If it were up to his peers, Ohio State coach Jim O’Brien would be a shoo-in to win Big Ten Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons.
O’Brien won the award in 1999 after leading the Buckeyes to an 18-game improvement over the previous year and a trip to the Final Four. A panel of media voters selects the coach of the year, but this week some of O’Brien’s rivals endorsed his candidacy.
Having lost Scoonie Penn and Michael Redd, the Buckeyes were picked to finish in the bottom tier of the Big Ten. But they’ve clinched no worse than a tie for third with one week to go in the regular season.
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“I think without question coach O’Brien has done the best job in the league,” Iowa’s Steve Alford said. “He’s really gotten some things out of his team that might have been a year away from happening.”
Added Bill Self of front-running Illinois, another candidate for the award: “Jim’s done as good a job as anybody in our league. So much of those awards go to who finishes highest. They’ve had a really nice year, and Jim’s deserving of a lot of that credit because he’s done a fabulous job with that team.”
O’Brien has also been co-Coach of the Year in the Big East with Boston College in 1996 and in the Atlantic 10 with St. Bonaventure in 1983.
Seedlings: The NCAA Division I men’s basketball committee will expect Iowa to submit a full report on Luke Recker’s status on selection weekend. The committee wants the school to be as specific as possible.
“We have to have that information,” committee chairman Michael Tranghese said. “We expect to be given the proper information. You can give two pieces of information. Either he’s back/he’s not back, or we don’t know.”
The committee needs the information to determine where to seed the Hawkeyes, who have collapsed since Recker, their leading scorer, broke his kneecap Jan. 27.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, a former basketball committee member, said it would help if Recker demonstrates he’s healthy and is as effective as before the injury. Iowa was 15-4 with Recker.
“Hopefully, Recker will have played some games before [the committee] meets,” Delany said. “And hopefully he’ll have played well.”
The glass is half full: Minnesota’s Dan Monson has seen a lot of pain this year. But he enjoyed the Golden Gophers’ being off last weekend. “Nobody got hurt and we didn’t lose a game,” he said. “So we’re feeling pretty good about our weekend.”
Political football: There was a minor furor on the West Coast when Delany and Southeastern Conference Commissioner Roy Kramer backed Karl Benson, commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference, over San Diego State Athletic Director Rick Bay for a slot on the powerful Division I men’s basketball committee.
Bay, in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, said he was “blackballed” because he has been an outspoken opponent of football’s Bowl Championship Series. Kramer and Delany are among the BCS power brokers. Though Benson’s conference is not a full BCS member, it has been granted access to BCS meetings.
Delany denied Bay’s charge, saying Benson would be a better representative on the committee. “Based on knowing Rick, I think he’s got a lot of integrity,” Delany said. “But I question his judgment. I think he can be rigid. I’d prefer to have a person who’s more objective.”
Bay and Delany clashed in 1990, when the Big Ten invited Penn State to join. Bay, then the AD at Minnesota, opposed the move, which Delany championed.