2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Honors

Player of the Year
Shabazz Napier, G, UConn

Coach of the Year
Mick Cronin, Cincinnati

Rookie of the Year
Austin Nichols, F, Memphis

Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Jimmy McDonnell, F, Temple

Defensive Player of the Year
Justin Jackson, F, Cincinnati

Sixth Man of the Year
Michael Dixon Jr., G, Memphis

Most Improved Player
Montrezl Harrell, F, Louisville

Sportsmanship Award
Sean Kilpatrick, G, Cincinnati

http://theamerican.org/news/2014/3/12/MB...45520.aspx

Cronin over Larry may be a bigger shocker than Shabazz winning...

(03-12-2014 12:15 PM)HuskyU Wrote:  Cronin over Larry may be a bigger shocker than Shabazz winning...

Athlon picked SMU 5th place and an NIT team. Lose to Houston and they pretty much nailed that pick. UC was picked 4th in just about every conference preview.

Will someone tell me what sportsman of the year is? Is the prize they gave to SK because they gave Shabazz the POY.

(03-12-2014 12:15 PM)HuskyU Wrote:  Cronin over Larry may be a bigger shocker than Shabazz winning...

Agree with you. Thought Mick was a longshot and SK was obvious, but I guess I will take it this way.

larry brown might have been shafted, he completely changed a program from horrible to elite in basically 1 year and might have single-handedly saved this leagues basketball perception adding depth to the league

no offense to cronin he's done a great job but this should have been a unanimous vote for brown

Its all part of the master plan to never let LB leave the AAC! Force him to come back by keeping him wanting more.

SMU was pretty ordinary away from home. 2 forehead slapper losses. Finished in a 3 way tie to round out the top 5. That is not COY material. This is not a lifetime achievement award.

Still not sure how Napier beats out Russ and SK.

Would be hysterical if they both make the All American 1st team but were not their conference's POY.

(03-12-2014 12:37 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  SMU was pretty ordinary away from home. 2 forehead slapper losses. Finished in a 3 way tie to round out the top 5. That is not COY material. This is not a lifetime achievement award.

Still not sure how Napier beats out Russ and SK.

Would be hysterical if they both make the All American 1st team but were not their conference's POY.

Thus far it looks like Doug McDermott, Jabari Parker, and Russ Smith are the locks...

And then Sean Kilpatrick, Shabazz Napier, and Nick Johnson for the last 2 spots.

Also, Jabari Parker didn't win the ACC POY.

(03-12-2014 12:37 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  SMU was pretty ordinary away from home. 2 forehead slapper losses. Finished in a 3 way tie to round out the top 5. That is not COY material. This is not a lifetime achievement award.

Still not sure how Napier beats out Russ and SK.

Would be hysterical if they both make the All American 1st team but were not their conference's POY.

should have expected the cincy homer to respond as such

but clearly coach of the year isnt just about who is the coach on the best team. Brown turned around a program that was horrific for the last 20 years and basically made them into a contender a 1.5 years as there head coach, the amount of improvement he made in 1 year to that smu team is unrealistic, if you told me 2 years ago smu was an atlarge team everyone would have laughed in your face. he got smu ranked the first time in 30 years.

same as how David Cutcliffe at duke was the acc coach of the year/national COY despite being blown out by fsu. its about what he did for that team as the coach

Figured no SMU players would make post season awards, and I'm fine with that. . . But, Larry Brown got f****ed out of the coach of the year.

Larry Brown is a better coach than Cronin... Simple as that.

This basketball season for the American has been awesome. You might never see another conference with three first team All-Americanslet alone one with only ten teams, outside of the power five structure, and its first year of play.

In my view UC basketball has been great for the American and the American has been great for UC basketball. I could see SK getting snubbed from the All-conference team if UC was still in the Big East. You know the best player on Syracuse, Villanova, and Georgetown would have been automatic first team selections.

I could have gone either way on coach of the year. Cronin took a Cincy team that I figured would be a fringe tournament team and had them in the top 10 for a good while and got a share of the AAC crown. SMU's turnaround in 2 years under Brown has been tremendous, but I also kinda expected they'd end up being a tournament team or close this year, so they really didn't far exceed my expectations.

(03-12-2014 01:12 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  Larry Brown is a better coach than Cronin... Simple as that.

Which means nothing for season's award.

FWIW, I would have voted Pitino 1st and Cronin 2nd.

Pastner would have been about 8th.

(03-12-2014 01:32 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  

(03-12-2014 01:12 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  Larry Brown is a better coach than Cronin... Simple as that.

Which means nothing for season's award.

FWIW, I would have voted Pitino 1st and Cronin 2nd.

Pastner would have been about 8th.

taking SMU from 15 wins to spanking Cincy at Moody and making the NCAAs...or taking Cincy from 22 to 26 wins in a weaker conference.

Yep, Larry every time.

I'd put Pastner 5th...but this isn't about Josh.

(03-12-2014 01:32 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  

(03-12-2014 01:12 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  Larry Brown is a better coach than Cronin... Simple as that.

Which means nothing for season's award.

FWIW, I would have voted Pitino 1st and Cronin 2nd.

Pastner would have been about 8th.

What logical reason do you have?

(03-12-2014 12:58 PM)The Real LHS81 Wrote:  Figured no SMU players would make post season awards, and I'm fine with that. . . But, Larry Brown got f****ed out of the coach of the year.

Cincy was preseason #4, and won the conference in a tie with Ville.

(03-12-2014 01:36 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  

(03-12-2014 01:32 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  

(03-12-2014 01:12 PM)UofMemphis Wrote:  Larry Brown is a better coach than Cronin... Simple as that.

Which means nothing for season's award.

FWIW, I would have voted Pitino 1st and Cronin 2nd.

Pastner would have been about 8th.

taking SMU from 15 wins to spanking Cincy at Moody and making the NCAAs...or taking Cincy from 22 to 26 wins in a weaker conference.

Yep, Larry every time.

I'd put Pastner 5th...but this isn't about Josh.

IMO, it's not about year to year improvement (22 to 26 wins) or about where you've come in 2 years (15 wins to spanking UC at home). It's about beating expectations. UC was picked a distant 4th and won the conference (with UL) and finished 3 games ahead of SMU (and spanked SMU at 5th3rd---sorry, couldn't resist!) who was picked 6th ( just 1 vote out of 5th) and finished in a 3 way tie for 3rd. So both exceeded expectations by 3 positions and BOTH were certainly qualified to win the award. Having said that, I thought SK would win POY and Brown COY. But I can't argue too much by either pick. Quality candidates in both races.

(03-12-2014 01:38 PM)anothertigerfan Wrote:  What logical reason do you have?

Browsing his posts, I think the guy just doesn't like Memphis. Whatever.

I find it hard to believe that the 8th ranked coach in a 10 team league would have a squad good enough to sweep Louisville, beat top 25 Gonzaga and a top 5 Oklahoma State team at full strength.

(03-12-2014 01:39 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(03-12-2014 12:58 PM)The Real LHS81 Wrote:  Figured no SMU players would make post season awards, and I'm fine with that. . . But, Larry Brown got f****ed out of the coach of the year.

Cincy was preseason #4, and won the conference in a tie with Ville.

Cincinnati was also expected to be an NCAA tournament team. . . Nobody outside of SMU fans predicted any post season games for SMU. And most of those were at best NIT