Sun's Stephanie White named WNBA Coach of the Year

Stephanie White of the Connecticut Sun has been named the 2023 WNBA Coach of the Year.

In her first season as head coach of the Sun, White led the team to a 27-13 record, the most victories ever for the franchise. Connecticut allowed a league-low 79.0 points per game and earned the No. 3 seed in the playoffs.

The Sun host the No. 6 Minnesota Lynx on Sunday and are up 1-0 in the best-of-three first-round series.

She is the third Sun coach to be named Coach of the Year, following Mike Thibault (2006, 2008) and Curt Miller (2017, 2021).

White, 46, also is the fourth former WNBA player to honored, along with Becky Hammon (2022), Sandy Brondello (2014) and Suzie McConnell-Serio (2004).

A national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters named White on 36 ballots. Latricia Trammell of the Dallas Wings was second with 11 votes, and Brondello of the New York Liberty was third with six votes. Hammon of the Las Vegas Aces got three votes, and Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx and Tanisha Wright of the Atlanta Dream each gained two votes.

White previously spent two years as the head coach of the Indiana Fever, leading the team to the WNBA Finals in her first season in 2015 and the playoffs the following year.