Bruce Pearl of Auburn, St. John’s Rick Pitino Early earns AP Coach of the Year Award in the first kinship
For the first time in its 58 -year -old story, the race for the Associated Men’s College Basketball Coach of the Year prize has ended in a draw. The leader of Auburn Bruce Pearl and Rick Pitino by St. John share the honor after every leader of significant reversals for their programs.
Of the votes expressed by the national media panel that classifies the Top 25 of the AP during the season, Pearl and Pitino each received 20 votes. Louisville Pat Kelsey’s coach followed with eight votes while Duke’s Jon Scheyer got five. The Missouri Dennis Gates and Tom Izzo coach of the state of Michigan gained three votes each. Two coaches completed the contenders with one vote each: Ben McCollum by Drake and Eric Olen of UC San Diego.
Pearl brought Auburn to one of his best seasons in the history of the program. The tigers spent eight consecutive weeks at number 1 and brought home their third regular season title, their second from Pearl’s Assing in 2014. Now it is the second coach Auburn to win AP Coach of the Year, following the victory of Cliff Ellis in 1999, and became the first winner of the century since John Calipari won him to Kentucky in 2015.
Auburn entered the NCAA tournament as absolute seed after winning 32 games of the regular season, most of the history of the program. The tigers face Florida on Saturday in the opening match of the Final Four. The matchup only scores the second time that Auburn has passed to the semifinal round of the tournament. Pearl led the tigers to their first final appearance of four (a defeat for 63-62 in Virginia) in 2019.
Pitino is coming out of his second season to St. John’s, who saw the red storm raise a seed n. 2 in the NCAA tournament. Pitino brought the program to 31 wins, linked for most of the history of the program and a title of the regular season of the Big East. He has been the first of St. John since 2000. He has been the first coach of history to conduct six different teams at the NCAA tournament, and is the first coach of St. John to win the AP Award.
After a dominant victory over Omaha, St. Johns lost against Arkansas n. 10 During the round of 32. The loss was one of the largest upheavals of this year’s tournament.
(Photo via ap)
