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McDermott, Marshall win AP national honors
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
Creighton’s Doug McDermott and Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall, were named the national player and coach of the year on Thursday by the Associated Press.
McDermott, the nation’s leading scorer at 26.9 points per game, has reaped a bounty of postseason awards since the end of the regular season and after the Bluejays were ousted from the NCAA Tournament with a loss to Baylor in the Round of 32.
“This is a huge honor,” McDermott told the AP. “I would like to thank the AP for this award. There are so many great college basketball players this year and to be selected for this award is a huge honor.”
Marshall led Wichita State to a 35-0 record (the first team in NCAA history to win its first 35 games) before the Shockers, the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, were knocked out by Kentucky in the third round.
Wichita State ended the regular season with a No. 2 national ranking and won the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and postseason championships.
“On behalf of our team and the young men that we coached, this year was a tremendous group of young people, which made our season all the more special,” Marshall said, according to the AP.
According to the AP, Marshall had 44 votes. Virginia’s Tony Bennett was second with 13 votes, followed by Florida’s Billy Donovan with six and Michigan’s John Beilein and SMU’s Larry Brown of SMU with one each.
