionally, Oregon State and Washington State are ineligible this year as membership in the Pac-12 Conference evolves. Interim head coaches are eligible, although total games coached will be taken into consideration.
The 10-person midseason watch list will be announced in January. The five finalists for the award will be announced in March, with the winner being named around the Final Four. Coaches will be assessed across the entire season, including postseason play. Beyond on-court success, other factors such as recruiting, preseason expectations, injuries, and tactical coaching will also be weighed when assessing each candidate. Inclusion on previous watch lists is not a requirement to be considered for future watch lists.
About Kathy Delaney-Smith
Delaney-Smith’s Harvard teams compiled a record of 630-434 (.592) in her 40-year career, including a 367-168 (.685) record in Ivy League play. Delaney-Smith’s 630 wins rank 32nd in Division I history, and ninth among coaches who spent their entire career with a single team.
Delaney-Smith led her teams to six NCAA Tournament appearances and nine WNIT appearances, plus three Ivy League titles before the NCAA Tournament awarded automatic bids to the Ivy League champion. She has coached eight Ivy League Player of the Year recipients, six Ivy League Rookie of the Year winners, and all 22 of Harvard’s 1,000-point scorers in the program’s NCAA Division I history.
Delaney-Smith was inducted into the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1986, becoming the first woman to ever be inducted, with more than three decades of her career still ahead of her. She was also inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
A native of Newton, Mass., Delaney-Smith is also among the most accomplished high school players and coaches in the state’s history. She was the first woman in state history to score 1,000 points while at Sacred Heart High School. As a high school coach, Delaney-Smith coached Westwood High School to an overall record of 204-31 across 11 seasons, including a 96-game winning streak.
About Her Hoop Stats
Her Hoop Stats was founded in 2017 to unlock better insight about women's basketball at all levels. We began as a statistics site focused on providing consistent, reliable, and easy-to-access data about women's basketball for both mobile and desktop environments. Her Hoop Stats has expanded to become a leading independent voice in the women's game providing content through our newsletter, podcast network, YouTube channel, and social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).
Wait until JMU *CRUSHES* ULM this season...again! Then where will Missy Bilderback be? Why didn't you include Sean O'Regan here? Just because he's a male?