The Guru’s Daily March Madness Report: Saint Joseph’s Alum Kuester at Army Wins WBCA Maggie Dixon National Rookie Coach Award; Columbia Wins WBIT 3rd Annual Tourney

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHOENIX, Ariz. – A week ago, prior to Army hosting La Salle in the third round of the WNIT, looking at Black Knights’ first-year coach Katie Kuester’s record, when asked, submitting a nomination for the annual Maggie Dixon Rookie Coach of the Year, a national award presented by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) wasn’t even on the radar of the former Saint Joseph’s star and assistant, a  native of Media, Pa.

“I visit her burial place a lot,” Kuester added.

Dixon, a former assistant at DePaul and sister of men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon two decades ago in 2006 was one of the feel-good stories at the end of the season when he led Pitt to the men’s NCAA tournament and Maggie gave Army its first women’s Patriot League title, the cadets pouring from the stands and carrying her off the court when the buzzer sounded.

A week later, though, tragedy struck through an undetected heart condition that took her life while she was taking a morning run on the grounds of the Military Academy.

Honors in her name in the form of in-season tournaments were created and the WBCA came up with the rookie coach award.

Kuester guided Army to 26 wins and enabled them to be the first Patriot team to reach the Elite Eight of the WNIT after the Knights ended La Salle’s season.

On Wednesday, as stakeholders began arriving here for this weekend’s NCAA Women’s Final Four, the WBCA announced Kuester as the 2026 Maggie Dixon recipient, quite appropriate that an Army coach would win the honor on the 20th anniversary of Dixon’s passing.

“Success in your first year as an NCAA Division I head coach is generally a difficult feat,” said WBCA Executive Director Daneille Donehew in a statement with the announcement release.”

“When a new Division I head coach demonstrates a mastery of managing all aspects of a program, as well as producing success in competition, our coaching family pays respectful attention,” she said.

“Katie led Army West Point to a remarkable season. We celebrate her effort and effectiveness on the basketball court as a teacher and equally applaud the extensive role she plays impacting the lives of her student-athletes.”

Several other WBCA awards were announced Wednesday, Southern Cal’s Jazzy Davidson adding to her collection of freshman of the year honors that previously included the Tamika Catchings Award given by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), and also the Big Ten freshman of the year from the conference.

Meanwhile, the Naismith organization in Atlanta, not to be confused with the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., joined several others already announcing UConn’s Sarah Strong as national player of the year, South Jersey’s Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame as the top defensive player in the nation, and Vanderbilt’s Shea Ralph, a former UConn standout, as coach of the year.

The Associated Press will announce its player and coach Thursday afternoon here in what will be a marathon day for the media beginning early in the morning with the annual ESPN meet the broadcast talent who will be bringing the national semifinals on Friday night between UConn and South Carolina at 7 p.m., the two that met in last season’s title game won by UConn followed by Texas and UCLA at 9:30 p.m.

The championship will air Sunday at 3:20 p.m. on ABC.

There will also be press conferences with the four competing teams.

USA Basketball is in town for a training session with Olympic hopefuls, the WNBA on Friday several hours before the national semifinals, will announce the results of the expansion draft for this summer’s new additions of Toronto and Portland, following the arrival last summer of Golden State.

On Saturday there is a collegiate all-star game at Grand Canyon University.

Early this week, the league announced the Connecticut Sun has been sold to a group in Houston, moving the franchise owned by the Mohegans next summer to Houston, where it will rebrand as the Comets, the name of the team that won the first four WNBA crowns from 1997 to 2000.

The college draft is a week from Monday.

The AP is also holding an event at nearby Arizona State to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the women’s weekly rankings launched in November, 1976, in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Columbia Wins WBIT While Marshall and Illinois State Reach WNIT Final

Finishing the job almost completed three seasons ago when Columbia became the first Ivy team to reach the WNIT final, the Lions in year three of the WBIT run by the NCAA went wire-to-wire in a dominating style Wednesday night, leading by as many as 27 points, to beat BYU of the Big 12 81-64 at the Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas.

Mia Broom led the Lions (25-8) with 23 points while Ivy player of the year Riley Weiss scored 20 points, 14 in the second quarter, and was named Most Outstanding Player.

“I’m just really tremendously proud of our players, especially these three to my left in Perri Page and Susie (Rafiu, her two seniors, and Weiss),” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith, a native of King of Prussia, Pa., in suburban Philadelphia. 

Columbia appeared headed as the No. 1 seed in the four-team Ivy Madness, but Princeton, whom the Lions swept, came back to finish first on the last day of the regular season and then the Lions lost to Harvard in the semifinals.

“Our two seniors just completely made up their minds when we lost in the Ivy League semifinal tournament game, and I think the two of their leadership we could not be here without them and to turn the page and embark on a new mission, I couldn’t say enough about who the two of them have become.”

Columbia was a four seed when the 32-team field began, and BYU (26-12) was the only No. 1 seed to advance the longest of the four who were all the first cuts from the NCAA field.

“Obviously, all the teams in the WBIT are very talented,” Weiss said. “We know that. They are all team and think that they should have made the NCAA tournament or were all really close.

“We obviously knew not to take anyone lightly and we were able to turn the page really quickly when we obviously did not make the NCAA tournament,” Weiss said and then addressed her New York City member of the Ancient Eight able in the semifinals and finals beat two Power 4 teams from the Big Ten and Big 12.

“The Ivy League has a lot of great talent and a lot of high-level basketball, high level IQ. I think that is something special about our league,” Weiss said. “So yeah, it’s nice that we get to show that in the postseason and still playing April 1 and bringing home a championship.”

Meanwhile, in the WNIT, Marshall (27-9), out of the Sun Belt Conference, and Illinois State (24-13), advanced to the title game, Marshall beat host Arkansas State 69-62 on the road while Illinois State won 67-60 at South Dakota (26-10).

Marshall, two years removed from the departure of Kim Caldwell to succeed Kellie Harper at Tennessee, will be back home hosting the Red Birds Saturday at noon on ESPN+.

Roster in Abandon Ship Mode at Tennessee?

A report Wednesday said as many as 11 players at Tennessee are planning to abandon the past flagship of the sport on April 6 when the transfer portal opens.

When Tennessee in what what in what became a season-ending eight-game losing streak got destroyed by South Carolina, she referred to her players as quitters.

The Vols also lost an assistant coach to Southeastern Conference rival LSU.

Meanwhile, joining alum Tanisha Wright at Penn State is all-time program scorer Kelly Mazzante.