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ST. LOUIS (USBWA) – Illinois' Bruce Weber has been
named winner of the 2005 Henry Iba Award, presented annually
by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association to the national college
basketball coach of the year.
The USBWA will present the Iba Award to Weber at a breakfast
during the NCAA Final Four weekend on Friday, April 1 at the Missouri
Athletic Club in downtown St. Louis. At that time, the USBWA will
also present the Oscar Robertson Trophy to the National Player of
the Year.
Weber is the first Illinois coach to receive the award since
the USBWA began selecting a coach of the year in 1959. He is the
first Big Ten coach to win the award since 1998, when Michigan State's
Tom Izzo was honored as the third straight Big Ten coach to be named
national coach of the year by the USBWA. Purdue's Gene Keady and
Minnesota's Clem Haskins were honored by the USBWA in 1996 and '97,
respectively.
In his second season in Champaign, Weber has guided the Illini
to a school-record 32 wins against just one loss and both the Big
Ten Conference regular-season and tournament championships. Illinois
enters the NCAA Tournament this week as a No. 1 seed and Weber is
now the first coach in the 100-year history of Big Ten basketball
to win consecutive outright conference titles in each of his first
two seasons.
Also, this is first time since 1952 and just the third time in
school history that the Illini have won back-to-back outright Big
Ten titles.
The Henry Iba Award is named for the legendary Oklahoma A&M,
Oklahoma State and U.S. Olympic coach. Iba won 655 games at OSU,
including back-to-back national titles in 1945 and '46. He also
coached the United States to a pair of Olympic gold medals. Iba
was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in
1969 and retired from coaching in 1970. He passed away on Jan. 15,
1993.
For more information about the 2005 USBWA Awards Breakfast, including
how to purchase tickets, contact the Missouri Athletic Club at 314-231-7220.
A portion of the proceeds from the event will be donated to the
National Kidney Foundation, Oscar Robertson's charity of choice.
Oscar donated a kidney several years ago to his daughter who was
suffering from a life-threatening kidney disease.
Related links:
• Henry Iba Award
•
Bruce Weber bio
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