Gayle Coats Fulks Is the National Coach of the Year

The level of coaching in the Atlantic 10 is as high as I can remember. The league has a very strong opportunity to send 3 teams to the Big Dance for the first time ever. Aaron Roussell's Spiders are 49-11 the past 2 seasons and may well be a single digit seed in the upcoming tournament. Vanessa Blair-Lewis has Mason on the right side of the bubble, aiming for their first tournament appearance ever. Tammi Reiss's Rhode Island Rams have 2 postseason appearances in their streak of three consecutive 20 win seasons, while Rebecca Tillett has led Saint Louis to an NCAA berth and NIT bid in her first couple of seasons in Midtown. The mainstay among the league's best is Cindy Griffin, with 11 NIT berths and 2 NCAA appearances in two and a half decades on Hawk Hill. A10 WBB is healthier than ever.

It's almost certain several of these coaches add a postseason bid to their resumes this year. It will be well deserved. There is one A10 coach, though, flying under the national radar. Despite enduring a horrifying end to last season, her program has bounced back to even greater heights in 2025.

Gayle Coats Fulks and Davidson went through absolute hell at the end of the 2024 season. That they can finish 2025 as one of the school's best teams ever is a minor miracle. It's time the nation was paying attention.

From Hell

A team being physically unable to finish a season feels almost unimaginable, but Davidson had it happen just last season. Unless you followed it firsthand, I'm not sure it's possible to illustrate just how deflating and demoralizing it is to watch your teammates go down one after another. The Cats lost Rosie Deegan and Sylvie Jackson in similar fashion in the same game at George Mason. Elle Sutphin soon had her nagging injury flare up again and subsequently missed time. Charlise Dunn had a season-ending knee injury against Loyola-Chicago. Issy Morgan got hurt late in the season. Davidson brought on two intramural all stars as walk on depth for their final games.

No one should have to endure what Davidson did, but the horrible luck was exacerbated by the fact Davidson's hopes were to contend for a title. The Cats built slowly to contention for several years, and the ceiling was astronomically high. The highlight, of course, was the win in Cameron Indoor Stadium against Duke. Outside of that game, though, Davidson pushed top 25 UNC to the brink on the road and defeated Wake Forest en route to a 12-1 start. Needless to say, that was the best in program history. The potential was apparent to the very end, with Davidson winning four straight late in the conference slate. That stretch was highlighted by an incredible 75-67 win over George Mason at home with only 7 players in the rotation.

Playing basketball at a high level in 24/25 would be a massive ask after such an ordeal. Playing basketball at all would be an achievement in and of itself. However, Davidson did not waste time reloading after mourning the unthinkable end to the 23/24 season. I've never seen a coaching staff instill so much mental toughness into a team, and the result is that Davidson has gotten off the mat in stunning fashion this year.

The Youth Movement

Davidson's last two recruiting classes have been loaded. In fact, they're so good that Davidson has seen essentially no drop off in pure talent after losing two of the greatest players in program history.

Last year was initially The Year, thanks to the return of two All-A10 caliber seniors in Rosie Deegan and Elle Sutphin. The additions of Charlise Dunn via transfer and Katie Donovan brought in two future stars in this league. Sylvie Jackson joined Donovan to round out an excellent freshman class, though she's sat out this season to preserve eligibility and recover from her injury.

Davidson brought in an even larger group this past offseason to build a deeper roster than ever. Kyra Bruyndoncx, Candice Lienafa, Emilie Bessell, Sienna Dauer, and Edina Strausz formed a massive signing class with high level experience. Jasmine Timmerson rounded out the group as a transfer guard.

Assembling talent is one thing; having them immediately ready to face the grind of a full A10 season is another. Due to the absence of upperclass players Charlise Dunn, Issy Morgan, Millie Prior, and Tomisin Adenupe at various points, Davidson has routinely asked its young talent to do a ton of heavy lifting. Lienafa and Bruyndoncx have combined to start 21 games for the Cats, and have both played upwards of 20 minutes a night. Bruyndoncx has immediately become one of the league's best shooters, shooting 38% from deep and 87% from the charity stripe despite serving as the primary ball handler for the meat of the A10 schedule. Lienafa's defensive presence and athleticism give her incredible advanced metrics: she's at a highly efficient 61.0 eFG% and a team best 6.7 box plus-minus. Donovan has started all 24 games of her sophomore season; she's responded by averaging 10/5/2 and becoming a plus 3PT shooter at 33% to complement her post game.

