Missouri Valley
Three Valley Coaches in line for Coach of the Year Award
Editor: The following is part of a press release from herhoopstats.com.
(Hopewell, NJ) — We are proud to announce the 20-person watch list for the 2024 Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award presented by Her Hoop Stats. This is the inaugural season of the award, and the award is named after the legendary former Harvard head coach.
This year’s watch list includes coaches from 16 conferences. Nine of the 20 coaches had players named to our 2024 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year preseason watch list
Bart Brooks, Belmont
Brooks held Belmont steady through a transition to the more competitive MVC, making a run to the MVC championship game before falling to Drake. Brooks and the Bruins have made the NCAA Tournament in all but one of his seasons in Nashville (2019-20 season excluded), including first-round victories in both 2021 and 2022
Kristen Gillespie, Illinois St.
Gillespie took over a Redbirds team in 2017-18 that had gone just 18-73 over the prior three seasons. In her six seasons in Normal, she has put up a 111-70 record overall and has brought the team to postseason play in each of the last three seasons. She has excelled at producing transfer and recruiting success stories, coaching four of the last six MVC Newcomer of the Year winners
Tanya Warren, UNI
After many years of playing runner-up to Missouri State and Drake, Warren and UNI have risen to the top of the MVC and were selected as the preseason favorites to take home the conference championship in one of the most competitive conferences in the country.