College - St. Martin's
Beginning his fifth season as the head coach of the Connecticut Sun, Mike Thibault continues to burnish his reputation as one of the WNBA’s best coaches. Last year, Thibault led Connecticut its second straight 26-8 season, its third straight Eastern Conference regular season title and its fourth straight trip to the Eastern Conference Finals. With an overall record of 88-48 (.647), Thibault has won more regular-season games in the last four years than any coach in the league.

Connecticut’s two-season record of 52-16 (.764) is the best ever by an Eastern Conference team. Only Los Angeles and Houston have ever won more games in consecutive seasons. Connecticut put together the third longest winning streak in league history, reeling off 12 straight victories from July 16th to August 9th. The Sun clinched a playoff spot with a win at San Antonio on July 22nd, and it locked up the best record in the league for the second straight year with a victory at Indiana on August 9th.

The Sun proved their resiliency during their winning streak. Ten of the victories in that run came without Nykesha Sales, who missed 12 games with a sore Achilles tendon. The Sun were 11-1 overall without Sales, and also went 2-0 without Taj McWilliams-Franklin.

Under Thibault, Connecticut set a WNBA record for defensive rebounds (926). For the fourth straight season, the team also broke franchise records for total assists (630) and assist average (18.5). Additional franchise records that fell included scoring average (78.9 ppg) and total rebounds (1,268).

The Sun have also been remarkably consistent with Thibault guiding the team, rolling to an amazing 30-1 record the past two years against teams that did not make the playoffs. Connecticut’s only loss to a non-playoff team in that time was at Phoenix earlier this season. Since the start of the 2004 season, Connecticut is 25-2 against Eastern Conference teams that failed to make the playoffs.

In September of 2006, Thibault served as an assistant coach, along with Duke coach Gail Goestenkors and Temple coach Dawn Staley on the staff of head coach Anne Donovan, on the 2006 USA Women’s Basketball Team that won the bronze medal at the 2006 World Championships in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

In 2005, Thibault guided the Sun to the best regular season record ever posted by an Eastern Conference team, a 26-8 mark that included a remarkable 13-1 record against the Western Conference and what was then a franchise-record eight game winning streak. Connecticut’s 12-2 start over 14 games was one of the quickest in WNBA history, topped only by Houston’s 13-1 start in 1998.

Only the Houston Comets and Los Angeles Sparks have ever won more games in a regular season than the Sun, who clinched their second straight Eastern Conference regular season title with five games remaining on their schedule. Not since 2001 had a team won as many regular season games as Connecticut did in 2005. In fact, during Thibault’s three years with the Sun, only Los Angeles had won more regular season games than Connecticut, which is 62-40 since relocating from Orlando before the 2003 season.

The top team in the East for the second straight regular season, Connecticut repeated as Eastern Conference Champions by sweeping Detroit and Indiana to reach the WNBA Finals for the second consecutive year. The Sun eventually fell to Sacramento in the WNBA Finals, the first series in league history played under a best-of-five format.

During the 2005 season, Connecticut set 15 team records. Among the new marks established in 2006 were total assists (573), scoring average (72.8 ppg.), made field goals (916), field goal shooting percentage (.452), rebound average (32.6 rpg.), total rebounds (1,110), defensive rebounds (788), made free throws (512), free throw attempts (688) and blocked shots (127). The Sun won eight straight from May 22nd to June 20th.

During the 2004 WNBA season, Thibault led a Connecticut Sun team that was a near-unanimous pick to finish last before the start of the season to within one shot of a WNBA championship. After finishing first in the Eastern Conference during the regular season for the first time in franchise history, the Sun went onto defeat Washington and New York on the way to their first Eastern Conference Championship. Connecticut won the first game of the WNBA Championship series with Seattle before eventually falling in three games.

Connecticut’s accomplishments in 2004 were particularly impressive considering Thibault rebuilt the team following a 2003 run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Concluding the Sun needed to get younger and more athletic, Thibault risked taking a temporary step back to get better. He carried five rookies on the 2004 roster, lowering the average age of his team from 28.4 to 24.2. Among those rookies was point guard Lindsay Whalen, who averaged more than 30 minutes per game running the team.

The Sun also flourished despite losing starting forward Brooke Wyckoff to a season-ending knee injury on May 3rd. Wyckoff and the five other veterans who did not return to the team averaged a combined 30 points, 13.5 rebounds and 7.6 assists per game in 2003.

In 2004, Connecticut set single-season franchise records for total assists (572), assist average per game (16.8) and 20-assist games (nine). The Sun also set a franchise record with six straight wins from June 20th to July 6th, and the team reeled off eight straight Eastern Conference victories at one point. Four of those eight conference wins were on the road. Thibault has never lost more than three games in a row during his tenure with Connecticut.

In his rookie season as a WNBA head coach – following a four-year stint with the Milwaukee Bucks – Thibault led the Connecticut Sun to the first playoff series victory in franchise history, a 2-0 sweep of the second-seeded Charlotte Sting in August of 2003. Although Connecticut would succumb to the eventual WNBA champion Detroit Shock in the Eastern Conference Finals, Thibault guided the team to what was then the best season in the history of the franchise.

Under Thibault, Connecticut has been one of the most aggressive teams in the league in the offseason, not hesitating to make deals that improve the roster. Five of the seven trades in franchise history have occurred since the team relocated from Orlando to Connecticut before the 2003 season. Among the players acquired by Thibault as a result of these trades are Lindsay Whalen, Asjha Jones and Margo Dydek.

Thibault entered the NBA ranks in 1978 as a scout for the Los Angeles Lakers, and was promoted to director of scouting and assistant coach in 1980. The Lakers won two World Championships (1980, 1982) during his tenure. From 1982-1986, he was an assistant coach and director of scouting for the Chicago Bulls during a period when the franchise drafted Michael Jordan and Charles Oakley, while also acquiring John Paxson.

From 1987-88 Thibault was the general manager and head coach of the Calgary 88’s of the World Basketball League (WBL), earning WBL Coach of the Year honors in 1988.

In 1989, Thibault began a remarkable eight-year run as general manager and head coach of CBA’s Omaha Racers. The Racers made the playoffs each season (1989-97) under his watch, bringing home a CBA title in 1993, and a return to the finals in 1994. Thibault was named 1993 Sportsman of the Year by the Omaha sportscasters, and ranks sixth on the CBA all-time coaching victory list (236).

In March of 1995, he coached the silver medal winning USA National Team at the Pan American Games, and in August of 1993, he served as head coach of the gold medal-winning USA National Team at the World Championship Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico.

He spent the 1997-98 season as a scout for the Seattle Sonics.

Raised in Saratoga, Calif., Thibault graduated from St. Martin’s University in 1979.

Mike and his wife Nanci have two children, Eric and Carly.