The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced today the 15 women's basketball coaches for its late-season watch list for the Werner Ladder Naismith Trophy for Women's Coach of the Year. The list will be narrowed down to 10 semifinalists on March 4 and four finalists on March 19, leading up to a winner being named on April 4.
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The Pac-12 leads the conferences in representation with five, followed by the ACC and Big Ten with two. In total, nine different conferences are represented.
Iowa's Lisa Bluder won the award last season and she's on the list once again. She's one of four former winners to make the late-season list this year, along with UConn's Geno Auriemma (1995, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2008-09, 2016,-17), Baylor's Kim Mulkey (2012) and Stanford's Tara Vanderveer (1990, 2011).
| NAME | SCHOOL | CONFERENCE |
|---|---|---|
| Adia Barnes | Arizona | Pac-12 |
| Cori Close | UCLA | Pac-12 |
| Dawn Plitzuweit | South Dakota | Summit League |
| Dawn Staley | South Carolina | SEC |
| Doug Bruno | DePaul | BIG EAST |
| Geno Auriemma | UConn | AAC |
| Jeff Walz | Louisville | ACC |
| Joe McKeown | Northwestern | Big Ten |
| Kelly Graves | Oregon | Pac-12 |
| Kim Mulkey | Baylor | Big 12 |
| Lisa Bluder | Iowa | Big Ten |
| Lisa Fortier | Gonzaga | WCC |
| Scott Rueck | Oregon State | Pac-12 |
| Tara Vanderveer | Stanford | Pac-12 |
| Wes Moore | North Carolina State | ACC |
