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Vanderbilt women’s basketball head coach Shea Ralph is on a watch list for the most prestigious coaching award in college basketball.
Per a press release Wednesday, Ralph made the list of 15 coaches around the country to be named to the Coach of the Year Watch List. Ralph is one of four SEC coaches that made the watch list.
Ralph’s selection to the midseason list of candidates to the Coach of the Year Award is much deserved and well-earned. Ralph has Vanderbilt as the No. 5 team in the country with a record of 24-3. The Commodores are currently in second place in the SEC behind South Carolina with just three games left in the regular season.
The win total is the most Vanderbilt has had during Ralph’s tenure and it is the first time since the 2008-2009 season that Vanderbilt has had 24 or more wins in a season. That season, the Commodores won 26 games. Vanderbilt could tie or even break that record before the SEC women’s basketball Tournament even begins. Between the end of the regular season and the postseason, Ralph is on track to lead Vanderbilt to its most wins in a season in program history, and that says something.
Ralph has already led Vanderbilt to its best start to a season in program history after the Commodores started this season 20-0. The history Ralph has made this season and the history she can continue to make, depending on how deep of a tournament run Vanderbilt can make, strongly qualifies Ralph to be in strong consideration to be named the coach of the year.
198 days
No. 3 Vanderbilt men’s golf finished 2nd place at the Watersound Invitational.
Vanderbilt baseball beat Eastern Michigan 16-2.
No. 19 Vanderbilt men’s basketball lost to Missouri 81-80.
Vanderbilt swimming at the SEC Championships, Day 3.
Huge win for the Vanderbilt basketball managers and GAs. Signature win, some might say. https://t.co/oPeH4vdqzG
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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