Over the past month, Athleticism connecting with more than 35 head coaches in women’s basketball to get their candid opinions on a range of topics from the changing tides in the sport to the game’s best coaches to the greatest college basketball player of them all the temperature. These coaches, from power conferences and high mid-majors, were granted anonymity so they could speak openly without fear of reprisal from their own programs or the NCAA.
The job of head coaches is everything in college basketball. They must recruit, and in the age of the portal, re-recruit. They have to scour opposition lists to find players who would be suitable for transfers. They work with athletic departments to obtain appropriate facilities and accommodations. There is an entire ecosystem under their responsibility.
Of course, the most important part of their role is developing the product that appears on the field. This work is multifaceted in itself. Beyond player development, coaches design offensive schemes and defensive game plans and make necessary adjustments. This is the easiest part for their peers to evaluate because the results speak for themselves in the games. It’s hard to know what’s going on behind the scenes of a program; in these 94 feet, everything is visible.
Which coach would you choose to design an offensive game plan for you?
- Geno Auriemma, UConn: 4 votes
- Jennie Baranczyk, Oklahoma: 4 votes
- Lisa Bluder, Iowa: 3 votes
- Karl Smesko, Florida Gulf Coast: 3 votes
- Tara VanDerveer, Stanford: 3 votes
Auriemma has consistently fielded some of the most talented teams in the country, which gives him a leg up when it comes to executing on the court. Over the past few seasons, even though top players have dispersed to more programs and many Huskies players have been injured, Auriemma has still put together elite offenses. UConn has done it in different ways, too.
Consider that three years ago, Paige Bueckers won national player of the year as a point guard, playing largely alongside two bigs and two non-shooting wings, as UConn posted the third-best offensive rating in the country, according to Her Hoop Stats. Now, as a senior, Bueckers is essentially a power forward. She plays alongside two other ball handlers, a big and a spacer, but she’s even more effective and will be an All-American again as the focal point of the nation’s eighth-best offense. In 2023-24, Auriemma has had to reinvent how he uses his best player, not to mention the evolving roles of Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Mühl, but the Huskies haven’t missed a beat.
In their words
“He figured out how to do it from a spacing and filtering standpoint, which is not complicated, but effective. He makes basketball an easy read.
“They execute, score and are efficient. They do it at an elite level, regardless of their personnel.
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