The other young talent has also stepped up in the Cats' hours of need. Dauer played a huge role in Davidson's win over VCU, scoring 8 with a dagger three and ballhandling in the absence of Issy Morgan. Bessell likewise stepped up during Morgan's short absence, bringing steady PG play. An 8 point outing against one of the A10's best in Rhode Island highlighted her season so far. Timmerson played crucial minutes at point in Fairfax in Davidson's near miss against the Patriots. The coaching staff's management of the young stars has emphasized their respective strengths in big moments, and it's allowed Davidson to endure injuries to the team's veteran leadership.

The result of all this shuffling is that freshmen and sophomores have played 55% of Davidson's available minutes (2640/4800) this season at the time of writing. Cut that to solely first year players, and it's 33% (1581/4800). This is not normal for a contending team.

The other double bye teams have far, far fewer underclass contributors. Richmond is at 18.6% of minutes played by underclass players, with sophomore Ally Sweeney accounting for the lion's share at 678. George Mason, led by Kennedy Harris, is at 26.5%, while St. Joeseph's is at 34.6%. Freshmen are generally invisible: UR 4.4%, GMU 9.4%, SJU 10.5%. Except for Davidson's.

Such Great Heights

One of the easiest ways to measure a coach's ability is to see how their team performs in toss up games. The middle of the A10 has taken major strides: Dayton, UMass, and Fordham all took massive leaps into double bye contention. Rhode Island bounced back from a tough non-conference to remain one of the league's best. Duquesne retained Megan McConnell, one of the best players in Mid Major basketball. To get a double bye, Davidson needed to take 3 out of 5 of these ostensibly coin flip games.

Well, it's Valentine's Day, and Davidson is 4-0 against the teams above, with only Fordham left to play in the friendly confines of Belk Arena. Three of those wins came on the road, and the Cats have decisively won every matchup. Three of the four wins came by double digits, and Davidson's average margin of victory is 11. The variety of ways in which the Cats have won is equally impressive. Duquesne relentlessly pressed Davidson, but the Cats never looked back after taking the second quarter lead despite an off shooting night (6-21 3PT). Against UMass, it came via an incredibly tough defensive performance. Powered by dominant rebounding (14% opponent ORB%) and disruptive length (their TO% forced was 28%), they held UMass to a season low 38 points.

With the tiebreaker secured over all these opponents, Davidson is in command of the final double bye slot. The Cats only need to beat the teams they're sizable favorites against to get to 12 wins. They don't even need to upset Richmond or George Mason in their upcoming rematches -- although that would certainly be nice. 12-6 would mark the program's best season ever in A10 play. They'll have the chance to clinch the program's first 20 win season since joining the A10 in the postseason.

Having a realistic path to winning the Whole Damn Thing in Henrico seemed like a tall task when Davidson faced setbacks against a difficult non-conference schedule. At one point, the Cats played 4 top 50 teams in a row, all away from home. To make matters worse, Charli Dunn was not initially available while finishing her recovery from knee surgery, and Millie Prior missed a couple of games due to a shoulder injury. The turning point undoubtedly came at NC State, where the Cats were one play away from beating a reigning Final Four participant and current top 10 team. From there, the dam broke, and outside of one short slump in conference play (due largely to Morgan's absence), Davidson has looked like a top 75 team in the nation.

Bright Future

Davidson will dearly miss all 4 of its graduating seniors. They can go out on a high note with a double bye and some form of postseason play. However, the 'Cats are prepared for a future without Morgan, Haines, Prior, and Adenupe. Davidson has the most exciting young core in the A10, and they've gotten already huge experience. Imagining Kyra Bruyndoncx or Candice Lienafa making the leap Katie Donovan made last offseason is truly scary. Any lineup with Bruyndoncx, Donovan, Dunn, and Lienafa offers incredible spacing and defensive versatility, and every Cats fan should be extremely excited at the ceiling of this team both now and in the coming seasons.

Nothing is guaranteed in college sports, and, above all else, I'm grateful that Davidson has bounced back from everything they endured to play basketball again at any level. Competing again so quickly is just a bonus. If Davidson can keep this group of coaches and players together, though, this program can reach greater heights than ever. Coach Fulks, the assistants, and players deserve all the credit in the world for putting this season together from the ashes. (Davidson getting them all a nice payday next year would be great, too.)