Paris player of year
Duke coach Gail Goestenkors was the driving force behind the Blue Devils’ perfect regular season. Oklahoma sophomore Courtney Paris, too, showed consistent excellence.
Their successes were honored Saturday, when they received The Associated Press’ women’s basketball coach and player of the year awards.
“It’s a great honor and a tribute to this team, the players and what they gave to the program,” Goestenkors said. “They were able to accept and embrace new roles.”
Paris became the first sophomore to be voted player of the year, narrowly edging Tennessee’s Candace Parker and Duke’s Lindsey Harding. Paris received 18 votes, while Parker and Harding got 16 each in the voting by the 50-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25.
Wyoming wins WNIT
Jodi Bolerjack and Justyna Podziemska scored 16 points apiece to lead Wyoming to a 72-56 victory over Wisconsin in the WNIT championship game in Laramie, Wyo.
The Cowgirls (27-9) had a double-digit lead through most of the second half.
Wisconsin (23-13) got to 55-44 on Jolene Anderson’s four-point play, and Janese Banks’ hook shot over Bolerjack with 7:50 left brought the Badgers to 57-48, but that was as close as they’d get.
Bennett honored again
Washington State University men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett was named national coach of the year by CBS/Chevrolet.
Bennett is the first Pacific-10 Conference coach of the year to win five national coach of the year honors since UCLA’s John Wooden in 1972 (online entities not included).
Arkansas courts Calipari
Another big name has surfaced in connection with Arkansas’ coaching search – John Calipari.
Arkansas has been granted permission to talk to the Memphis coach about replacing Stan Heath, who was fired Monday. Memphis spokesman Lamar Chance said that he didn’t know whether Arkansas had contacted Calipari yet, but that permission had been granted.
Arkansas had been eyeing Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie, but A&M announced Friday it had agreed with Gillispie on a new contract.
Calipari has compiled an impressive record at Memphis and Massachusetts – in between, he coached the New Jersey Nets.
He is 181-63 in seven seasons at Memphis.