Congratulations to the following coaches who have been selected as the Week 1 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 1 winners are:

NCAA DI: Tom Crean, Indiana

Following an impressive early season win over a highly touted Kansas team, Crean’s Hoosiers followed that up with two blowout victories last week to improve their ranking in the AP Poll from 6^th to 3^rd. Indiana has had an exciting and frenetic pace offensively as evidenced by the fact that they’re 10^th in the country in points per game. They’ll look to add two more wins this week against Mississippi Valley State and a talented IPFW squad before the November 30^th showdown against North Carolina.

 

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NCAA DII: Brian Beaury, College of Saint Rose

Coach Beaury had a banner week at Saint Rose, with wins against Concordia, AIC and New Haven. His team is now off to a 4-0 start, including 2-0 in the Northeast-10. Saturday’s win against New Haven was the 600th of his career, cementing his status as one of the top Division II coaches in the country and he becomes only the 18^th DII coach to reach that milestone. His squad travels to Pace University on Tuesday before heading to Puerto Rico for three games over the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

 

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NCAA DIII: David Hixon, Amherst College

Amherst had lofty expectations entering the season with the #1 preseason ranking, and so far Coach Hixon in his 40^th year has lived up to them. Amherst has opened up with 2 wins, both by 30+ points including a season opening 83-41 win over Green Mountain. The Lord Jeffs then defeated St. Lawrence College 90-68 to capture the 2017 Ken Wright ’52 Tournament. They’ll look to keep building this week with a road match-up against Anna Maria tonight.

 

 

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NAIA: Jeff Britt, Bethel College (TN)

A monster week for Britt and his crew as they defeated three nationally ranked teams to run their record to 7-0 on the young season. Playing three games in three days, Britt’s Wildcats first knocked off #11 Campbellsville 90-77 on Thursday night. They then downed 19th ranked Pikeville on Friday before beating #2 Georgetown Saturday afternoon 75-73 in a game that would also give Britt the 400th win of his career. Britt is currently 18th on the NAIA DI active career win list and is the the all-time leader in wins at Bethel.

 

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JUCO: John Pigatti, South Suburban College (IL)

Coach Pigatti led South Suburban to the best record in the country last season, and seems to have not missed a beat this year, as the Bulldogs are off to a 7-0 start including 3 double digit wins last week. They began the week by knocking off defending NJCAA DIII National Champion Rock Valley College 78-65. Pigatti’s squad then went on to defeat Prairie State (76-63) and Morton College (80-43). Last season, Pigatti was named the 2016 Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Junior College Division II and Region IV-B Coach of the Year. This was Pigatti’s 7th Regional Coach of the Year Award in his 10 years at SSC.