Lisa Fortier Named 2024 Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year
Fortier named winner in the national award's first season
HOPEWELL, N.J. (April 3, 2024) — Her Hoop Stats is proud to announce that Gonzaga head coach Lisa Fortier has been named the 2024 Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year presented by Her Hoop Stats. The award, which is in its first season, recognizes the most outstanding mid-major head coach in the country.
Since taking over in Spokane in 2014-15, Fortier has led the Zags to a 265-63 record, an 80.8% winning percentage that is the best in program history. Through those 10 seasons, she is already closing in on the title of the winningest coach in program history, just 51 wins behind Kelly Graves who did so in 14 seasons.
This season, she led Gonzaga to the winningest season in the program’s history, finishing with a record of 32-4 and making the team’s fifth Sweet 16 appearance all-time. They did so even after scheduling a difficult non-conference slate.
That schedule was enough to convince the selection committee they deserved an exceedingly rare top-16 seed as a mid-major, and the right to host first and second-round games in the NCAA Tournament, despite all the excessive obstacles mid-major programs face in proving their talent level.
Coach Fortier’s success in recruiting and developing a roster from top to bottom resulted in arguably the most complete roster in Gonzaga history. It resulted in the team’s highest Her Hoop Stats Rating in the HHS Era (since 2009-10), including multiple seasons of Courtney Vandersloot putting up historic, NCAA-record numbers.
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, Pac-12, and SEC. Interim head coaches are eligible, although total games coached will be taken into consideration.
The 20-person preseason watch list was announced in November. The 10-coach midseason watch list was announced in March. The winner will be named on the afternoon of April 3. Coaches will be assessed throughout 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 31st 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).