Monmouth's Wilson Named IBCA College Women's Co-Coach of the Year
Monmouth, IL (08/03/2020) — A record-setting year and NCAA tournament appearance has earned Monmouth College's Kyle Wilson the Illinois Basketball Coaches' Association (IBCA) College Women's Co-Coach of the Year honor.
"This really is a testament to the hard work our women put in," declared Wilson, who just completed his fifth season guiding the Fighting Scots. "The IBCA may be presenting the award to me, but I'm accepting it on behalf of our team. It took everyone on the team to have such a successful year."
Monmouth rolled to a 21-win season, setting the record for the most victories in program history while taking the Midwest Conference Tournament title and earning the automatic NCAA berth that goes with it. In the MWC final, the Scots came from behind to defeat defending regular season and tournament champion Ripon for the third time. It was just the second MWC Tournament crown and NCAA appearance in program history.
"This year's success didn't happen overnight," said Wilson. "We've been building each year to reach that level and take that next step. We realized how good we could be during our trip to California and competing with a ranked Transylvania team. We overcame some difficulties and had a chance to force overtime on the final possession against an NCAA tournament team. That made us realize we could handle almost anything that could be thrown at us."
Wilson and three Monmouth alumni - Neil Alexander '76, Jay Blender '81 and Barry Corban '69 - will receive their awards at the IBCA Hall of Fame and Coach of the Year banquet tentatively scheduled for Sept. 5 at Illinois State University's Redbird Arena. Originally scheduled for May 2 in Bloomington, the date and location was moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Information on the ceremony and awards may be found on the IBCA website at https://il.nhsbca.org/.
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