Bill Koch

bkoch@enquirer.com

MEMPHIS - Mick Cronin's first two years as the head coach at the University of Cincinnati were so trying that he tries to blot them from his memory.

But he's not always successful.

"I remember Memphis scoring so many points on us in a row I didn't have enough timeouts," Cronin said. "I had never been in a situation where they told me I was out of timeouts in the first half, so, yeah, we've come a long way."

Those memories will be a little easier to deal with after Cronin was named the American Athletic Coach of the Year on Wednesday by his fellow coaches.

Cronin, in his eighth year at UC, has led the 13th-ranked Bearcats to a 26-5 record and a share of the conference championship after they were unranked at the start of the season and picked to finish fourth by the league's coaches in a preseason poll. UC's 26 regular-season wins are the most for the Bearcats since 2001-02.

It was also a big day for senior center Justin Jackson, who won the league's Defensive Player of the Year award.

"I've been working my whole four years for it," said Jackson, who leads the league in blocked shots with 2.9 per game. "To have it in my hands now, it feels like one goal checked off. I've always had this award in my mind since I was a freshman. I love playing defense. It's better than Player of the Year to me."

No. 1 seed UC will play its first game in the AAC Tournament at 7 p.m. Thursday at FedEx Forum against the winner of Wednesday night's game between No. 8 seed Temple and No. 9 seed Central Florida.

The Coach of the Year award is the second for Cronin, who won the Ohio Valley Conference award in 2005-06, the year before he took over at UC.

"Whenever you're able to bring success to your alma mater, it means more to me to do it at Cincinnati than if was able to have a great year somewhere else, no doubt about it," Cronin said.

The UC coach praised his seniors for making the award possible and said the turning point for this season occurred when the Bearcats beat Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden in the Jimmy V Classic after dropping back-to-back games to New Mexico and Xavier.

Since then, UC has gone 19-3, with all three losses coming against teams that are currently ranked in the AP Top 25.

"We had a long meeting," Cronin said. "I forced everybody to voice what their opinion was on why we played so poorly and what we needed to do to change it," Cronin said. "Winners know why they win. Losing teams, they don't know why they lose because they're too busy being concerned with their individualism and the blame game. Winners understand that there are uncomfortable things that go into winning.

"It's easier to convey that as a coach when you're coaching veterans because they've been through it. You have to have players willing to sacrifice and willing to do the dirty work. We talked it out and said dirty work is going to decide who wins. The talent is pretty equal. My guys are committed to doing dirty work."

Unanimous first-team all-conference selection Sean Kilpatrick was beaten out for Player of the Year by Connecticut guard Shabazz Napier in the coaches' voting.

Kilpatrick, a senior guard who leads the league in scoring at 20.9 points per game, made no attempt to mask his disappointment.

"When you try to bring your team to where they are now and all the numbers do line up and you state the obvious, that's something that's very, I would say, diminishing," Kilpatrick said.

"Everyone knows what it's supposed to be, but certain things don't go your way over a whole bunch of votes. That's something that really hurts a lot because I worked all summer and really all my life to try to get to situations like this and it seems to always get snagged back from me. You've just got to use it as motivation. I'm all right."

Instead of the Player of the Year award, Kilpatrick received the league's Sportsmanship Award, which seemed almost like a consolation prize after he led his team to a regular-season co-championship.

"I still don't actually know what it means," Kilpatrick said. "That's the crazy thing. I don't know the definition behind it or anything like that. I guess that's how the dice rolled and I guess that's how they felt. It is what it is."

Napier won the award apparently based on his all-around play, even though the Huskies finished in a three-way tie for third place. He averaged 17.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists, leading UConn in all three categories.

"Obviously, Shabazz is a great player and he had a great year," Cronin said. "I just thought with us winning the conference it should have been a no-brainer, but my message to SK is, with all due respect to these awards, I'd like to be standing on a podium in Dallas in April (at the Final Four) next to him. He's my MVP."

Cronin said he hopes Kilpatrick will use the snub as motivation in the postseason.

"He's competitive," Cronin said. "I think it's something that drove him. He's like myself. We use any motivation we can get to drive ourselves. In a way, I hope he uses it to push himself even further here in March."

The other awards: Austin Nichols (Memphis) Rookie of the Year; Michael Dixon Jr. (Memphis) Sixth Man Award; Montrezl Harrell (Louisville) Most Improved Player; Jimmy McDonnell (Temple) Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Kilpatrick was a unanimous first-team selection on the first all-American Athletic Conference team announced Tuesday.

Jackson was voted to the second team.

Kilpatrick, the leading scorer in the league at 20.9 points per game, became the first UC player to receive first-team all-conference recognition since Deonta Vaughn in 2008 in the Big East Conference. Kilpatrick was a second-team all-Big East selection in both 2012 and 2013.

All season long, Kilpatrick deflected praise in favor of team accomplishments and again on Tuesday when he stood in front of TV cameras and was asked about being a unanimous first-team all-AAC selection, he said he was more concerned with how the team did in the postseason.

But after the cameras were shut off, Kilpatrick admitted that winning the AAC Player of the Year Award would mean a lot to him.

"It would enhance my confidence a lot more," Kilpatrick said, "knowing that I worked to be in that position and actually in that kind of talk, really being able to have me mentioned among the great players in this league. That's every kid's dream to be Player of the Year in their conference and that's something that I really hope happens for me."

Kilpatrick, the leading scorer in the AAC, was one of three primary candidates for the award. The others were Napier and Louisville's Russ Smith.

All three players were chosen as first-team All-Americans on Monday by NBC.com's Rob Dauster.

"Kilpatrick is as good a player as we have in the league," said SMU coach Larry Brown. "He does everything, in my mind. He's a great leader. He's very, very unselfish. I think he could score more if he would hunt shots but he plays within the system. He's a terrific, terrific player."

Coaches are not allowed to vote for their own player but there was no doubt in Cronin's mind that Kilpatrick - who ranks first in 3-point field goals and third in free throw percentage - deserved to be player of the year.

Asked to state his case for Kilpatrick, Cronin said he didn't need to.

"I think he did it," Cronin said. "He did it emphatically. He did it night in and night out. His character and leadership were pretty evident to anyone who watched our team play. We have three guys that are worthy of being first-team All-Americans, but I'm partial to SK."