NEW YORK – Vanderbilt women’s basketball head coach Shea Ralph was named The Athletic’s women’s basketball Coach of the Year, the publication announced on Friday.
Ralph took a Vanderbilt team that returned just one starter from a season ago and led the Commodores to their most successful regular season in school history in 2025-26. The fifth-year head coach guided Vandy to a 27-3 overall record and a 13-3 mark in SEC games. The Dores concluded the SEC regular season tied for second place, tying the best conference finish in program history.
She is the second Commodore women’s basketball head coach to earn a Coach of the Year honor from a national publication. Ralph joins Jim Foster, who was the USBWA Coach of the Year in 1992-93 after leading the Dores to the Final Four.
The fifth-year head coach developed the nation’s best backcourt this season, as Mikayla Blakes was named the 2025-26 SEC Player of the Year, while Aubrey Galvan was selected as SEC Freshman of the Year.
This season, Ralph guided Vanderbilt to a top-five ranking in both the AP top 25 and the USA Today/WBCA coaches poll for the first time since the 2001-02 season. The Commodores have spent five weeks inside the top five, while they’ve been ranked in the top 10 for nine consecutive weeks heading to the 2026 SEC Tournament.
The 13 SEC wins set the school record for most conference victories in a season. The Dores earned the No. 2 seed in the upcoming SEC Tournament, as Vanderbilt posted its highest finish in the SEC standings since 2008-09.
Meanwhile, the 27 victories are the most in a regular season in school history, while it is the fifth-most overall for a Vanderbilt women’s basketball team. The 27 wins are the most for the Dores since the 2006-07 season. Vandy opened 2025-26 by winning a school-record 20-straight games. Vanderbilt also posted seven wins against ranked foes this season, the most in a regular season since 1995-96.
Vanderbilt went a perfect 16-0 at Memorial Gym this season, marking the first time in program history that the Commodores went undefeated at home in a regular season. Ralph has the Dores on track to host their first NCAA Tournament game since the 2011-12 season.
No. 5/5 Vanderbilt has secured the tournament’s No. 2 seed and will play in its first game at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Friday at 5 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
The Anchored for Her Campaign
Vanderbilt launched the Anchored for Her campaign to honor its pioneering female student-athletes and cement the university’s place as the premier destination for women’s sports ahead of next year’s 50th anniversary of its varsity women’s teams. Bolstered by lead gifts from Vanderbilt Board of Trust members Nina Kohler and Kathleen Justice-Moore, JD’91, Anchored for Her’s initial $50 million goal will fuel investment in sustainable success for a new era of collegiate athletics through facility enhancements, endowed scholarships, coaching and staff positions, capital support and naming opportunities, team-specific Excellence Funds, the Women’s Athletics General Fund and the Competitive Excellence Fund.
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