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BRONX, N.Y. – Fordham women's basketball head coach Neil Harrow was named to the 2027 Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Preseason Watch List, announced by Her Hoop Stats on Thursday morning.

Harrow receives the honor ahead of his first season at the helm of the Fordham women's basketball program. Prior to arriving at Fordham, Harrow spent the 2025-26 season as the head coach of LIU.

In his lone season at LIU, Harrow engineered a remarkable turnaround for the program. Under Harrow, the Sharks finished with a 21-11 record, including a 14-4 mark in conference play. Prior to Harrow's arrival, the Sharks finished the 2024-25 season with a 6-24 record. At LIU, Harrow coached two All-NEC First Team selections, as well as the 2025-26 NEC Player of the Year in Kadidia Toure.

The 2025-26 season also saw LIU make a run to the NEC Championship game. The title game appearance was the first in 16 years for the Sharks, and the fifth total in program history.

Harrow takes over a Rams program that features a blend of new and old faces. Seven newcomers and seven returners make up the first-year head coach's squad heading into the 2026-27 season. Alexis Black leads the group of returners for Fordham; Black was named to the 2026-27 Preseason All-Atlantic 10 Second Team. NJIT transfer Olivia Kulyk highlights the crop of newcomers to Harrow's squad. Kulyk was named to the 2025-26 America East Second Team.

Harrow and Fordham will begin their season on Monday, November 2. The Rams will play host to Niagara in Rose Hill Gym, with tip-off coming at 6 p.m. Coverage will be available on ESPN+.

Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award Eligibility & Schedule
To be eligible for the award, coaches must compete in a conference deemed to be "mid-major." The following conferences are considered high-major for the purposes of this award and thus
ineligible: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, and SEC. Coaches in the re-formed Pac-12 are eligible. Interim head coaches are eligible, though total games coached are taken into consideration.

The 10-person midseason watch list will be announced in January. The five finalists for the award will be announced in March, with the winner being named around the Final Four. Coaches will be assessed across the entire season, including postseason play. Beyond on-court success, other factors such as recruiting, preseason expectations, injuries, and tactical coaching will also be weighed when assessing each candidate. Inclusion on previous watch lists is not a requirement to be considered for future watch lists.

About Kathy Delaney-Smith 
Delaney-Smith's Harvard teams compiled a record of 630-434 (.592) in her 40-year career, including a 367-168 (.685) record in Ivy League play. Delaney-Smith's 630 wins rank 33rd in Division I history. 

Delaney-Smith led her teams to six NCAA Tournament appearances and nine WNIT appearances, plus three Ivy League titles before the NCAA Tournament awarded automatic bids to the Ivy League champion. She coached nine Ivy League Player of the Year recipients, six Ivy League Rookie of the Year winners, and the first 22 of Harvard's 1,000-point scorers in the program's NCAA Division I history. 

Delaney-Smith was inducted into the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1986, becoming the first woman to ever be inducted, with more than three decades of her career still ahead of her. She was also inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. 

A native of Newton, Mass., Delaney-Smith is also among the most accomplished high school players and coaches in the state's history. She was the first woman in state history to score 1,000 points while at Sacred Heart High School. As a high school coach, Delaney-Smith coached Westwood High School to an overall record of 204-31 across 11 seasons, including a 96-game winning streak. 

About Her Hoop Stats 
Her Hoop Stats was founded in 2017 to unlock better insight about women's basketball at all levels. Beginning as a statistics site focused on providing consistent, reliable, and easy-to-access data about women's basketball for both mobile and desktop environments, Her Hoop Stats has expanded to become a leading independent voice in the women's game providing content through their newsletter, podcast network, YouTube channel, and social media accounts (Twitter, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram).