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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Banghart Named US Basketball Writers Association Women's Coach of the Year
April 05, 2015 | Women's Basketball
PRINCETON, N.J. – Guiding the Princeton University women's basketball team to a historic 2014-15 season, eight-year head coach Courtney Banghart was named the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Women's Coach of the Year.
The first Ivy League women's coach to be honored by the USBWA since the award began in 1989-90, Banghart helped guide Princeton to an unprecedented 30-0 regular season and the program's first NCAA Tournament win. The Tigers' first round victory over Green Bay was just the second for an Ivy institution in NCAA play, joining 16th-seeded Harvard's upset over No. 1 Stanford in 1998.
Receiving her award on Sunday afternoon at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. prior to the start of the NCAA Women's Final Four, Banghart led Princeton to a No. 13 ranking in the Associated Press Top-25 and USA Today Coaches polls – the highest-ever for an Ivy program. The Tigers' No. 8 tournament seeding is also the best in conference history.
Helping to guide Princeton to its fifth Ivy title and NCAA berth in six seasons, Banghart was the league's unanimous choice for its inaugural Coach of the Year award. During the course of the season, a Princeton player laid claim to the conference's Player of the Week honor in all 14 weeks that it played a game was eligible – a first in league history.
Under Banghart's tutelage, four Tigers garnered All-Ivy honors, including three first team selections, headlined by Player of the Year Blake Dietrick. Of the four times that an Ivy program has placed three members on the first team, three of them have been by the Tigers. Princeton also saw three players receive first team laurels in 2010-11 (Devona Allgood, Addie Micir, Lauren Edwards) and 1977-78 (C.B. Tomasiewicz, Margaret Meier, Jackie Jackson).
The Orange and Black's 30-0 start was the best in conference history – men's or women's. Surpassing the 1970-71 Penn men's team's regular season mark of 28-0, Princeton's eventual 31-1 overall record is the best in program history.
As a team, the Tigers closed out their 2014-15 campaign ranked second in the nation in three-point percentage (40.5), third in field goal percentage (49.1), 12th in assists (16.9) and 19th in scoring (75.8). Princeton also sat second in the country in field goal defense (34.2), sixth in rebounding margin (+11.2) and points allowed (52.6), and seventh in three-point defense (26.3).
The winningest coach in program history, Banghart has amassed a 169-67 (0.716) overall record in her eight seasons, going 92-17 (0.844) against the Ivy League during that span.