It’s all well and good that college basketball programs are run like mini-corporations with a board of directors consisting of just one person.
But the year-end award is given to the coach of the year, not an executive of the year, such as Kentucky’s John Calipari or Kansas’s Bill Self, whose best work has been in the offseason. The NCAA wouldn’t want to endorse such an honor for an “amateur” sport, anyway.
With that in mind and the regular season complete, here are some of the top national candidates based on what they’ve achieved on the court during the regular season.
Jim Boeheim, Syracuse » Boeheim’s luring of Iowa State-transfer Wesley Johnson was a general manager-style move that has paid off handsomely. But the Orange weren’t ranked at the beginning of the year after the departure of their three biggest stars last season, and the growth of their former role players is why they rolled through the regular season and could earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Losing to Georgetown, however, didn’t help.
Scott Drew, Baylor » The last time the Bears won this many games (24) was more than 60 years ago. But more importantly, in an absolutely stacked Big 12, Baylor went from being picked 10th in the preseason to finishing in a tie for second. Drew deserves plenty of credit for not only leading the Bears away from their troubled past, but for turning an average team into a contender. Hard to top him for this award.
Bo Ryan, Wisconsin » Are the Badgers among any list of potential national candidates? Overcoming the loss of second-leading scorer, Jon Leuer, for nine conference games, they still beat all three of the teams that finished a half-game above them in the Big Ten, not to mention Duke, too.
Gary Williams, Maryland » Despite being the target of constant criticism for his underachievement in recruiting, Williams has always been one of the best at getting the most out of what he has. There were promising signs that he finally had the right mix coming into the year, but Williams not only rounded them into form, but done it at exactly the right time — March.
