So despite an early exit from the NCAA Tournament, Jamie Dixon has received a Coach of the Year award - as in National Coach of the Year.
Count me among those surprised by it.
The fact that Dixon is a great coach is pretty much unspoken - at least by me. While I've questioned his moves from time to time and questioned how much he wants to be here at times when he's appeared to flirt with other jobs. But what I don't question is that if he wants to be at Pitt in the long term, the school should do everything possible to make that happen.
So this isn't about if he is a good coach.
But the Sporting News Coach of the Year? Sorry, just don't see it. Heck, I don't even think he was the best coach in the conference this season. As St. John's new coach, Steve Lavin guided a team to not only an NCAA berth when many questioned if they could get to the Big Dance, but they had a tremendous season, winning some big games against Pitt, Duke, Notre Dame, and UConn. And Notre Dame's Mike Brey took a team expected to be average and made them great. Preseason polls have about as much value as a pizza at The O, but the fact that Notre Dame didn't have a single vote in the ESPN/USA Today preseason coaches poll should tell you about how much league coaches (or interns filling out brackets) 'liked' Notre Dame.
Outside of the Big East you could also obviously make a case for someone like Steve Fisher at San Diego State or BYU's Dave Rose. I'd even probably put Thad Motta or Bill Self ahead of Jamie.
No offense, but I think other coaches just had better years.