Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Matt Painter Named Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year
03/05/2004 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
March 5, 2004
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Southern Illinois University first-year head coach Matt Painter was named the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year on Friday night during the league's annual banquet at the Marriott hotel.
Painter becomes the first rookie to win the league's top honor in nearly 25 years.
Painter has led the Salukis to their highest-ever national ranking and a league regular-season title. Southern Illinois enters the State Farm MVC Tournament with a 24-3 overall record and 17-1 conference mark.
The 17 wins are the most in the Valley since the 1982-83 Wichita State team won 17 games en route to an overall record of 25-3 and an NCAA Tournament berth. The 17-1 Salukis won the league title by a margin of five games over second-place Creighton, UNI, and Wichita State (all at 12-6). That's the biggest margin in the league standings since Bradley set a league record by winning the conference by a six-game margin in 1985-86.
Before losing to UNI in the regular-season finale (March 1), the Salukis had won their first 17 games in the league race, capping a string of 22-straight conference wins -- third-best all time in the league's 97-year history. The 17-0 start was second-best all-time, as Southern Illinois became just the fifth team in league history to win 17 conference games. Wichita State (17-1, 1982-83), Oklahoma (18-0, 1927-28), Missouri (17-1, 1919-20) and Missouri (17-1, 1920-21) were the others.
Painter, 33, is a Purdue graduate and holds a master's degree from Eastern Illinois University. He becomes the first first-year coach to earn league Coach of the Year honors in the Valley since Nolan Richardson received that honor in 1980-81 after leading Tulsa to a 26-7 record and second-place conference finish. Painter is only one of 16 coaches to win 20-plus games in his first Valley season, and he is just one of 17 MVC rookies to win the conference's regular-season title in his first year.
SIU's 24 wins under Painter are the most by a league rookie mentor since Bill Hodges of Indiana State won 33 games and took the Sycamores to a national runner-up finish in 1978-79. And Painter's 24 wins are fourth-best all-time for an MVC rookie, following Hodges (33-1), Ed Jucker of Cincinnati (27-3 in 1961) and Denny Crum of Louisville (26-5 in 1971-72).
Painter, coupled with Bruce Weber's MVC Coach of the Year honor last year, gives the Salukis back-to-back league coaching honors -- that's the first time in league history that two different coaches from the same school have won MVC Coach of the Year honors in successive seasons.
Painter, who received a first-place vote on all but two ballots, outdistanced UNI's Greg McDermott and Drake's Tom Davis in the balloting.
