Meier Named Naismith Coach of the Year Late Season Candidate

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – University of Miami head women’s basketball coach Katie Meier is a Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s Coach of the Year Late Season Candidate, as announced Wednesday morning by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.

Meier is one of just 15 coaches in the nation who made the cut, five of whom are from the ACC. The fellow conference coaches on the list are Clemson’s Amanda Butler, Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw, NC State’s Wes Moore and Louisville’s Jeff Walz.
Two of the other 14 candidates are former Meier assistants, in both Butler and Carolyn Kieger of Marquette.

Meier has guided Miami to a 23-6 (11-3 ACC) record and a No. 15 national ranking in both major polls. After being picked to finish fifth in the ACC by the league’s coaches and sixth by the Blue Ribbon Panel, the Hurricanes locked up a top-four spot with two games to play and can still finish as high as first.

Miami is 6-1 against ranked teams and has defeated two schools that made the NCAA Final Four last year, in then-fourth-ranked Notre Dame and then-second-ranked Louisville. The former was Miami’s first win over a reigning NCAA champion and the latter, which came on the road, was the first top-three victory in program history.

The 2010-11 Associated Press National Coach of the Year and ACC Coach of the Year, Meier is in her 14th season at the helm of the Hurricanes. This is Miami’s ninth 20-win campaign in the last 10 years and the Hurricanes are poised for their eighth NCAA Tournament berth in the past nine seasons.

To keep up with the University of Miami women’s basketball team on social media, follow @CanesWBB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.