NJCAA Men's Basketball Coaches Assn. Announces 2009 Coach and Player of the Year Awards
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 14, 2009) -- The NJCAA Men's Basketball Coaches Association has announced their annual NJCAA Coach of the Year and Player of the Year selections for the 2008-09 season in each division of play.
This year's Coach of the Year honors go to Norm Parrish of Salt Lake Community College (Utah), Mike Jeffers of Johnson County Community College (Kan.) and Jay Pivec of Minneapolis Community and Technical College (Minn.).
2009 Player of the Year accolades go to Casey Mitchell of Chipola College (Fla.), Nafis Ricks of Johnson County Community College (Kan.) and Tony Bishop of Richland College (Texas).
Division I Coach of the Year
Five-time NJCAA Region 18 Coach of the Year Norm Parrish earns Division I Coach of the Year honors after leading his Salt Lake Bruins to the 2009 national title after a runner-up finish in 2008. Salt Lake also ended the regular season ranked 13th in the NJCAA DI Men's Basketball Poll.
Parrish's club took the Region 18 title and advanced to the NJCAA title game for the second straight season. At the 2009 NJCAA DI Tournament in Hutchinson, Kan., his club rose above the competition, defeating their first two opponents by 18 and 36 points (Shelton State Community College, Ala.; North Dakota State College of Science).
Parrish then led Salt Lake past Chipola College, Fla., in the semi-finals 78-73. Chipola was the No. 1 ranked team during the regular season for nine consecutive weeks.
The Bruins then posted one of the greatest comebacks in NJCAA history in the title game against Midland College, Texas. Down 15 points with a mere 11 minutes left in the game, Parrish rallied his team for a 21-1 scoring run, including a span of 17 unanswered points to claim the school's first-ever NJCAA Championship. The Bruins finished the 2009 season with a 31-6 record.
Parrish has held the head coaching post at SLCC for 18 seasons and has posted 398 wins over that span. He has coached 10 NJCAA All-Americans and has had 16 Academic All-Americans come through his program. Over 200 players have worn the Bruin uniform under Parrish since he became the head coach in 1991, and 75 of those have moved on to the NCAA Division I ranks, with several now playing professionally overseas as well as in the NBA.
Division II Coach of the Year
Mike Jeffers capped of his 18th season as the head coach at Johnson County with the program's second NJCAA Division II Championship. His Cavaliers finished the year with a 26-9 record and downed Kirkwood (Iowa) 63-49 in the NJCAA Division II title game. He previously led the program to the 2001 national title as the Cavaliers finished with a school record mark of 30-6.
In his 18 seasons at JCCC, Jeffers has led the program to seven 20-win campaigns, including a school record 30 wins in 2000-01 and the fourth-best season with 26 wins in 2008-09. He also has won six region championships and has earned NJCAA Region 6 DII Coach of the Year six times, Kansas Jayhawk Conference East Division Coach of the Year in 1994, and was selected Coach of the Year by both the NJCAA and Kansas Basketball Coaches Association in 2001, and NJCAA DII Coach of the Tournament in 2009.
Jeffers has also produced some outstanding players. During his tenure as the Cavaliers head coach, 35 of his players have been selected as All-East Division Kansas Jayhawk Conference performers, 38 All-Region 6 selections, six national All-Tournament performers, two National Tournament MVP's and the 2001 and 2009 NJCAA DII Player of the Year. Also, seven of his players have garnered eight NJCAA All-America honors, including two first-team selections, and three of his players have been inducted into the JCCC Athletics Hall of Fame.
Jeffers was also selected as the 2009 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) State-Farm NJCAA Basketball Coach of the Year.
Division III Coach of the Year
Minneapolis CTC head coach Jay Pivec is this year's Division III Coach of the Year after leading his Mavericks to a 33-2 overall record and runner-up finish at the NJCAA DIII Tournament. His club held the No. 1 ranking in the NJCAA DIII Men's Basketball Poll for seven straight weeks during the 2008-09 season.
Pivec's team lost just once during the regular season, falling 74-71 to eventual Region 13 Division I champion North Dakota State College of Science in their third contest of the season. After that loss, the Mavericks won 31 consecutive contests - winning the program's 11th division title in 19 seasons and clinching a post-season berth for the 19th consecutive year.
