KSL BYU and college sports reporter
PROVO — Lee Cummard came to BYU as a freshman from Mesa, Arizona, and — apart from a few seasons playing professionally overseas — never left.Now the BYU women's basketball coach will add his name to the record book.
Cummard became the winningest first-year head coach in BYU women's basketball history with Thursday night's 76-61 win over Stanford in the WBIT quarterfinals, when Delaney Gibb and Brinley Cannon combined for 42 points.His 25-11 inaugural campaign has been up and down, with a nonconference win over Virginia Tech and a 9-9 Big 12 record that included regular-season sweeps of regional rivals Utah and Arizona State along with losses to Arizona and Cincinnati that landed the Cougars squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble — and ultimately, among the first four teams left out of the field of 68.But that led BYU to the No. 1 overall seed in the WBIT, which helped Cummard break the previous program record of 24 wins wins by a first-year head coach held by former coach Jeff Judkins — the program legend who added Cummard to his roster of assistant coaches in 2019 after a year as a men's basketball assistant at his alma mater."He is women's basketball at BYU; Jeff Judkins is synonymous with BYU women's basketball," Cummard said when he tied his former mentor after Monday's win over Missouri. "But we've got a great group. They've been all-in from the beginning, and their hard work is paying off and being rewarded. I'm in a really lucky position. Everybody collectively is all-in for the group, and playing for nothing but trying to win the next game."To be in any conversation with coach Judkins is a tremendous honor," he reiterated, "because he is women's basketball at BYU." ⭐️Most Wins By A First-Year Head Coach In Program History⭐️ pic.twitter.com/PvMIBnm8uO— BYU Women's Hoops March 27, 2026 In his lone season as a men's assistant, Cummard helped a team that included all-West Coast Conference honorees Yoeli Childs and TJ Haws to a 20-13 record including a 10-5 mark in WCC play. He also coached Childs, Haws, Eric Mika and Elijah Bryant for three years as a graduate assistant under former coach Dave Rose.But Judkins convinced Cummard to make the move to the women's team in 2019, and he eagerly watched from the end of the bench as Judkins led the program to back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Cummard served as acting head coach for three games when Judkins while Judkins recovered fro
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