Congratulations to the following coaches who have been selected as the Week 8 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 winners are:
NCAA DI: Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s
Perhaps no one has been more quietly impressive this season than Coach Bennett’s Saint Mary’s squad. Standing at 14-1 and 4-0 in conference, the 21st ranked Gaels are coming off a week in which they handled formidable league foes San Francisco and BYU, both by double digits. They’ll look to build on their impressive start this week with a tuneup against Portland before a huge road showdown against 5th ranked Gonzaga.
NCAA DII: Nelson Haggerty, Midwestern State (TX)
Midwestern State pulled off the NCAA DII upset of the week by beating previously 11th ranked West Texas A&M 84-78 on the 5th. They followed that up with an 80-73 win against UT-Permian Basin to improve to 10-4 on the year. The Mustangs have been tough to beat at home this year, 6-2 in their Wichita Falls home arena, but will look to steal a pair on the road this week as they travel to Western New Mexico on Thursday and Eastern New Mexico on Saturday.
NCAA DIII: Chris Martin, Loras College (IA)
In his first year, Coach Martin has had one of the most impressive coaching seasons in the country to this point. Loras is off to their best start in eight years, currently standing at 10-4 on the year in the midst of a seven-game winning streak dating back to the middle of December. This past week, they defeated IIAC Conference foes Wartburg (84-75), and Simpson (73-65). The wins were even more impressive as the Duhawks leading scorer Justin VanWambeke (22.1 ppg) was out of action . They’ll look to carry over their success into this week with a match-up against in-state rival Central.
NAIA: Larry Cordaro, LSU Alexandria
No stranger to the top of these rankings, last year’s HoopDirt.com / The Hoop Group NAIA coach of the year Larry Cordaro once again has LSU-Alexandria running through their schedule. At 15-0 the Generals are coming off of a dismantling of 8th ranked Wiley College 97-62 and a 12-point victory over Jarvis Christian last week. Coach Cordaro’s squad is ranked #1 in the country and has been dominating NAIA for the past three years, especially at home where they have not surrendered a single game in the past three seasons.
JUCO: Todd Lorensen, Southwestern Community College (IA)
Sitting at a perfect 16-0 and the owner of the #2 ranking in the NJCAA national rankings, Coach Lorensen’s squad is looking ready for another deep run come the end of this season. Coming off a 102-91 win against 19th-ranked Indian Hills this past Saturday, Southwestern will look for win 17 in their only game of the week, a Saturday match-up against Kirkwood.
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
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)
