SOCIAL MEDIA: WBB on Twitter | WBB on Facebook | WBB on Instagram
ATLANTA -- UCLA Head Women's Basketball Coach Cori Close and Arizona State's Charli Turner Thorne have been named the 2016 United States Marine Corps/WBCA NCAA Division I Region 5 Coaches of the Year, the WBCA announced today.
Close guided the Bruins to their first-ever WNIT Championship in 2015 and this year has UCLA (26-8) in the Sweet Sixteen and a current No. 10 national ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll. Closing in on Close's 100th victory (98-68), the Bruins will face second-seeded Texas on Saturday, March 26 at 11:00 a.m. PT in Bridgeport, Conn. The game will be televised on ESPN.
Geno Auriemma, head coach at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn., was the recipient of the Pat Summitt Trophy presented to the 2016 United States Marine Corps/WBCA NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year. This marks the 34th year since 1983 that the WBCA has presented this honor to a NCAA Division I head coach.
"The Marine Corps continues to enjoy our long and successful partnership with the WBCA," said Lieutenant Colonel Brian Proctor, Assistant Chief of Staff Diversity, Marine Corps Recruiting Command. "For us, one of the major highlights of the relationship is to annually recognize the organization's outstanding coaches. Each of these fine individuals, chosen by their peers to receive this well-deserved honor, exemplifies the Marine Corps leadership values of honor, courage and commitment."
The United States Marine Corps and the WBCA present the Pat Summitt Trophy, named for the legendary University of Tennessee coach, to the United States Marine Corps/WBCA National Coach of the Year annually in each of the six WBCA membership divisions (NCAA Divisions I, II and III; NAIA; junior/community college and high school).
The national coach of the year is selected from a list of finalists composed of the regional coaches of the year, who are chosen by vote of their peers in their respective WBCA membership regions, and were announced earlier this week via social media. They are:
- Region 1 – David Magarity, United States Military Academy
- Region 1 – Muffet McGraw, University of Notre Dame
- Region 2 – Amanda Butler, University of Florida
- Region 2 – Dawn Staley, University of South Carolina
- Region 3 – Geno Auriemma, University of Connecticut
- Region 3 – Kim Mulkey, Baylor University
- Region 4 – Doug Bruno, DePaul University
- Region 4 – Brenda Frese, University of Maryland
- Region 5 – Cori Close, UCLA
- Region 5 – Charli Turner Thorne, Arizona State University