Bennett, Calipari, Ryan and Wright named college COY finalists

John Calipari, head coach of the undefeated and top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats, is among the four remaining finalists for the 2015 Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year award, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced today. He is joined by Tony Bennett (University of Virginia), Bo Ryan (University of Wisconsin) and Jay Wright (Villanova University). Bennett won the award in 2007 while at Washington State University and was a finalist in 2013. Calipari is a two-time Naismith Award winner, once at the University of Massachusetts (1996) and the other at the University of Memphis (2008). Wright was the 2006 Naismith Award winner, while Ryan is a two-time finalist (2005, 2007).

The finalists were determined by the Atlanta Tipoff Club’s national voting academy, which based its criteria on the coaches’ performances to this point in the 2014-15 men’s college basketball season. The Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year will be announced on April 5, 2015 at the Naismith Awards Brunch Delivered by UPS in Indianapolis.

The vote was tabulated and certified by the accounting firm of Habif, Arogeti & Wynne, LLP. HA&W is the largest independent accounting firm in Georgia and one of the top 50 firms in the United States.