Community Picks: TCU 0% vs Texas Tech 0%

Kansas won the nation's toughest conference by two games, collected nine wins against opponents in the RPI Top 25 and amassed a resume worthy of the NCAA tournament's No. 1 overall seed. Somehow that was not enough to earn Bill Self the Big 12's Coach of the Year award. The Big 12 announced Sunday that Texas Tech's Tubby Smith was the recipient of that honor after guiding the Red Raiders to a 19-win season and a 9-9 record in conference play. Texas Tech is expected to make the NCAA tournament next Sunday for the first time since 2007. Credit Smith for engineering a turnaround in just three seasons at one of the toughest major-conference jobs in the country, but the selection of him over Self reflects a systemic flaw in the way coach of the year awards are chosen. Coaches at top-flight programs seldom receive recognition because voters tend to reward those who overachieve at schools with lesser pedigree instead.   Duke's Mike Krzyzewski is typically regarded as college basketball's greatest active coach, yet he has only won ACC coach of the year five times in 36 seasons in Durham. In the 16 years since Krzyzewski last was his conference's coach of the year, Duke has captured three national championships won a combined 12 ACC regular season or tournament titles. The statistics are equally startling for some of college basketball's other elite coaches. Billy Donovan went to three Final Fours and won a pair of national championships before he won his first SEC coach of the year award at Florida. Roy Williams has eight ACC regular season titles at North Carolina and only two league coach of the year awards. Since Louisville coach Rick Pitino last won a conference coach of the year award, he has a national title, two Final Four appearances and three regular season league titles. Big 12 voters have actually been more generous with Self, awarding him coach of the year in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2012. Of course that means that eight times during Kansas' remarkable 12-year Big 12 title streak, someone else has won coach of the year. There are certainly circumstances in which the league champion isn't the most worthy candidate for coach of the year. Wisconsin's Greg Gard would be my choice over Indiana's Tom Crean in the Big Ten because of the job the Badgers' interim coach has done winning over a skeptical athletic director by rallying from a 9-9 start to an NCAA tournament bid. Xavier's Chris Mack would also be my selection in the Big East since he has taken a Musketeers team unranked in the preason to the cusp of its highest NCAA tournament seeding in program history. But too often coach of the year voters fail to keep it simple and penalize the sport's most respected coaches for recruiting the best prospects, developing them into the best players and parlaying that into sustained success. Sometimes accolades ought to go to the coach who accomplished the most that year rather than the coach who overachieved the most relative to preseason expectations. - - - - - - - Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @JeffEisenberg Continue to Article

March 06, 2016 5:56:pm EST

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins wanted to make one thing clear ahead of a matchup against a surprising Texas Tech team picked to finish last in the Big 12. "I didn't pick 'em last, for the record," Huggins said. The Mountaineers are in second place in the season's final week while the Red Raiders are in seventh but in good position for an NCAA Tournament berth thanks to a strong RPI and strength of schedule. Continue to Article

March 01, 2016 5:47:pm EST

The last time Kansas did not capture at least a share of the Big 12 title, Usher's "Yeah" was unavoidable on the radio, Facebook was a new website your parents hadn't yet discovered and Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were still America's favorite couple. That streak will continue at least one more year. Continue to Article

February 27, 2016 2:10:pm EST

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Svi Mykhailiuk came off the bench to score 17 points, Frank Mason III added 16 and No. 2 Kansas beat Texas Tech 67-58 on Saturday to secure at least a share of its 12th straight Big 12 title. Continue to Article

February 27, 2016 1:59:pm EST