 In his first year as ISU's head coach, Muller has guided the
Redbirds to 17 victories and a sixth-place regular-season finish in
the Missouri Valley Conference. ISU's league wins include a victory
at No. 16 Creighton, which marked ISU's first win over a nationally
ranked team on the road since topping No. 17 Tulsa in 1985.
Muller, who led ISU to two Valley tournament championships as a
player from 1994 to 1998, helped Jackie Carmichael, Tyler Brown and
Johnny Hill earn league recognition. Thanks to Muller's guidance,
Carmichael is an MVC First-Team and All-Defensive Team selection,
Brown is a Valley Second-Team honoree, and Hill is a member of the
MVC Most-Improved Team.
Along with Muller, the other nine finalists for the Joe B. Hall
Award are Kevin Baggett of Rider, Jamion Christian of Mount St.
Mary's, Mike Martin of Brown, Bashir Mason of Wagner, Kevin Ollie of
Connecticut, Jack Perri of LIU-Brooklyn, Richard Pitino of FIU, Nick
Robinson of Southern Utah and Travis Williams of Tennessee State.
The award is named in honor of Joe B. Hall, who was given the
task of following the legendary Adolph Rupp. In his first season at
the University of Kentucky, Hall finished 20-8, won the SEC and
advanced to the NCAA regional finals.
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From 1972 to 1985 Hall would win two-thirds of his games (297-100),
receive four SEC Coach of the Year honors and win a national
championship (1978). Along with the 1978 title, Hall also guided
Kentucky to a runner-up finish to UCLA in the 1975 NCAA tournament, a
Final Four appearance in the 1984 NCAA tournament and an NIT
championship in 1976. He won eight Southeastern Conference
regular-season championships and one Southeastern Conference tournament
championship (1984).
Hall is one of only three men to win an NCAA championship as
a player (1949 at Kentucky) and coach (1978 at Kentucky). The
only others to achieve this feat are Bob Knight and Dean Smith.
The 2013 honoree will be announced on April 5 at the
CollegeInsider.com awards banquet in Atlanta, site of the men's NCAA
Basketball Championship.
Muller and the Redbirds enter the 2013 Missouri Valley Conference
tournament as the No. 6 seed and will face No. 3-seeded Northern
Iowa in the last quarterfinal matchup Friday at 8:35 p.m., at the
Scottrade Center. Tickets are available by calling 309-438-8000.
[Text from
news release received from
Illinois State University] |
