Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve named WNBA Coach of the Year
MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve has been named the 2016 WNBA Coach of the Year. Reeve received 17 votes from a national panel of 39 sportswriters and broadcasters.
This is second Coach of the Year honor for Reeve in her 7 seasons with the Lynx, having received the award in 2011. The Lynx have won 155 games over the last 6 seasons under Reeve and have won 3 WNBA Championships (2011, 2013 and 2015) in a 5-year span.
Reeve guided the Lynx to a 28-6 record in 2016 – the best regular season in the franchise’s 18-year history. Since taking over the Lynx bench in 2010, Reeve’s .706 winning percentage (168-70) ranks first in WNBA history.
Minnesota began its best regular season in the franchise’s 18-year history by winning its first 13 contests, the longest season-opening winning streak in league history. The Lynx finished the season with a team record for total victories wins (28) and matched team bests in home and road wins (15 and 13, respectively). Minnesota’s 13-4 mark away from Target Center marked its league-record sixth consecutive winning road record and the team’s 15-2 home record was the WNBA’s best home record this season. Additionally, Minnesota went 15-1 against Western Conference opponents, including winning all eight road games, becoming the first team in WNBA history to go through a season unbeaten on the road vs. the Western Conference.
Prior to reaching the WNBA, the former Rhodes Scholar nominee and basketball star at Philadelphia’s La Salle University spent 12 years at the collegiate level, including head coaching roles at Indiana State and George Washington. She then moved to the WNBA where stints as an assistant under Anne Donovan in Charlotte (2001-02, 2004-05) and Dan Hughes in Cleveland (2003) laid the foundation for an extremely successful tenure as an assistant with the Detroit Shock.