The end of the 2011-2012 college basketball season is drawing near. This means 2 things. 1. The greatest time of the year is about to begin in March Madness and 2. The year-end awards are being heavily discussed. While it may be a bit too early to decide on the players of the year (a big part of this award is post season play), the Coach of the Year award can be decided fairly soon since it’s more of a regular season award.
Frank Haith is a trendy name that keeps popping up in a lot of media circles for NCOY. In his first year as Missouri head coach he has taken the Tigers to a 23-2 record, 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] place in the Big 12 and a more than likely #1 seed in the upcoming tournament. While this seems impressive and “Coach of the year” worthy, it’s worth mentioning that Haith inherited a fine basketball team assembled by one Mike Anderson. While Mike didn’t coach Missouri it makes you wonder, if he WERE coaching that team, what would the record be? Possibly comparable. Coach Haith shouldn’t get the nod, because Mike Anderson would deserve half of it.
Bill Self is often mentioned as the one of the best coaches in the game. That is until he plays a 5 seed or higher in the tournament…I digress. Self lost the Morris twins and a few others from last year but didn’t bring in much talent to replace them (what else is new right?). Thomas Robinson, who sat behind the Morris twins for 2 years, has had a monstrous year for Kansas. In fact if it weren’t for TROBASAURUS Kansas might be in a little trouble this year as opposed to being in 1[SUP]st[/SUP] place in the big 12. I feel this is a testament to how good Robinson and Withey are playing instead of how good a job Self has done. Sorry Bill Self, you’ve done well, not the best though.
Kentucky’s head coach John Calipari is the next favorable candidate for COY. Most sports writers and fellow head coaches do not like him and hate voting in any capacity for him. But this is about who deserves the award NOT who will a bunch of douchebags vote for. Kentucky has the nation’s best record, a top ranking, a conference season title locked up and possibly the nation’s best defensive and overall player of the year. Much of the success is due to John Calipari molding this team to a championship caliber squad. He is managing, molding and recruiting this team better than anyone and while I think he has done a great job this year, this may not be his year to win the award due to the overwhelming amount of talent he has this year that most teams simply can’t match up with.
Mike Brey, of all people, may end up winning and deserving this award when all is said and done. After losing his best player, Tim Abromitis, to a torn ACL early in the year the Irish and Brey could have just turned in and called it a year. They didn’t give up, they thrived. They’re overall record is 17-8, but look at some of the Irish’s wins this year: West Virginia, #19 Uconn, #15 Marquette, @ #10 Louisville and #1 Syracuse (by double digits). Those are some impressive wins for any singular team in the NCAA this year. They’re losses are to quality teams like Indiana (that hurt to write), Gonzaga and Mizzou. More importantly Brey and the Irish are in 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] place in the Big East standings with a 9-3 conference record. This year no one expected Notre Dame to win any titles, but after Abromitis went down no one expected Notre Dame to win double digit games. Mike Brey, in my opinion, has done an amazing job literally a team full of nobodies. This would be his 2nd coach of the year award in as many years.
Will it turn out that way in the end?
