Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 30, 1991 TAG: 9103300198
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Medium
"I don't put a lot of significance on me being black," the Ohio State coach said Friday after being voted The Associated Press' coach of the year. "I hope people will judge me as being a good coach."
Ayers guided the Buckeyes to a 27-4 mark and the co-championship of the Big Ten in his second season as coach. Ohio State was beaten by St. John's in the Midwest regional semifinals.
He received 191 of 582 votes in a nationwide poll of sportswriters and broadcasters conducted before the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky's Rick Pitino was second with 94 votes, followed by Utah's Rick Majerus with 89 1/2 and Nebraska's Danny Nee with 65.
Shaquille O'Neal of Louisiana State was selected the player of the year. O'Neal received the Adolph Rupp Trophy and said it would mean more to him to earn an NCAA championship trophy.
"So far, I've had a high school championship, an Olympic Festival championship, . . . why not an NCAA championship?" said O'Neal, the 7-foot-1, 290-pound sophomore who led the nation in rebounding this season for LSU.
O'Neal said he would return to LSU next season instead of turning professional.
"I'm not leaving. I'm returning," he said. "That's my intention. I've been poor 19 years of my life. I think I can hold out two more years."
O'Neal is only the fourth sophomore to win the Rupp Trophy, named for the late Kentucky coach. The others were Bill Walton of UCLA in 1972, DePaul's Mark Aguirre in 1980 and Virginia's Ralph Sampson in 1981. UCLA's Lew Alcindor, now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, also was player of the year in 1967 as a sophomore before the Rupp Trophy was instituted.
"It's a great honor to be in such an elite class," O'Neal said. "I didn't really know I was even a nominee until the coach told me last week."
O'Neal was a first-team All-American after averaging 27.6 points, 14.7 rebounds and 5.4 blocked shots per game.
He received 206 of 582 votes. UNLV teammates Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon were second and third with 139 and 72 votes, respectively.
Syracuse's Billy Owens was fourth with 51, followed by Jimmy Jackson of Ohio State (37), Kenny Anderson of Georgia Tech (32), and Christian Laettner of Duke (13).
Ayers, an assistant with the Buckeyes for six years before being elevated to the top position, is 44-17 in two seasons.
"After the first year people started judging me as a coach, not whether I was young or whether I was black," said Ayers, 34, the second black selected coach of the year, after Temple's John Chaney in 1988. "And I hope people will continue to do that for all coaches.
"This has been an unbelievable season for the Ohio State Buckeyes, a season where everything just fell in place for us."
by CNB