Congratulations to the following coaches who have been selected as the Week 14 HoopDirt.com Coach of the Week presented by The Hoop Group. The coaches are now eligible to receive the HoopDirt.com National Coach of the Year Award presented by the Hoop Group which will be announced at the conclusion of the 2016-17 college basketball season.
Nominations for next week’s award can be emailed to: [email protected] – please include a brief statement as to why the coach should be recognized as well as any other information that may be helpful.
The Week 14 winners are:
NCAA DI: Mick Cronin, University of Cincinnati
A big 2-0 week for Mick Cronin’s 18th-ranked Bearcats which included a milestone victory. After opening the week on the road with a 68-54 victory at South Florida, Cronin’s crew returned home Saturday to defeat Tulsa 80-60. Saturday’s win mark the 24th consecutive home victory for Cincinnati, and also netted the 300th career victory for Cronin. The 11th-year man has put together seven consecutive 20+ win seasons and consistently has the Bearcats as a tough out in the NCAA tournament. Sitting at 24-3 (13-1) Cincinnati will look to get Coach Cronin win 301 Thursday night when they host Memphis.
NCAA DII: Mike Helfer, Valdosta State (GA)
Continuing with the trend of milestone victories, Coach Helfer at Valdosta State had a big week, winning his 400th game of his career and 100th Gulf South conference game when he took down 19th ranked Alabama Huntsville (84-81) in overtime, and University of North Alabama (77-74), both on the road. The pair of wins locked up an outright conference title and should give #25 Valdosta (22-4, 17-3 GSC) a top seeding come tournament time.
NCAA DIII: Mark Seidenburg, Delaware Valley University (PA)
Coach Seidenburg has had an incredible run in his first season as the head coach at Delaware Valley (16-9, 11-3). His squad was expected to be a cellar dweller this season, but last week clinched the MAC Freedom regular season title with a pair of big-time wins. They began the week in third place, but beat second-place Eastern University 72-60 on Tuesday. Then needing a win on the road to clinch the number one seed, they went to playoff-bound DeSales and won, 76-67. The number one tournament seed for Delaware Valley was reached for just the second time in program history (2009).
NAIA: Stan Holt, Langston University (OK)
Coach Holt took home a pair of conference wins over Jarvis Christian and 20th ranked Wiley College this past week. The Lions are riding high currently on a six game win streak. On top of that, the week prior Langston took down rival Our Lady of the Lake University in a 23 point thrashing that marked the largest home loss for Our Lady of the Lake. That game also marked the first time in school history that Langston swept Our Lady of the Lake and beat them on their home floor. They’ll look to take down University of the Southwest and Paul Quinn College this week.
JUCO: Scott Schumacher, Blinn College (TX)
Coach Schumacher is one of the best stories in all of college basketball this year. He recorded his 500th career victory earlier in the season – that win came on the heels of a massive heart attack that the long-time coach suffered during a practice on October 30th. Showing us all what perseverance looks like, Blinn has been pulling it out for their head man, and just last week took down Schreiner and Coastal Bend. Blinn is 16-10 on the year and looking to ride this wave of momentum into the last few weeks of the season.
Previous Weekly Winners:
Week 1:
NCAA DI: Tom Crean, Indiana
NCAA DII: Brian Beaury, College of Saint Rose
NCAA DIII: David Hixon, Amherst College
NAIA: Jeff Britt, Bethel College (TN)
JUCO: John Pigatti, South Suburban College (IL)
Week 2:
NCAA DI: Chris Holtmann, Butler
NCAA DII: Ben McCollum, Northwest Missouri State
NCAA DIII: Tom Slyder, Northpark
NAIA: Kevin Burton, Union College (KY)
JUCO: Martin McCann, Palm Beach State
Week 3:
NCAA DI: Scott Drew, Baylor
NCAA DII: Kyle Tolin, Arknasas Monticello
NCAA DIII: Ron Rose, Illinois Wesleyan
NAIA: Craig Doty, Graceland College
JUCO: Steven DeMeo, Northwest Florida State
Week 4:
NCAA DI: Roy Williams, University of North Carolina
NCAA DII: Jerrod Calhoun, Fairmont State University
NCAA DIII: Luke Flockerzi, University of Rochester
NAIA: Kim Elders, Cornerstone University
JUCO: Patrick Smith, Moberly Area Community College
Week 5:
NCAA DI: Steve Forbes, East Tennessee State
NCAA DII: Rodney Watson, University of Southern Indiana
NCAA DIII: Charlie Brock, Springfield College
NAIA: Rollie Massimino, Keiser University
JUCO: Luke Strege, Mineral Area College
Week 6:
NCAA DI: Buzz Williams, Virginia Tech
NCAA DII: Paul Trevor, San Francisco State
NCAA DIII: Eric Bridgeland, Whitman College
NAIA: Jeff Rutter, Arizona Christian
JUCO: David Archer, Jr., Chattahoochee Tech
Week 7:
NCAA DI: Kelvin Sampson, Houston
NCAA DII: Jamie Stevens, Montana State Billings
NCAA DIII: Mark Edwards, Washington University (St. Louis)
NAIA: Kelly Wells, University of Pikeville (KY)
JUCO: Steve Green, South Plains College (TX)
Week 8:
NCAA DI: Randy Bennett, St. Mary’s
NCAA DII: Nelson Haggerty, Midwestern State (TX)
NCAA DIII: Chris Martin, Loras College (IA)
NAIA: Larry Cordaro, LSU Alexandria
JUCO: Todd Lorensen, Southwestern CC (IA)
Week 9:
NCAA DI: Kevin Keatts, UNC Wilmington
NCAA DII: Bob Pietrack, Fort Lewis College (CO)
NCAA DIII: Bob Ghiloni, Denison University (OH)
NAIA: Tony Ingle, Dalton State (GA)
JUCO: Charlie Wilson, Indian River State College (FL)
Week 10:
NCAA DI: Chris Collins, Northwestern University
NCAA DII: Chris Fife, Shippensburg University (PA)
NCAA DIII: Ken Scalmanini, Claremont Mudd Scripps (CA)
NAIA: Sean Hanrahan, Warner University (FL)
JUCO: Matt Ridge, Davidson County CC (NC)
Week 11:
NCAA DI: Josh Pastner, Georgia Tech
NCAA DII: TJ Dekmar, Goldey-Beacom College (DE)
NCAA DIII: John Krikorian, Christopher Newport University (VA)
NAIA: Justin Wetzel, Dickinson State University (ND)
JUCO: Chuck Moore, Richard Bland College (VA)
Week 12:
NCAA DI: Donyell Marshall, Central Connecticut State
NCAA DII: Joe Gallo, Merrimack College (MA)
NCAA DIII: Stephen Brennan, Babson College (MA)
NAIA: Ryan Wall, Our Lady of the Lake University (TX)
JUCO: Hank Plona, Indian Hills Community College (Iowa)
Week 13:
NCAA DI: Dave Wojcik, San Jose State University
NCAA DII: Lonn Reisman, Tartelton State
NCAA DIII: Chuck McBreen, Ramapo College (NJ)
NAIA: Bill Dreikosen, Rocky Mountain College (MT)
JUCO: Josh Mills, Ranger College (TX)
