SAN DIEGO – San Diego State head women’s basketball coach Stacie Terry-Hutson was named to the watch list for the Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award presented by Her Hoop Stats.
Terry-Hutson (14th season) was named the 2025-26 Mountain West Coach of the Year after leading the Aztecs to 27 wins, which tied a school record, while going 19-1 in conference play.
The San Diego native has led the Aztecs to four straight 20+ win seasons, back-to-back Mountain West Championships (one tournament and one regular season), and to the postseason in three of the past four years.
The last three seasons, SDSU has had their three highest scoring teams under Terry-Hutson. The 2025-26 team averaged the most points by an Aztec team since 1994-95 while setting school records for three-pointers, free throw percentage and fewest turnovers per game.
The Aztecs open the season Monday at 6 p.m. when they host Cal State Fullerton.
This is the fourth season of the award, named after the legendary former Harvard head coach. Former Princeton head coach Carla Berube, now at Northwestern, was named the award's third winner in 2026. This year's 20-person watch list includes coaches from 12 conferences, including three from both the A-10 and the Pac-12.
Award Eligibility & Schedule
To be eligible for the award, coaches must compete in a conference 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. Coaches in the re-formed Pac-12 are eligible. Interim head coaches are eligible, though total games coached are taken into consideration. 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-Smith's 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-Smith's 630 wins rank 33rd in Division I history. 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 coached nine Ivy League Player of the Year recipients, six Ivy League Rookie of the Year winners, and the first 22 of Harvard's 1,000-point scorers in the program's 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 state's 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 women's basketball at all levels. We began as a statistics site focused on providing consistent, reliable, and easy-to-access data about women's basketball for both mobile and desktop environments. Her Hoop Stats has expanded to become a leading independent voice in the women's game providing content through our newsletter, podcast network, YouTube channel, and social media accounts (Twitter, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram).