Bryce Drew as Coach of the Year: Two Commentaries

[valpopal]

ESPN, Andy Katz:

• Valparaiso coach Bryce Drew won't win national coach of the year. But he better win the Horizon League honor. I saw this team in an exhibition game in November. There was no reason to suspect the Crusaders would be leading the Horizon and on their way to a possible NCAA tournament berth. If you had to take which Drew brother would be in first place on Feb. 13 in his respective conference, it wouldn't have been close. Scott Drew of Baylor would have been the choice.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy/id/7571247/player-year-coach-year-bracketbusters-more-college-basketball


Run the Floor (Chris Burrows)

Horizon League Coach of the Year: Bryce Drew, Valparaiso

To this day I get Google  Alerts from sportswriters' ledes that  involve Bryce Drew,  last-second-shot-sensation, on top of the ones I  actually want to read  regarding Bryce Drew, first-year head coach. But  certainly the latter  is beginning to far outweigh the former as the heir  to the Valparaiso  crown is showing he has the feet that can fill his  father's big shoes.

The  Crusaders were chosen fifth in the Horizon League's own  preseason poll  after losing three starters, including Brandon Wood who  left for  Michigan State. Now VU sits at the top of the league standings  after  handing Cleveland State a crushing loss that saw the Vikings score  a  season-worst 0.67 ppp. I could write about Valpo forever.

http://bloguin.com/runthefloor/2012-articles/february/15-coaches-who-deserve-to-be-their-conferences-coty.html

[vuweathernerd]

i think that if we win the regular season title, he'll probably have a good shot. and i biasedly believe that he absolutely deserves it.

[vu72]

So let's look at the pre-season poll and where the teams are now:

Pre-season
Butler
Detroit
CSU
Milwaukee
Valpo
Green Bay
YSU
WSU
Loyola
UIC

Now
Valpo
CSU
Butler
Detroit
YSU
Milwaukee
Green Bay
WSU
UIC
Loyola

So the following teams have performed worse than projected: Butler, Detroit, Milwaukee, Green Bay and Loyola.  The following have out performed and by how many slots:  CSU (1), YSU (2), UIC (1) and Valpo (4).  Then other team is WSU which is at par.

The only competitor for COY would be Slocum, and he's gone from 7th to 5th.  Not exactly headline material.  If we win the regular season title Bryce is a lead pipe cinch.                      

[KL31NY]

I'll also point out my natural bias, but unless Valpo doesn't win the regular season title AND the Penguins have some freakish run to finish close to the top, it should go to Bryce. For my reasoning, I simply put to the two commentaries that started this thread. Couldn't put it any better.

[covufan]

I think Bryce has done a great job, and will only get better with more experience.  He deserves HL Coach of the Year!

[vurb]

I think if anyone but Bryce gets it, it would be a travesty. This has been an amazing season in general. Even more impressive that this is his first season.

[cmack]

Even in the even of a collapse against Loyola and Butler, I figure that Bryce already has this award sewn up.  He has overachieved beyond anyone's wildest dreams after the loss of 2 star players and with a roster devoid of any scholarship seniors.