ST. LOUIS (USBWA) Wichita State's Gregg Marshall is the 2013-14 recipient of the Henry Iba Coach of the Year Award, presented annually to the national coach of the year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
Marshall will be recognized by the USBWA on Friday, April 4, at a 10:15 a.m. CT news conference in Arlington, Texas, in conjunction with the Final Four. The winner of the Oscar Robertson Trophy as the national player of the year will also be announced at AT&T Stadium at that time.
Marshall will be formally presented with the Henry Iba Coach of the Year Award on Monday, April 14, at the Devon Energy College Basketball Awards gala in Oklahoma City. The Oscar Robertson Trophy will also be presented that evening. The gala will be seven years to the day that Marshall was hired at Wichita State after a hugely successful stint at Winthrop.
In his seventh season at Wichita State, Marshall, 51, led the Shockers to a 35-1 record, including a 30-0 regular season, an 18-0 mark in the Missouri Valley Conference and the conference's regular-season and tournament titles. For the fifth straight season, the Shockers won at least 25 games and Marshall's career mark at Wichita State is a remarkable 174-71 (.710 winning percentage).
The USBWA District VI Coach of the Year and the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year guided the Shockers to a No. 2 national ranking and the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region before being eliminated in the second round of the NCAA Tournament by Kentucky. For the second straight season, Wichita State recorded 30 wins in earning a third straight NCAA Tournament berth. Wichita State became the first team in NCAA history to win its first 35 games as the Shockers shattered the school's 60-year-old school-record winning streak (14 games in 1953-54).
"Gregg Marshall has established himself as one of the nation's top coaches, first at Winthrop and now at Wichita State," said USBWA President Kirk Wessler of the Peoria Journal Star. "But the job he did this season, coaching his team to an unbeaten regular-season record and the historic accomplishment of becoming the first team to win 35 games without a loss, was transcendent."
Including this season, the Greenwood, S.C., native now boasts a 368-154 (.704 winning percentage) overall career record in 16 seasons as a college head coach. Prior to coming to Wichita State, Marshall was 194-83 in nine seasons at Winthrop, including seven NCAA Tournament appearances and six Big South Conference titles.
The Henry Iba Award is named in honor of the legendary Oklahoma State coach who won 655 games and two national championships in 36 seasons in Stillwater. The award is voted on by all members of the USBWA at the conclusion of the regular season. The USBWA has presented a National Coach of the Year Award each year since the 1958-59 season.
This season, the USBWA selected ten finalists for the award: John Beilein, Michigan; Tony Bennett, Virginia; Larry Brown, SMU; Jim Crews, Saint Louis; Mick Cronin, Cincinnati; Billy Donovan, Florida; Steve Fisher, San Diego State; Greg McDermott, Creighton; and Jay Wright, Villanova.
Tickets and sponsorship information for the Devon Energy College Basketball Awards are available at collegebasketballawards.com or by contacting Scott Hill (405-749-1515, scott.hill@access-sports.net). The April 14 banquet will also honor Duke forward Jabari Parker with the Integris Wayman Tisdale Award as the national freshman of the year and Kansas coach Bill Self as the recipient of the Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award.
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. Today, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Joe Mitch at 314-795-6821.
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Henry Iba Coach of the Year Award