The Naismith Awards announced their college basketball coach finalists on Monday, which includes four men's and four women's basketball coaches.
All of the men's coaches selected as finalists are first-time nominees. Three of the coaches would be first-time winners for their respective schools, as well. The finalists are headlined by Duke's Jon Scheyer (who would become the second Duke coach after Mike Krzyzewski won three times), Auburn's Bruce Pearl, St. John’s Rick Pitino and Houston’s Kelvin Sampson. Pearl, Pitino and Sampson were named coach of the year in their respective conferences.
Three of the coaches above are No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, while St. John's was a two-seed. St. John's is also the only program that didn't advance past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, losing to Arkansas in the round of 32.
On the women's side, four-time Naismith winner South Carolina's Dawn Staley leads the nominee list. She's won the award the past three seasons. The other nominees include TCU's Mark Campbell, UCLA’s Cori Close and Southern California’s Lindsay Gottlieb, who are all first-time nominees and would win the first Naismith coaching award for their schools. Campbell and Gottlieb were named coach of the year in their respective conferences.
South Carolina, UCLA and USC are all No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, while TCU is a two-seed. So far, all these teams except USC (who play Mississippi State on Monday night) have advanced to the second round of the tournament.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Dawn Staley, Jon Scheyer Headline Finalists for Naismith Coach of the Year Awards.
