WACO, Texas – For the second straight season
Baylor Lady Bear head coach Kim Mulkey is a finalist for the Naismith
Women's College Coach of the Year Award, the Atlanta Tipoff Club
announced on Thursday.
Mulkey is joined by University of
California coach Lindsay Gottlieb, University of Dayton coach Jim Jabir
and Notre Dame's Muffet McGraw. The Naismith Women's College Coach of
the Year Award will be announced during the NCAA Women's Final Four in
New Orleans.
Mulkey received the 2012 Naismith award after
piloting the Lady Bears to the 2012 NCAA championship and posting a
perfect 40-0 record.
So far this season, the top-ranked Lady Bears are
32-1 and finished a perfect 18-0 in the Big 12 conference, going
undefeated for the second straight season, and captured their fourth Big
12 regular season title. In addition, Baylor won
a Big 12-record third straight conference tournament championship.
In just 13 seasons as a head coach, Mulkey has
attained 370 career victories and ranks No. 2 among the winningest
active Division I head coaches (.822) and No. 5 all-time by percentage.
The Lady Bears, which finished the season ranked
No. 1 in the polls, are the NCAA Championships' overall No. 1 seed and
will take on Prairie View A&M in first-round action in Waco's
Ferrell Center on Sunday, March 24 at 6:30 p.m.. Mulkey,
who was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year, seeks to repeat as the Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year.
The four finalists were selected by the Atlanta
Tipoff Club's National Voting Academy, which based its criteria on the
coaches' performances to this point in the 2013 women's college
basketball season.
"It has been another remarkable season for women's
basketball and these four finalists deserve the distinction of being
called the best coaches in the country," said Eric Oberman, executive
director of the Atlanta Tipoff Club. "Whether
we have a repeat winner or a first-timer, we look forward to adding
another chapter to our award history."
