OGDEN, Utah ? Portland State head coach Ken Bone has been
selected as the 2007-08 Big Sky Conference Men's Basketball Coach of the Year,
the Big Sky Conference announced Tuesday. The selection was made by a vote of
the league's nine head coaches.
Bone, in his third season on the Park Blocks, guided the
Vikings to their highest win total in school history, a Big Sky regular-season
and tournament title, and first-ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance. Portland State went 14-2 to win the Big Sky
regular-season title. The Vikings then defeated Idaho State, 72-61, and Northern Arizona, 67-51, to win the Big Sky Conference
Tournament and receive the conference's automatic NCAA bid.
The Vikings, the No. 16 seed in the NCAA Midwest Regional,
will carry a 23-9 overall record into their first-round match-up with No. 1
seed Kansas,
31-3, Thursday morning. Tip-off between the Vikings and Jayhawks is scheduled
for 9:25 a.m., (PDT) at the Qwest Center Omaha in Omaha, Neb. The game will be televised by CBS
Sports.
Portland
State will also carry a
five-game winning streak into Thursday's NCAA first-round game, and has won 14
of its last 15 games.
The Vikings' 23 wins marks Portland State's
first-ever 20-win season at the NCAA Division I level. The Big Sky
regular-season title was Portland
State's second since
reinstating men's basketball and joining the Big Sky, prior to the 1996-97
season.
Portland
State
was picked to finish third by the media and the coaches in the preseason.
Bone, 49, has a 54-38 record at Portland State
and has led the Vikings to the Big Sky Tournament in all three seasons.
Bone is the first Portland
State head coach to win
the Big Sky Men's Basketball Coach of the Year Award. It is the second coach of
the year award for Bone. He was named
the PacWest Coach of the Year while as the head coach at Seattle Pacific in
1999-00, leading the Falcons to a 27-5 record and an NCAA Division II Final
Four appearance.
Overall, Bone is in his 16th season as a head
coach, and has a career record of 312-156. Bone was the head coach at Cal State
Stanislaus in 1984-85. He took over the program at Seattle Pacific in 1990, and
guided the Falcons to a 12-year mark of 253-97, winning six conference titles
and earning eight NCAA Division II Tournament berths.
Prior to coming to Portland
State, Bone spent three seasons on
Lorenzo Romar's coaching staff at Washington,
helping the Huskies to a 58-35 record and two NCAA Tournament appearances. He
also helped coach current Portland Trail Blazer and NBA All-Star Brandon Roy at
Washington.
This
is the fifth major postseason award won by a Viking. Junior guard Jeremiah
Dominguez was named the league's MVP and Newcomer of the Year. Senior center
Scott Morrison captured Defensive Player of the Year honors. Senior guard
Deonte Huff was named MVP of the Big Sky Championship.
Bone and his wife Connie are the parents
of three girls: Kendra, Jenae and Chelsea.
Bone's assistant coaches are Tyler Geving, Eric Harper and Curtis Allen. Tyler Coston is the director of
basketball operations.
