It's late January and the college basketball season is a little over half over. February starts the home stretch on the way to conference championships and March madness, as well as recognition for best of awards.
The coach of the year talk is starting to get more attention by several different pundits, and Louisville's Pat Kelsey is a obvious candidate, even though he's not in the top 3 on some lists.
Most have Bruce Pearl of Auburn or Jon Schyer at Duke as COY. I find that curious since both teams were preseason top 5 teams and have sure fire NBA stars on the roster.
As for the overachiever teams and their coaches, Michigan, West Virginia and Vanderbilt's coaches all are above Kelsey by most pundits. For some reason, the hoops experts don't want to include Louisville whether it's team rankings or in this case, it's head coaches chances for COY.
As of today how could it be anyone else but PK? Vandy's coach is the only other coach that in my opinion should be considered the mid season coach of the year. Their back to back wins over Alabama and UK is very impressive.
However, he didn't take over a sinking program that was 12 and 52 the past two seasons and was on the verge of becoming the biggest joke in major conference basketball. No one, not even the most ardent and loyal Louisville fan expected what we have seen so far.
Nine game winning streak and counting, despite losing it's 2nd best player and back up PG to season ending injuries. Winning by double digits in 7 of those 9 wins during the streak and looking like a #1 seed surely wasn't something anyone even fantasized about.
Pat Kelsey should be on top of any mid-season COY lists. What he has accomplished so far can be construed as miraculous. No other coach had to do what he had to do. But, this is UofL we're talking about and the inclination to pass them over is still prevalent, even when it's obvious they shouldn't be.
One dude I saw said the ACC was so down, that will hurt Kelsey's chances, but apparently that doesn't apply to Jon Schyer of Duke. I agree the COY is usually from a top team with just a couple losses, but several times coaches have won the award for surprising results not expected before the season.
How could there be a more surprising result than Louisville and it's first year coach Pat Kelsey?
The coach of the year talk is starting to get more attention by several different pundits, and Louisville's Pat Kelsey is a obvious candidate, even though he's not in the top 3 on some lists.
Most have Bruce Pearl of Auburn or Jon Schyer at Duke as COY. I find that curious since both teams were preseason top 5 teams and have sure fire NBA stars on the roster.
As for the overachiever teams and their coaches, Michigan, West Virginia and Vanderbilt's coaches all are above Kelsey by most pundits. For some reason, the hoops experts don't want to include Louisville whether it's team rankings or in this case, it's head coaches chances for COY.
As of today how could it be anyone else but PK? Vandy's coach is the only other coach that in my opinion should be considered the mid season coach of the year. Their back to back wins over Alabama and UK is very impressive.
However, he didn't take over a sinking program that was 12 and 52 the past two seasons and was on the verge of becoming the biggest joke in major conference basketball. No one, not even the most ardent and loyal Louisville fan expected what we have seen so far.
Nine game winning streak and counting, despite losing it's 2nd best player and back up PG to season ending injuries. Winning by double digits in 7 of those 9 wins during the streak and looking like a #1 seed surely wasn't something anyone even fantasized about.
Pat Kelsey should be on top of any mid-season COY lists. What he has accomplished so far can be construed as miraculous. No other coach had to do what he had to do. But, this is UofL we're talking about and the inclination to pass them over is still prevalent, even when it's obvious they shouldn't be.
One dude I saw said the ACC was so down, that will hurt Kelsey's chances, but apparently that doesn't apply to Jon Schyer of Duke. I agree the COY is usually from a top team with just a couple losses, but several times coaches have won the award for surprising results not expected before the season.
How could there be a more surprising result than Louisville and it's first year coach Pat Kelsey?
