Unrivaled Coach of the Year selection makes perfect sense

Unrivaled has named its Coach of the Year: Lunar Owls head coach DJ Sackmann, a world-renowned basketball skills coach who led his club to a league-best 13-1 record. The Owls, headlined by Napheesa Collier, Allisha Gray, and Skylar Diggins-Smith, dominated the league en route to a near-undefeated season and the top seed in the Unrivaled playoffs, which tip off Sunday.

While several candidates had strong cases, the Owls routed the competition with just five rostered players, and saw Collier be named to the All-Unrivaled First Team and Diggins-Smith to the Second Team. The Owls outscored opponents by 170 points through 14 games; the next-highest point differential was the Rose Club’s +24.

Sackmann expressed his gratitude for the award, and gave credit to his assistant coach, in the official press release.

“I’m so grateful to receive this award, but it’s really for the players and our assistant coach Maggie Rosario,” he said. “Without them, none of this would be possible. It was a big learning curve for me, and having players who have high basketball IQs who are easy to coach made this really special. Shout out to our squad.”

Adam Harrington, who coached the Phantom Club this past season, gushed before the season about Sackmann’s teaching abilities.

“He’s probably the best at being able to describe what he is teaching,” said Harrington, another Unrivaled head coach. “He’s such a phenomenal speaker and teacher.”

Before the Unrivaled season, Sackmann had individually trained WNBA players, but he’d never done formally coached in the league.

“I’ve always been a fan of the WNBA,” Sackmann said. “So, when I got the call for this, I was extremely excited. I’ve been able to spend offseasons working with [WNBA] players and got to understand the development side of things. When I got this, I just looked at it as an opportunity to learn from the best women in the world from my side of development, and then also be able to help them grow and work on their game throughout the offseason.”

SB Nation’s pick for the award was Nola Henry, who guided the Rose Club to an 8-6 record, good for second-best in the league. Sackmann was our second-choice selection.

Henry’s club won 6 of its final 8 games without, despite missing Kahleah Copper for the final month of the season. She was able to maximize the duo of Chelsea Gray and Angel Reese, both of whom were named to the All-Unrivaled Team.

Andrew Wade, who led the injury-laden Laces club to a 7-7 record and a playoff berth, was our third-choice selection for Unrivaled Coach of the Year. The Laces lost Tiffany Hayes (concussion), Jackie Young (leg), Kate Martin (leg), and Alyssa Thomas (leg) all for considerable time, but still managed to finish with the league’s third-best record.