The Mavericks clinched the Region 13 Championship with a 80-64 win over Madison Area Tech, Wisc. Minneapolis then traveled to the NJCAA DIII Tournament in Delhi, N.Y., where the advanced to the title game and fell 58-57 to Richland College, Texas, in the final seconds.
Since taking over the program in 1990 after the school posted a 0-21 record, Pivec has led the program to 15 seasons with 20 or more victories, including a school record of 33 wins in 2009. He was inducted into the Minnesota College Athletic Conference Hall of Fame in 2002 and has been named MCAC Coach of the Year eight times (93, 95, 01, 03, 05 ,06, 07, 09).
Pivec has coached seven NJCAA First-Team All-Americans at Minneapolis, the most of any Division III program.
Division I Player of the Year
Chipola's Casey Mitchell (6'5", 205 lbs.) had an outstanding season, averaging 20.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists in leading the Indians to a 34-2 overall record and third-place finish at the 2009 NJCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. Mitchell, a First-Team NJCAA All-America selection, helped lead Chipola to a Region 8 title and the program's third straight berth in the national tournament.
At this year's national tournament in Hutchinson, Kan., Mitchell earned All-Tournament honors by averaging 21.5 points over four games played. His best performance in Hutch came in the semi-finals against eventual national champion Salt Lake Community College, Utah. He scored a game-high 38 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the field, including 5-for-11 from three-point range in one of the most exciting games in tournament history.
Mitchell, who has signed a letter of intent with the West Virginia University, also earned All-Florida Panhandle Conference honors this season and was named Player of the Year by the Florida Community College Activities Association (Region 8).
Mitchell is the second player from Chipola in three seasons to earn the Player of the Year award from the NJCAA Men's Basketball Coaches Association (JaMarcus Ellis, 2007).
Division II Player of the Year
Nafis Ricks (6'2", 180 lbs.) earned First-Team NJCAA All-American Division II honors for the second-straight season in 2009 after leading Johnson County to its first national title since 2001. Ricks is one of just the three players in NJCAA Division II history to earn First-Team All-American honors in back-to-back seasons.
For the season, Ricks was Johnson County's leading scorer with an average of 17.2 points per game. He also led the Cavaliers in assists (193-5.8) and steals (75-2.3). He scored in double figures in 32 of 33 games. He also recorded a rare triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a home victory over Highland (Kan.) on Feb. 18. He ranked 46th nationally in points per game, 21st is in assists per game and 48th in steals per game.
At the NJCAA DII Men's Basketball Tournament in Danville, Ill., Ricks earned Tournament MVP honors by leading the Cavaliers with 21 points in the 63-49 victory over Kirkwood (Iowa) in the title game. He averaged 16.3 points a game for the tournament.
Ricks, who also earned All-East Kansas Jayhawk Conference First-Team and All-Region 6 First-Team honors, joins Johnson County Hall of Fame forward Jimmy Hubbard as the only two-time basketball All-Americans in school history.
Division III Player of the Year
One year after earning NJCAA All-American Honorable Mention honors in 2008, Richland's Tony Bishop (6'6", 188 lbs.) takes home First-Team All-American honors as well as Division III Player of the Year accolades in 2009. Bishop led the Thunderducks to a national title by averaging a team-high 14.3 points a game, along with 6.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists a contest. He shot 50.1 percent from the field this season.
Bishop and his Richland teammates finished the season on an eight-game winning streak and won 14 of their final 15 games.
In the DIII national tournament he averaged 8.7 points and 6.0 rebounds a contest.
As a freshman, Bishop was Richland's second-leading scorer with 14.4 points per game to go with 8.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists per contest.
Photo credits:
Norm Parrish and Casey Mitchell - Andrew Carpenter, Hutchinson Community College, Kan.
Mike Jeffers and Nafis Ricks - Johnson County Community College, Kan., Sports Information.
Jay Pivec - Minneapolis Community & Technical College, Minn.
Tony Bishop - Joseph Vongsombath, Richland Chronicle