In his 41st season leading the UConn women’s basketball team, Geno Auriemma is once again in the conversation for the best coach in the country.
On Wednesday, Auriemma was named to the 15-person watchlist for Naismith Coach of the Year by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. The longtime Huskies coach has won the award eight times previously, most recently in 2016-17.
Despite graduating two starters from last year’s national title team, including three-time first team All-American Paige Bueckers, Auriemma has led the Huskies to a 27-0 start to the 2025-26 season with five wins over ranked opponents and four over teams in the top 15. UConn leads the country in scoring defense, assists, field goal and 3-point percentage, and it ranks top 3 in scoring offense, turnover margin and steals per game.
The Huskies are currently on a 43-game win streak, tied for seventh longest in the history of women’s college basketball, and it has won 63 straight matchups against Big East opponents. With a win over Villanova on Wednesday night, UConn can clinch its regular-season conference championship for the 13th straight season and the 32nd time in Auriemma’s career.
The Coach of the Year watchlist also features a pair of UConn alumni, Princeton coach Carla Berube and Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph. Berube was part of the Huskies’ first national championship team in 1995, and she has led Princeton to four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances since she was hired in 2019. Her Tigers are 20-3 this year, and Berube has lost a total of seven games in the Ivy League over six seasons.
Ralph played at UConn from 1996-2000 and was a first-team All-American in her senior season. She also led the Huskies to the 2000 national championship, earning Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament. She returned to Storrs to serve as an assistant coach on Auriemma’s staff from 2008-21 and helped the program to six more national titles.
Just five seasons into her tenure, Ralph has turned Vanderbilt from a bottom-tier SEC team into a juggernaut. The Commodores had their best start in program history this year, beginning 20-0, and the team is currently 24-3 with its only losses to ranked opponents in conference play. Vanderbilt is on pace for its highest finish in the SEC since at least 2011, and it will almost certainly host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in over a decade.
Naismith Coach of the Year watchlist
Geno Auriemma, UConn
Jennie Baranczyk, Oklahoma
Kim Barnes Arico, Michigan
Carla Berube, Princeton
Cori Close, UCLA
Krista Gerlich, Texas Tech
Jan Jensen, Iowa
Kara Lawson, Duke
Kevin McGuff, Ohio State
Kim Mulkey, LSU
Shea Ralph, Vanderbilt
Tammi Reiss, Rhode Island
Vic Schaefer, Texas
Dawn Staley, South Carolina
Jeff Walz, Louisville