NCAA News Wire
McDermott, Marshall win AP national honors
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All posts by Alan DraperUpdated9 hours ago on April 23, 2024
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.
