WHEELING, WV – West Liberty men’s basketball coach Jim Crutchfield has won the West Virginia Sportswriters Association’s College Coach of the Year Award for the second consecutive year.
Crutchfield, who has guided his Hilltoppers to three West Virginia Conference titles and back-to-back NCAA Division II Atlantic Region championships and 30-win seasons, shares this year’s Mickey Furfari Award with West Virginia University football coach Dana Holgorsen, who led the Mountaineers to a share of the Big East title and an Orange Bowl victory against Clemson.
Here’s a link to the WVSWA release, which appeared in Charleston’s Sunday Gazette-Mail: Holgorsen, Crutchfield Named State’s Top College Coaches
It’s only the second tie in the 71-year history of the prestigious award and the first deadlock in the statewide media balloting since World War II.
Crutchfield is no stranger to post-season honors. After claiming his fourth WVIAC Coach of the Year Award and earning a second consecutive NABC Atlantic District Coach of the Year Award, he was a finalist for two national Coach of the Year Awards after leading the Hilltoppers to a repeat appearance in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight national championship tournament.
Despite losing four 1,000-point scorers from his No. 1-ranked 2010-11 team that posted a school-record 33-1 mark, Crutchfield’s all-underclass rotation didn’t miss a beat in 2011-12, as West Liberty climbed back to the No. 1 spot late in the season before finishing the year at No. 3 in the national poll.
This year’s Hilltoppers also set a WVIAC record with a 60-game conference winning streak dating back to the 2009-10 season and won their sixth national scoring title in the past seven years on their way to posting a 32-3 record. That pushed Crutchfield’s 8-year record to a dazzling 207-43 (.828) – the nation’s highest winning percentage among all active NCAA Division I, II or III men’s basketball coaches.
Crutchfield is the fourth West Liberty coach to receive the WVSWA’s College Coach of the Year Award, following in the footsteps of Lynn Ullom (2000), Ollie Olson (1960) and Joe Bartell (1956). He will be officially presented with the Furfari Award on Sunday, April 29 during the 66th annual Victory Awards Dinner in Parkersburg.
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