Shea Ralph, Sarah Strong savor AP basketball awards with Vanderbilt and UConn families present

PHOENIX (AP) — Shea Ralph surveyed the room as she received The Associated Press Coach of the Year award and all she saw was family.

On one side was the Vanderbilt coach's assistants and school administrators, as well as her husband, daughter and mother. On the other, was her mentors from UConn, including Huskies coaches Geno Auriemma and Chris Dailey, for whom she played and worked alongside.

That made receiving the award alongside UConn's Sarah Strong, who was the AP Player of the Year, extra special. The entire UConn team — including Auriemma — gave Ralph a standing ovation when she accepted the trophy.

“I think literally my entire life is here,” Ralph said. I played at UConn. You guys are my sisters. I love watching you succeed. Your coaches were my coaches and I learned everything from that man sitting right there. ... The reason that I’m successful is because of you guys and I can’t thank you enough for being here."

Ralph did take a playful jab at Auriemma, saying he called her "one of the least coachable players he's ever had, so it's ironic she's winning Coach of the Year."

Strong also praised her UConn teammates, who were all in attendance.

“I’m so blessed because I totally got to this point in my life because of my teammates," Strong said.

Auriemma was touched by seeing Ralph receive the award he has won nine times and Strong be honored as the best player in the country.

“That’s the biggest thank you that you can get as a coach,” Auriemma told the AP of Ralph winning. “Sarah, I told everybody that I knew when we were recruiting her that this kid’s got a chance to be pretty special. I mean, the best player in the country, if it’s done right, I don’t know that it would happen this fast. To watch a kid like this and realize that they’re different is really special."

Strong became just the fifth player to win the award in her sophomore year, joining Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris (2007), UConn stars Maya Moore (2009) and Breanna Stewart (2014), and USC’s JuJu Watkins, who won it last year. The AP started giving out the award in 1995.

It’s the 13th time a Huskies player has won the award, with Paige Bueckers being the last to do it before Strong in 2021.

Strong received 25 votes from a national media panel that votes for the Top 25 each week. Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes garnered four votes and UCLA’s Lauren Betts got the other two. Voting was completed before the NCAA Tournament began.

Ralph led a team that returned just one starter to the most successful season in school history. Vanderbilt went 29-5, with 13 of those wins coming in the regular season against a rugged Southeastern Conference schedule. The Commodores finished tied for second in the conference, which matched the best finish in program history. They earned a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament and reached the Sweet 16.

“It’s wild. It’s hard to wrap my mind around it. This whole year, we haven’t slowed down,” Ralph told the AP. “I love basketball, I love the group that I coach. I love they stayed with me. It’s been hard and it’s been challenging, but in a good way.”

Ralph received 23 votes from the 31-member national media panel that votes on the AP Top 25 each week. UCLA’s Cori Close, who was the AP Coach of the Year last season, was next with four. Auriemma received two votes, while Mark Kellogg of West Virginia and Kara Lawson of Duke each got one.

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Associated Press deputy global sports editor Oscar Dixon, left, presents UConn's Sarah Strong with the 2026 AP Women's Player of the Year award during a news conference at the Women's Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Associated Press deputy global sports editor Oscar Dixon, center, talks about Vanderbilt women's basketball head coach Shea Ralph as the 2026 AP Women's Coach of the Year and UConn's Sarah Strong as the 2026 AP Women's Player of the Year, during a news conference at the Women's Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Associated Press deputy global sports editor Oscar Dixon, left, presents Vanderbilt women's basketball head coach Shea Ralph with the 2026 AP Women's Coach of the Year award during a news conference at the Women's Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Vanderbilt women's basketball head coach Shea Ralph, left, the 2026 AP Women's Coach of the Year and UConn's Sarah Strong, the 2026 AP Women's Player of the Year, pose for photographs during a news conference at the Women's Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ousted the Army’s top uniformed officer and two other generals, the Pentagon said Thursday without giving a reason for the departures while the United States is waging a war against Iran.

Gen. Randy George “will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately,” said Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman. George has held the post of Army chief of staff, which typically runs for four years, since August 2023 under the Biden administration.

The ouster, reported earlier by CBS News, is just the latest of more than a dozen firings of top generals and admirals by Hegseth since he took office last year. Like many of those other firings, Pentagon officials are not offering a reason for George's departure, which comes nearly five weeks into U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and with no clear timeline from President Donald Trump on when the war may end.

Hegseth also has ousted Army Gen. David Hodne and Army Maj. Gen. William Green, according to a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive leadership changes. A reason for their departures also was not given.

Gen. Christopher LaNeve will be stepping in as acting Army chief of staff, the Pentagon official said. LaNeve was serving as Hegseth’s top military aide when Trump suddenly nominated him to be the Army's vice chief of staff last October. It is a meteoric rise for an officer who was only a two-star general two years ago.

He would take over for George, who is a graduate of West Point Military Academy and an infantry officer who served in the first Gulf War as well as Iraq and Afghanistan. He also served as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s top military aide from 2021 to 2022 during the Biden administration before taking on top leadership roles in the Army.

George made it through the initial round of firings under the Trump administration in February 2025, when Hegseth removed top military leaders, including Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top uniformed officer, and Gen. Jim Slife, the No. 2 leader at the Air Force. Trump also fired Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Since then, more than a dozen other top military generals and admirals have either retired early or been removed from their posts.

Among those departures was George’s deputy, Gen. James Mingus, who was vice chief of staff of the Army for less than two years. LaNeve was nominated to that post after earlier being plucked from commanding the Eighth Army in South Korea after less than a year in the job to be Hegseth’s top military aide.

A spokesman for George could not be reached for comment.

Of the other generals who were fired, Hodne had been head of the Army Transformation and Training Command, a unit that was only stood up in December as part of George’s effort to modernize the Army and amid Hegseth’s push to reduce the number of general officers in the military.

Green had been the Army’s chief of chaplains. Hegseth announced two major reforms to the military’s chaplain corps a little over a week ago.

In a video message last week, Hegseth said he wanted chaplains to focus more on God and less on therapeutic “self-help and self-care.” In recent years, the military has become increasingly dependent on chaplains to help address the growing numbers of troops in mental health distress. Hegseth also said chaplains would no longer wear their rank on their uniform but instead would be identified by religious insignia.

The leadership shakeup comes as Army paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne division are heading to the Middle East along with thousands of Marines and other assets. The Trump administration has avoided questions about whether or not the U.S. military will deploy ground troops against Iran.

In a prime-time address Wednesday about the war, Trump offered no end date for the conflict and few details on his strategy going forward but did forecast more military action.

“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said of Iran, before adding that “we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”

Hegseth echoed that sentiment after the speech, with a post on social media that simply read, “Back to the Stone Age.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said on X that Trump’s comment “reflects ignorance, not strength,” noting that Iran’s civilization spans over 7,000 years.

This story has been corrected to show that Gen. Jim Slife’s name was misspelled Silfe.

FILE - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George review troops during the POW/MIA National Recognition Day Ceremony at the Pentagon, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George speaks during the POW/MIA National Recognition Day Ceremony at the Pentagon, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, file)

FILE - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George review troops during the POW/MIA National Recognition Day Ceremony at the Pentagon, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George speaks during the POW/MIA National Recognition Day Ceremony at the Pentagon, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, file)