HOPEWELL, N.J. (January 24, 2024) — Her Hoops Stats has announced the 10-person midseason watch list for the 2024 Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award, including George Mason women's basketball coach
Vanessa Blair-Lewis. 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 eight conferences, with three from the Atlantic 10.
Midseason Watchlist (Alphabetical order by school):
- Gayle Fulks, Davidson
- Joddie Gleason, Eastern Washington
- Carly Thibault-DuDonis, Fairfield
- Vanessa Blair-Lewis, George Mason
- Lisa Fortier, Gonzaga
- Kevin Borseth, Green Bay
- Carla Berube, Princeton
- Ashley Langford, Stony Brook
- Lindy La Rocque, UNLV
- Beth O'Boyle, VCU
The Blair-Lewis File
The 2023-24 Patriots are off to the best start in Atlantic 10 play and one of the best starts overall in school history, currently sitting at 14-3 overall and 5-1 in league action. Mason opened the season at 7-0 before falling by just nine points to perennial powerhouse Maryland. During the run, Blair-Lewis led the Patriots to a victory over ACC member Pitt for her second Power 5 victory in three years. Since Blair-Lewis took over the program prior to the 2021-22 season, Mason has gone from winning no conference games and only three games overall in 2020-21, to a winning record and eight Atlantic 10 wins in 2022-23. The team is averaging 77.0 points per game with an average margin of victory of over 18 points, and the Patriots own the second-highest scoring bench in the country, averaging 37.1 points per game.
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 five finalists for the award will be announced in March, with the winner being named around the Final Four. 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).
