BEDFORD PARK, Ill. - Following one of the most successful season's for NIU women's basketball's in the last two decades, Head Coach Lisa Carlsen was selected as one of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association's Division I Coaches of the Year. The honor is her fourth in the last five seasons.

Carlsen, who just finished her second season at NIU, guided the Huskies a 10-game turnaround in 2016-17 to and to a fourth-place finish in the Mid-American Conference, clinching a First Round bye in the MAC Tournament.

From there, NIU completed one of the biggest NCAA Division I comebacks in postseason history, overcoming a 22-point deficit against Ohio in the quarterfinals at the Cleveland Cavaliers' Quicken Loans Arena. It was the last of six double-digit comebacks by the Huskies this season.

Northern Illinois University finished the 2016-17 season 21-12, capping an incredible run to the MAC Tournament Championship game with a berth into the WNIT, the program's first postseason appearance since 1995. NIU finished fifth in the country in scoring, averaging 85.1 points per game.

Carlsen earned the distinction alongside DePaul's Doug Bruno and Western Illinois' JD Gravina. She is the first honoree at NIU since Jane Albright won following the 1991, 1993 and 1994 seasons.

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