Henry Iba Award

[MIKESJ73]

I saw this morning that Tony Bennett won his second Henry Iba Coach of the year award as recognized by the USBWA. I looked through the past winners to see who other recipients were and was surprised to see Coach K had never won this award or the AP Coach of the year. Past winners include past greats like Al Skinner, Matt Doherty and Cliff Ellis among others.

Never mind that this year Coach K had 8 scholarship players four of which were freshman and had the same record as the defending ACC champion Virginia which returned 7 of 9 players. How can you have a legitimate award that does not include a guy who has over 1000 wins and four NCAA titles?
It's been 15 years since he won an ACC COY award as well...

[OldPhiKap]

I would argue that this is one of K's most impressive seasons of coaching in his entire career. Four freshmen, eight players, incorporating new defenses, and great results (with the possibility of more to come).

I am afraid K has gotten to the point of sustained success, though, that he will not win many more such awards unless they are for lifetime achievement. Sad, but true.

[sagegrouse]

Congratulations to Coach Bennett.

While Coach K has not won the AP COY award he does have numerous other national awards:

Awards
2 Basketball Times National Coach of the Year (1986, 1997)
3 Naismith College Coach of the Year (1989, 1992, 1999)
1 NABC Coach of the Year (1991)

And in the ACC --
5 ACC Coach of the Year (1984, 1986, 1997, 1999, 2000)

Tsk, tsk, Coach K. It looks like you have gone downhill since the 2000 season. Oh? Two NCAA championships? Two Olympic gold medals? Two FIBA gold medals? Nine ACC championships? Do you think there is a higher hurdle these days for coaching awards?

[Reisen]

On the one hand, I agree that Coach K has gotten a raw deal with COY awards. The reason is pretty obvious: his recruiting has been so strong that the awards tend to go to coaches that produce results with less talent (think Gary Williams with Juan Dixon, Steve Blake, etc.).

That said, I don't think this is the year for him to win ACC or national COY. Great season, certainly some headwinds, but the reality is he has a crazy good freshman class with three likely lottery picks in it. Further, he didn't win the ACC regular season or tourney.

I'm very happy with the season and the results so far, and think he has done an outstanding job, but I think there have been past years where he had better arguments for COY awards.

[CDu]

These type of awards don't typically go to the coach whose team has the most talent. When you have a frontrunner for NPoY and a second All-American candidate (not to mention a couple of candidates for All-Freshman team) and 8 McDonald's All-Americans, people don't perceive it has being as difficult a coaching job to be successful.

Tony Bennett has far less talent on his team than Duke has. I think he's a fine recipient this year. I'd have voted for him over Coach K this year, and I don't think that is a slight on Coach K at all. Coach K has done well in changing the defense, though I think it is worth noting that it didn't take a genius to figure out that the defense needed changing.

I would say that Coach K has been deserving of the award numerous times in his career. 2000 was a good example. Certainly some of his teams in the 80s and 90s are worthy of consideration. But when you have as much talent at your disposal as Coach K has, it's going to be very hard to win the award.

One could make an argument about recruiting being part of coaching (and I think that is valid), but that's just not the way the voters think.

[MIKESJ73]

Coach K has never won the Henry Iba or the AP. Not before all the McDonalds All-Americans/sustained success or after...

I understand the argument that he has more talent than most other coaches recently, but included in the award recipients are Boeheim, Self, Tubby Smith, Izzo, Knight in the last fifteen years. I don't think we beat Syracuse, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, and Indiana every year in recruiting to the point hat we have a competitive advantage. Wooden won 11 of these two and he clearly had the most talent every year during that era.

He should have won the award at least once out of 1986, 1994, 2000, 2010, and this year. Seriously, it almost seems like a personal exclusion by the USBWA and AP.

[cato]

Someone please print out this thread and send it to Coach K. It might be just the bulletin board material he needs to keep coaching for another 5 years.