INDIANA, Pa. – IUP head women's basketball coach Tom McConnell was named the 2018-19 IUP Women's Coach of the Year, announced Tuesday, June 18 by the IUP Athletic Department.
 
The award is part of the Crimson & Gray Awards, which recognize the top athletes, coaches, teams and performances of the IUP Athletics season. The Awards are in their third year of existence.
 
McConnell is the first back-to-back winner of an IUP Coach of the Year award after he led his program to its second straight Atlantic Region title and NCAA Division II Elite Eight national semifinal appearance.
 
Along the way, the Crimson Hawks won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Western Division regular season title and the PSAC tournament championship. They finished the season with a 30-4 overall record, which included a 15-game win streak to open the season.
 
McConnell was also named the PSAC West Coach of the Year for the second straight season.
 
The 30 wins tied the program record set during last year's national semifinal run, as did the overall win percentage of .882. The 15-game win streak was one short of tying the record for the best start in program history set during the 1999-00 season.
 
IUP also spent three weeks as the No. 1 ranked team in the WBCA poll, the best ranking in program history. The Crimson Hawks ended the year at No. 4 in the poll and spent 15 of the 18 national releases ranked inside the top five.
 
McConnell saw his team break single season program records for points (2,581), field goals made (997), field goal percentage (.480), defensive field goal percentage (.345), 3-point percentage (.380), defensive 3-point percentage (.268) and assists (605).
 
About the Coach of the Year Award
The IUP Coach of the Year is given each year to the men's and women's coaches who did the most outstanding job leading his or her team. Awards are given to the top men's team coach and women's team coach. The Coach of the Year Award began in 2017 with the creation of the Crimson & Gray Awards.  
 
About the Crimson & Gray Awards
The Crimson & Gray Awards are in their third year of existence and consist of 18 total categories - nine women, nine men - with top performers and performances from the 2018-19 year eligible.
 
Awards include: Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Coach of the Year, Performance of the Year, Freshman of the Year, Breakthrough Athlete of the Year, Postseason Performer of the Year, Senior of the Year, Team of the Year and Athlete of the Year.

The IUP Sports Information Office collected award nominations from its coaches, with those nominees voted on by a select panel to narrow each category down to finalists. That panel votes again to determine the winners.
 
Up next
The 2018-19 IUP Men's and Women's Performance of the Year awards will be announced Wednesday.
 
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