Mark Wiedmer wrote a good column that appeared in this morning’s Times Free Press about Rick Barnes’ candidacy for various Coach of the Year awards in college basketball. The third-year Tennessee coach got my vote for AP Coach of the Year in the SEC. We’ll learn who the winner is later this week. Certainly, Auburn’s Bruce Pearl and Missouri’s Cuonzo Martin warranted consideration.
Like Wiedmer noted in his column, “Fair or not, Pearl may be judged negatively by various voters” for the off-court issues surrounding the Auburn program. It would be dishonest for me to claim that those issues played no role in my decision to vote for Barnes.
Anyway, here’s my AP top 25 ballot for the week and a few other observations from the weekend in sports.
- Virginia
- Michigan State
- Xavier
- Villanova
- Cincinnati
- Duke
- Kansas
- Purdue
- Michigan
- Gonzaga
- Tennessee
- Wichita State
- Texas Tech
- North Carolina
- Auburn
- Arizona
- Ohio State
- Clemson
- West Virginia
- Miami
- Saint Mary’s
- Houston
- Arkansas
- Kentucky
- Nevada
Congrats to Nathan Sexton
It was inspiring all over again to see photos of Nathan Sexton crossing the finish line at the Chattanooga Marathon on Sunday. It was moving when he ran the half marathon two years ago to teach himself how to endure pain and awesome when he was one of the fastest runners in last year’s full marathon.