TSWA announces college basketball players, coaches of the year

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee’s Grant Williams and Rick Barnes earned Men’s Basketball Player and Coach of the Year accolades while Belmont’s Darby Maggard and Tennessee Tech’s Kim Rosamond garnered Women’s Basketball honors, as announced this week by the Tennessee Sports Writers Association. The players and coaches will be honored during the annual TSWA Hall of Fame dinner set for July 11 at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tenn.

Williams established himself as one of the nation’s most versatile and efficient players during the 2018-19 season, averaging 18.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.1 steals per game. He made 57 percent from the field and 82 percent at the foul line.

The unanimous First Team All-America selection led the SEC in scoring, becoming the ninth Vol to become the league’s scoring champion, and ranked in the top 10 in the conference in field goal percentage (2nd), free throw percentage (5th), rebounding (7th) and assist/turnover ratio (10th).

Williams became the 10th player ever to win SEC Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons. He helped the Vols (31-6) earn their first Sweet Sixteen bid since 2014 and match the program record for wins in a single season.

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Barnes was named the winner of the 2019 Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s Coach of the Year Award for guiding the Vols to one the best campaigns in program history. Barnes also won the USBWA’s 2019 Henry Iba Coach of the Year Award, leading Tennessee to a school-record tying 31 wins and a school-record 19-game win streak.

For the first time in school history, Tennessee spent the entire season ranked in the Top 10 nationally and the Vols occupied the No. 1 spot in both major polls for four consecutive weeks. The Vols concluded their season in the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament. It marked the seventh career Sweet Sixteen appearance for Barnes, and in doing so, he became just the 12th head coach to lead at least three different Division I programs to the Round of 16.

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Maggard capped a record-breaking career at Belmont, garnering her fourth consecutive First Team All-OVC honor as well as OVC Player of the Year accolades. She averaged a career-high 17.0 points per game with 4.2 assists to lead the Bruins to a fourth straight OVC title and NCAA Tournament appearance.

She also shot 92.9 percent on free throws for the year, including a stretch of 48 straight makes that set the OVC record and ranks 14th on the NCAA’s all-time list. Maggard was named a finalist for the WBCA’s Ann Meyers Drysdale Award for the nation’s top shooting guard and was named to the watch list for the WBCA’s Wade Trophy given to the nation’s top player.

She finished her career with 2,031 points and a school- and OVC-record 430 made 3-pointers, the fourth most made triples in NCAA history. She’s also the only player in NCAA history to make at least 400 3-pointers and dish out 650 assists in her career.

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Rosamond was voted OVC Coach of the Year after leading the Golden Eagles to a 22-11 overall record and 12-6 mark in the league. It marked the most overall victories for TTU since 2010-11 and the most conference wins since 2012-13. It was also a 15-win turnaround from 2017-18, with Tech picked to finish seventh in the preseason standings but posting a fourth-place showing.

The Golden Eagles won their first game in the OVC Tournament since 2013 and earned their first postseason bid since 2012, reaching the quarterfinals of the Women’s Basketball Invitational. Tech won its first game in the WBI, the program’s first postseason victories since 2006.

Rosamond also became the first TTU head coach since Marynell Meadors to defeat Middle Tennessee, UT Martin and Belmont in the same season.