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Mizzou bounced early, yet Haith wins Coach of the Year

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To most college basketball fans, and even the Athletic Directors, it’s all about March. How far you go in the NCAA Tournament is everything. Forget the regular season and conference tournaments.

This is quite possibly the greatest example of how these awards are completely regular season oriented, and not postseason.

Missouri’s Frank Haith is the 2011-12 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.

In compiling arguably the greatest season in school history, the Tigers racked up a 30 wins for just the second time in school history and rose to as high as No. 2 in the nation to earn a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Of course, the Tigers fell to Norfolk State in the first round, in one of the most epic upsets in NCAA Tourney history.
And Missouri holds two dubious records after this season: most NCAA Tournament appearances and tourney wins without a Final Four appearance,
Led by second-team USBWA All-American Marcus Denmon, the Tigers won a record 14 Big 12 Conference games and the Big 12 Tournament after posting a school-record 27 regular-season wins.
In his first season at Missouri, the USBWA District VI Coach of the Year and the AP Big 12 Coach of the Year, guided a team that was ranked 25th in the Associated Press’ preseason poll and picked fourth in the Big 12 to unexpected heights. Playing with only seven scholarship players for the most of the season but with a core of seniors in the lineup, Missouri won 18 of its first 19 games.

Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports

A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; and he’s a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too.