Rick Pitino headlines Naismith Coach of the Year finalists
BY ALEJANDRO LOPEZ
The season may be over for Rick Pitino and St. Johns after their defeat at the hands of Arkansas but there is still an opportunity to bring home some more hardware for one of the game’s premier coaches.
The Naismith Coach of the Year finalists have been announced and here are the contenders:
Rick Pitino, St. Johns
Bruce Pearl, Auburn
Kelvin Sampson, Houston
Jon Scheyer, Duke
The award winner will be named during the annual Naismith Awards Dinner, which will be held on Friday, April 4, in San Antonio, before the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four.
Of the four finalists, Pitino is the only coach to be eliminated from the NCAA Tournament before the Sweet 16. Regardless, in his second season with the program, Pitino led St. John’s to a 31-5 record and an all-time high 18-2 record in BIG EAST play for the program.
On Friday, Pitino was named National Coach of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers’ Association (USBWA) and the BIG EAST Coach of the Year. He is just the second-ever coach to be named coach of the year in four different conferences after Dana Altman.
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