Texas Tech head coach Mark Adams has been named the 2022 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year by CollegeInsider.com after leading the Red Raiders to 27 victories and the NCAA Sweet 16. The honor is presented annually to the nation's top Division I coach.
Adams, who was in his first season as the head coach after five as the associate head coach, guided Tech to a 27-10 record and a 12-6 mark in Big 12 play. The Red Raiders went 18-0 at home for the first time in program history, earned the third seed in the Big 12 Championship tournament where they reached to the finals for the second time in program history and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the fifth time since the expansion of the national tournament.
He is also one of four finalists for the Naismith National Coach of the Year which will be announced on Sunday at the Naismith Awards Brunch during the Final Four in New Orleans.
The Jim Phelan award committee is a 30-member panel, consisting of five current division I head coaches, five retired head coaches, 10 current athletic directors and/or conference administrators, five members of the national media and five collegeinsider.com staff members.
Adams was also named the 2022 Associated Press Big 12 Coach of the Year in a season where the team began the year unranked before finishing at No. 12 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll. Tech's success came with Adams constructing a new coaching staff that rolled out a team of eight newcomers and five returners. Under Adams, Texas Tech finished at No. 1 in the Kenpom.com adjusted defensive efficiency rating and was ninth nationally by holding opponents to only 38.6 percent shooting and 11th with teams averaging 60.6 points per game.
Adams has now won 581 games in his career and was also the 2010 NJCAA National Coach of the Year after leading Howard College to a national championship.
The 27 wins are the most by a first-year Texas Tech coach and included four postseason victories. The Red Raiders rolled to a 72-41 win over Iowa State in the Big 12 Championship quarterfinals and then hung on for a 56-55 win over Oklahoma in the semifinals. Tech advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament following a 97-62 first-round win over Montana State and then a 59-53 victory over Notre Dame in the second round of the tournament. The season came to an end with a 78-73 loss to Duke in a Sweet 16 matchup in San Francisco where the Red Raiders jumped out to a 10-2 lead and 33-29 halftime advantage. Tech led 68-66 with 2:55 to play before the Blue Devils advanced with a 12-5 run to end the game.
The Jim Phelan Award, which is presented annually to the nation's top Division I coach, is named in honor of a legendary coach who spent his entire career at Mount Saint Mary's University. He led the Mountaineers to the 1962 NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Championship. When he retired in 2003, after coaching for 49 years, he had amassed 830 wins (overall record of 830-524) in all divisions. In those 49 years, 19 of his teams amassed 20 or more wins in a season.
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