The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) selected as Tulsa’s Frank Haith as the District 24 Coach of the Year.
After being picked 10th in the American Athletic Conference preseason coaches’ poll, Haith led the Golden Hurricane basketball team to a share of the regular season title. For that, Haith was also selected as The American’s Coach of the Year for 2019-20.
Tulsa senior Martins Igbanu was named to the NABC District second-team. Igbanu, who came off the bench since the start of the AAC season, was earlier this month named the American Athletic Conference’s Sixth Man of the Year. Under Haith, TU posted an overall 21-10 record and a 13-5 mark in league play. The 21 wins is the third time in his six years as the Tulsa coach that the Hurricane has won 20+ games. He led the Hurricane to the school’s 11th conference regular season title and the first league crown in six years as a member of the American Athletic Conference.
In Haith’s six seasons at the Tulsa helm, the Hurricane has finished ahead of its expected preseason AAC coaches’ poll position. Until this year, no team had finished among the top-3 in the final league standings that had a preseason poll position worse than seventh. Igbanu averaged 16.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, shot 61-percent from the field and 70-percent from the free throw line coming off the bench. In 18 consecutive games in a reserve role, Igbanu had 13 games in double-digits, including six contests with 20 or more points. He averaged a team-leading 13.6 points and 5.0 rebounds. He also led the Hurricane in field goal percentage at 56-percent, while having converted nearly 70-percent of his free throws.