The Sporting News Men's College Basketball Coach of the Year Award

The Sporting News Men's College Basketball Coach of the Year Award, often informally called The Sporting News Coach of the Year Award, is an annual basketball award given to the best men's college basketball head coach in NCAA Division I competition. The award was first given in 1964 following the 1963–64 season and is presented by The Sporting News, a United States–based sports magazine that was established in 1886.

Seven coaches have been honored multiple times. John Wooden is the only one to receive the award four times. Bill Self has the second-most with three awards. The two-time awardees include John Calipari, Denny Crum, Rick Pitino, Adolph Rupp, and Tubby Smith.

Two people won the award as head coaches: Jim Crews of Saint Louis (2013), who took over for then-head coach Rick Majerus before the 2012–13 season due to Majerus stepping down for health-related reasons, and Rodney Terry of Texas (2023), who took over for then-head coach Chris Beard after eight games of the 2022–23 season due to an indefinite suspension and later firing.

Key

Winners

• Kentucky was ineligible to receive the Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular season title, nor participate in the SEC or NCAA tournament because they were in the final year of a multi-year postseason ban.
• On May 8, 1997, the NCAA Executive Committee voted to negate the Minutemen's 1996 NCAA tournament record, for Marcus Camby's acceptance of agents' improper gifts. The 35–2 record was reduced to 31–1, and the UMass slot in the Final Four is officially denoted as vacated.
• The NCAA men's tournament expanded to 68 teams starting in 2011, with the last four teams earning bids into the tournament set in competition with one another via "First Four" play-in games. The 'Second Round' then became more commonly referred to as 'Round of 32' for specificity.
• The COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2019–20 men's season to be canceled prior to any national postseason tournaments occurring.

References