About Coach Phelan   |  Selection Committee   |  Award Recipients  |  Contact   |  Home

THE AWARD: Check out the 2009 Award presented to John Calipari
 

BOSTON (MA) -- After guiding Memphis to an impressive 31-3 record, John Calipari was named the winner of the 2009 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year award.

“What Coach Cal has done, over the past few seasons at Memphis, is nothing short of remarkable,” says CollegeInsider.com’s Matt Drake. “Memphis’ dominance of C-USA has been unmatched. Going three seasons without losing a conference game is just ridiculous.”

Calipari guided the Tigers to a 31-3 overall record and a No. 2 seed in the West Region of the 2009 NCAA Tournament. It is the fourth-straight year the Tigers earned a No. 1 or No. 2 seed, and Memphis is the only school in the nation to have a top-two seed each of the last four years (2006-09).

Memphis' 31-3 record marks the four-consecutive year Calipari has directed his squad to a 30-win campaign. He is the first coach in NCAA Division I history to have four-straight 30-win seasons, and is also the winningest head coach in a four-year span in NCAA history with 135 victories from 2006-present.

2008-09 marked the third straight season Calipari’s team had a streak of 25 or more consecutive wins. Memphis is the only program in NCAA Division I history to have three-straight years with at least a 25-game win streak.

Memphis also completed a third-consecutive perfect season in Conference USA play. The Tigers posted a 16-0 regular season record for the third year in a row and swept the league's regular season and tournament titles for the fourth-consecutive season. Memphis ran its overall C-USA win streak to 61 games (regular season and tournament), which is the second longest in NCAA Division I history. The program's 49-game C-USA regular season win streak is also the second longest in NCAA history.

“John has been doing a great job for years and this season is no exception,” says Jim Phelan. “He is one of the best coaches in the game today and is very deserving of National Coach of the Year honors.”

The finalists for the 2009 were Jim Calhoun (Connecticut), JOHN CALIPARI, Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh), Darrin Horn (South Carolina), Trent Johnson (LSU), Lorenzo Romar (Washington), Bill Self (Kansas), Brad Stevens (Butler), Bruce Weber (Illinois) and Roy Williams (North Carolina).

Prior to 2003 the award was known simply as the CollegeInsider.com national coach of the year. It was renamed to honor longtime Mount St. Mary’s head coach Jim Phelan who retired following the 2002-03 season.

The previous winners of the award are Bo Ryan (Wisconsin 2008) Tony Bennett (Washington State 2007), Ben Howland (UCLA 2006), Tubby Smith (Kentucky 2005) Phil Martelli (St. Joseph’s 2004) and Mark Slonaker (Mercer 2003).