North Dakota State University women’s basketball head coach, Jory Collins, has been named the recipient of the 2026 Kay Yow National Coach of the Year Award. The award is presented annually to the top head coach in women’s Division I basketball that embodies winning spirit along with displaying great character on and off the court.
Collins helped guide the Bison to the programs third straight 20 win season in 2025-26. NDSU finished the season with a 29-5 record overall. Additionally, the Bison finished 15-1 un Summit League play, winning the program’s first ever regular season Summit League conference title. The Herd tied UConn for the most true road wins in the country, finishing the season 12-0 in those contests. The Bison put together a Summit League record 23-game winning streak during the season, while also ranking No. 1 in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 Poll for the first time in program history.
NDSU clinched a berth in a postseason tournament for the fourth consecutive season, advancing to the second round of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT).
About the Kay Yow Award
CollegeInsider.com pays tribute to one of the true icons of women’s college basketball with the Kay Yow Award, which is presented annually to the Division I women’s head coach who embodies a winning spirit while displaying great character, on and off the court.
Yow, who lost a long battle with cancer in 2009, became the sixth head coach in the history of Division I women’s basketball to reach the 700-win plateau, finishing with a sterling record of 737–344 in her 34 seasons at NC State. She was the first women’s coach in ACC history to eclipse 600 wins at the same school and directed NC State to 19 top-three finishes in the ACC standings. Her 1997-98 squad advanced all the way to the Final Four in Kansas City.
She was wildly successful in every forum in which she coached, leading gold medal winners at the 1981 World University Games, the 1986 Goodwill Games, 1986 World Championship Games and the 1988 Olympic Games. As an assistant, Yow was on the Olympic gold medal winning 1984 coaching staff in Los Angeles. In addition, she was an assistant on the gold medal-winning teams at the 1979 World University Games, the 1983 Pan American Games and the 1984 R. Williams Jones Cup.
*Courtesy of NDSU Athletics
