Olympic Assistant Mike Thibault Earns 2008 WNBA Coach of the Year Honor

New York - Sept. 20, 2008 - WNBA

Connecticut Sun Head Coach Mike Thibault, fresh off his return from Beijing where he assisted the USA to its fourth straight Olympic gold medal, is the recipient of the 2008 WNBA Coach of the Year award presented by AOL.com, the WNBA announced today. Thibault received 24 votes from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. The award marks Thibault's second such honor, having first earned it in 2006.

In addition to guiding the Sun to a 21-13 record in 2008, Thibault spent a good portion of the year on the road with the 2007-08 USA Basketball Women's National Team. At the end of the 2007 season, Thibault was on the sidelines as the U.S. earned its Olympic berth by capturing the gold medal with a perfect 5-0 record at the FIBA Americas Championship in Valdivia, Chile. After a two-week break he aided USA head coach Anne Donovan and the USA Select Team at the FIBA World League Tournament in Ekaterinburg, Russia, to a 4-2 record and the silver medal against some of the world's top club teams. Following immediately on the heels of the tournament in Russia, Thibault helped the U.S. to an 8-0 record in the USA's 2007 College Tour. Prior to the start of the Sun's '08 training camp Thibault traveled to Spain with the USA team for a training camp and a two-game sweep of Spain's top two professional teams in Valencia and Salamanca.

After an overhaul of the Sun's roster in the offseason, Thibault opened the season with the third-youngest team in the league and a roster devoid of three of the top five scorers from the previous year. He steered the Sun to a three-game improvement over 2007, finishing with a record of 21-13 and earning the No. 2 playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Despite carrying six rookies on the roster, the Sun jumped out to one of its hottest starts in franchise history, winning nine of the first 11 games.

Under Thibault, the Sun ranked third in the league in scoring, fifth in defense and tied for first in point differential. Connecticut was the first team to earn a 2008 postseason berth, which sealed their sixth-consecutive playoff appearance, all with Thibault at the helm. Throughout the year, Thibault slotted two rookies into the starting lineup in 25 games and even started three rookies once.

After taking over the Sun upon the franchise's relocation to Connecticut in 2003, Thibault has guided them to six consecutive finishes above .500, including their first season with a winning record. In 2005 and 2006, Thibault's Sun finished with 26 wins, more than any other Eastern Conference team in league history. In 2007, he became the third-fastest coach in WNBA history to win 100 regular season games. Over the course of his career, he holds a .623 winning percentage, fourth best all-time.