Well, recruiting just got a little bit easier for University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball coach Shawn Poppie.
After leading the program to the Southern Conference tournament championship and a 20-13 record this past season — a 13-win improvement over the 2021-22 team — Poppie has been selected as the Spalding Maggie Dixon NCAA Division I Rookie Coach of the Year by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. The WBCA announced the honor Wednesday.
It’s the 17th season for the award, with past recipients including former Tennessee coach Holly Warlick.
Poppie was an assistant at Virginia Tech for six seasons before being hired to lead the Mocs a year ago at this time, and his first UTC team was competitive from the outset.
The Mocs had single-digit losses to nonconference opponents that — like UTC — eventually reached national postseason events: Belmont (Women’s National Invitation Tournament) and Alabama (NCAA tournament). The Mocs also lost to Tennessee’s Lady Volunteers, who reached the NCAA’s Sweet 16 last weekend before losing to No. 1 seed Virginia Tech — which will take part in the Final Four this weekend after starting its tourney run with a win against UTC.