HOPEWELL, N.J. South Dakota States head womens basketball coach Aaron Johnson was named to the watch list for the Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award presented by her Hoop Stats.
Johnston enters his 25th season as the helm of the Jackrabbit program. The Jacks are coming off a 27-6 record in 2023-24 and a fourth consecutive Summit League regular season title. SDSU returned to the NCAA Tournament for the 12th time in program history via its 11th Summit League Tournament Championship.
To be eligible for the award, coaches must compete in one of the 26 conferences deemed to be mid-major. The following conferences are considered high-major for the purposes of this award and thus ineligible: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten and SEC.
The 10-person midseason watch list will be announced in January. The five finalists for the award will be announced in March, with the winner being named around the Final Four. Coaches will be assessed across the entire season, including postseason play. Beyond on-court success, other factors such as recruiting, preseason expectations, injuries, and tactical coaching will also be weighed when assessing each candidate. Inclusion on previous watch lists is not a requirement to be considered for future watch lists.
About Kathy Delaney-Smith
Delaney-Smiths Harvard teams compiled a record of 630-434 (.592) in her 40-year career, including a 367-168 (.685) record in Ivy League play. Delaney-Smiths 630 wins rank 32nd in Division I history, and ninth among coaches who spent their entire career with a single team.
Delaney-Smith led her teams to six NCAA Tournament appearances and nine WNIT appearances, plus three Ivy League titles before the NCAA Tournament awarded automatic bids to the Ivy League champion. She has coached eight Ivy League Player of the Year recipients, six Ivy League Rookie of the Year winners, and all 22 of Harvards 1,000-point scorers in the programs NCAA Division I history.
Delaney-Smith was inducted into the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1986, becoming the first woman to ever be inducted, with more than three decades of her career still ahead of her. She was also inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
A native of Newton, Mass., Delaney-Smith is also among the most accomplished high school players and coaches in the states history. She was the first woman in state history to score 1,000 points while at Sacred Heart High School. As a high school coach, Delaney-Smith coached Westwood High School to an overall record of 204-31 across 11 seasons, including a 96-game winning streak.
About Her Hoop Stats
Her Hoop Stats was founded in 2017 to unlock better insight about womens basketball at all levels. It began as a statistics site focused on providing consistent, reliable, and easy-to-access data about womens basketball for both mobile and desktop environments.
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