Congratulations to the following coaches who have been selected as the Week 7 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 7 winners are:
NCAA DI: Kelvin Sampson, Houston
Kelvin Sampson quietly has his Houston Cougars rolling, off to an 11-3 start. Their 2-0 conference start marks only the fourth time in school history that Houston has started off 2-0 in conference. Even more impressive both league wins last week came on the road last week, first with a 62-46 shellacking of UConn followed by a commanding 70-56 victory over USF. They’ll look to continue their strong conference start with a pair of home games, Tulsa on the 4th before a showdown with 22nd ranked Cincinnati.
NCAA DII: Jamie Stevens, Montana State Billings
The Yellow Jackets showed no rust after a near three week break, winning both games of a Great Northwest Athletic Conference road trip for the first time in program history. Thursday night, Stevens squad traveled to Canada where they downed Simon Fraser 107-66. They followed that by beating 19th ranked Western Washington in a tightly contested 100-93 contest on Saturday. This was the first-ever win for MSUB at Western Washington. Montana State Billings will look forward to a bit of home-cooking this week with match-ups against Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene University respectively.
NCAA DIII: Mark Edwards, Washington University (St. Louis)
Perhaps no one had a more impressive week last week than Mark Edwards. His 24th-ranked Bears took both games in the Wooster Kiwanis Tournament including an overtime win against host College of Wooster. Not only was it an impressive win for the 8-3 squad but it marked Coach Edwards 650th career victory. Edwards is the 12th coach in NCAA Division III history to reach the plateau, and is 650-286 (.694) in 36 seasons at his alma mater. He’ll look to get win 651 in a road match-up on January 7th at Chicago.
NAIA: Kelly Wells, University of Pikeville (KY)
Coach Wells has his squad on a tear this year, currently standing at 14-3 after a pair of wins in Florida last week. Trailing by eight at the half against Florida National, UPIKE rallied for a 79-77 victory. They followed that win with a 92-56 blowout of Saint Mary (KS). Wells and his Bears are now ranked 14th in the nation and have rattled off three victories in a row.
JUCO: Steve Green, South Plains College
South Plains has surprised nobody but simultaneously impressed many with their 14-0 start to the season. After a three week holiday break Coach Green’s #1 ranked Texans made up for lost time with four games and four wins in one week. South Plains showed no sign of wear or tear winning every game by double digits, while capturing the 2016 Fiesta Bowl Junior College Shootout championship for the second time in as many years. Coach Green and his boys will look forward to a match-up against in state rival Odessa College at the Texan Dome on January 9th .
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 Holtman, 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
