Jory Collins Caps Off Unforgettable Season with Kay Yow Award

The 2025-26 North Dakota State women’s basketball season was one to remember for many reasons. They set a D1 school record in wins, conference wins and consecutive wins.

All led by seventh-year head coach Jory Collins, who took home the Kay Yow Award this past week. The award is given to the top women’s basketball head coach in the country who embodies a winning spirit while displaying winning character on and off the court.

This season was just another building block in what Jory Collins has been building the last seven years. This was the third straight 20-win season, along with a third straight season with a playoff win.

He also led the Bison to their first two Summit League championship games, both of which were losses to SDSU. Along with also winning the first regular season Summit League title in program history.

All of this is just a stepping stone to finally knocking off the South Dakota State Jackrabbits and finally claiming a Summit League tournament title. But along the way, as Collins continues to build this program, he’s going to collect some awards.

The Kay Yow Award will be the sixth personal award that has been brought home to NDSU this 2025-26 season. Avery Koenen’s Summit League Player of the Year, her Defensive Player of the Year, Karrington Asp’s sixth Women of the Year, her Freshman of the Year, Collins Summit League Coach of the Year award, and the Kay Yow Award.

So to wrap up the 2025-26 season, the Bison won a D1 school record 29 games, they won the Summit League regular season title for the first time in program history, defeated South Dakota State in Brookings for the first time in over 10 years, reached the Summit League championship game for the second time in three years and won six awards.

What Collins has built so far is truly special here at NDSU, and he’s not done building. He’s still searching for this program’s first Summit League tournament championship win and its first NCAA tournament berth at the D1 level.

With almost all of this roster coming back in 2026-27 and South Dakota State losing its two top players, you can expect another 25+ win season from this Bison team. Whether they will be the league favorites or not, the preseason is up to the voters. Nonetheless, they will be really good yet again in 2026-27, all led by the head coach and now Kay Yow Award winner Jory Collins.

So if you asked Collins, he probably wouldn’t care too much about the award and would give credit to the players. But if you look at where this program was the day Jory Collins took it to where it is here today, it’s unrecognizable.