Williams named Big Ten Coach of the Year, Whitish and Cain also honored

Nebraska women’s basketball head coach Amy Williams was named the 2018 Big Ten Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year on Monday in a vote of the conference’s media and coaches.

The second-year coach has led one of the nation’s top turnaround, guiding Nebraska to a 20-9 overall record and an 11-5 mark in Big Ten play to claim the No. 3 seed at this week’s Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis.

Nebraska has posted a 13-game improvement in the win column over its 7-22 record last year – that’s the biggest improvement in the nation this season.

Williams was named one of ten finalists for the Naismith National Coach-of-the-Year award last week.

Williams also captured back-to-back Summit League Coach-of-the-Year honors as the head coach at South Dakota in 2015 and 2016 before taking the job at her alma mater in April 2016.

That wasn’t the only honor for Nebraska this week. Sophomore guard Hannah Whitish captured second-team All-Big Ten from both the coaches and the media, while freshman center Kate Cain earned a spot on both the five-player Big Ten All-Defensive Team and All-Freshman Team  which are chosen by the coaches.

Whitish led the Huskers in scoring with 12.7 points, 5.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game.

Cain meanwhile led her team with 3.1 blocks per game and shattered Nebraska’s single-season record with 91 blocks. She helped the Huskers lead the Big Ten in field goal percentage defense (37.1) and three-point percentage defense (30.3).

Cain produced five double-doubles this season and led the Big Red with a 57.5 percent field goal percentage.

Nebraska captured the No. 3 seed in this week’s Big Ten Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis this week. The Huskers will take the court in the quarterfinals on Friday evening at approximately 7:30 p.m. central.