The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), an independent collective of sports journalists, personalities, coaches and partners, recently announced the dedication of their national coach of the year award for women’s basketball to longtime University of Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma. The USBWA routinely awards scholarships to students pursuing careers in sports journalism.
This year, the USBWA awarded the honor to South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley at their annual banquet in Missouri. Auriemma has won the award a record six times, first in 1995 following the Huskies’ first national championship and most recently in 2017.
“It is fitting and proper that [Auriemma’s] name be associated annually with the USBWA Division One Women’s Coach of the Year,” remarked USBWA vice president Mel Greenberg in a press statement.
The decision is also attributed to Auriemma’s success at UConn, with the women’s basketball program obtaining 11 national titles with 23 Final Four appearances, including 14 consecutive years of semifinal play from 2008 through 2022 under his leadership. This year, Auriemma closed out his 38th season with a career total of 1,213 victories, becoming only the third coach in Division One history to reach over 1,200 wins.
“Few would have suspected…on the day he signed his first contract to coach UConn given its place in the sport at that moment – that Geno would become the most successful [coach] of them all, breaking records that are unlikely to be surpassed,” added Greenberg.
Auriemma was hired at UConn in 1985 as the women’s basketball head coach after a successful high school coaching tenure.
Outside of his UConn career, Auriemma also coached the U.S. national women’s basketball team from 2009 through 2016, winning undefeated in the 2010 and 2014 FIBA world championships and the 2012 and 2016 Olympic games. He has also been honored as the Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year eight times, a separate award sponsored by the Atlanta Tipoff Club, in addition to other regional and national honors.
The USBWA also presents awards and honors to players, such as the Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year, Pat Summitt Most Courageous award and the men’s basketball Henry Iba Coach of the Year, amongst others. This year, players from both UConn men’s and women’s basketball teams were named USBWA All-Americans.
The USBWA was founded in 1956 at the recommendation of the NCAA and serves the interest of journalists and students involved in college basketball. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, and to see past winners, visit wsbwa.com.