Earlier this year, Utah’s women’s basketball coach Lynne Roberts was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year after leading the Utes to a Pac-12 regular-season championship and a 27-4 record.
Now, the day after the Utes advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006, Roberts is up for another Coach of the Year honor.
Roberts is one of four finalists for the Naismith Coach of the Year award, which annually honors the best coach in women’s college basketball. Virginia Tech’s Kenny Brooks, Indiana’s Teri Moren and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley are the other finalists.
After Roberts took over the program in the 2015-16 season, she slowly built it into an NCAA tournament contender, making the Big Dance last season for the first time since 2011.
Utah’s season included wins over six top-25 teams, including No. 3 Stanford.
Alissa Pili, the Pac-12’s Player of the Year, leads Utah with 20.2 points per game. The high-octane Utes are a top-five offense, scoring 83.5 points per game, and rank No. 4 in field goal percentage (48.7%).
The No.2-seeded Utes face No. 3 seed LSU on Friday, with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line.