Head Coach Ritchie McKay does a victory dance with the team in the locker room after beating Mississippi State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
A storybook season for Liberty University Men’s Basketball culminated in Head Coach Ritchie McKay receiving the 2019 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award, presented annually to the top coach in NCAA Division I men’s basketball.
“I’m floored, very honored, humbled, and blessed that they would choose us, our program, as the recipient of that award,” McKay told Liberty’s “Game On” sports news television show. “I know some of the previous winners (including Virginia’s Tony Bennett, Kentucky’s John Calipari, Notre Dame’s Mike Brey, and West Virginia’s Bob Huggins) and don’t consider myself in that class. So it just speaks to how many have worked hard and labored to build our program. And as a result of that, our guys had a special season.”
McKay is the first head coach from a non-Power 5 school to receive the honor since 2011.
The award was announced on April 5, the night before the Final Four in Minneapolis, Minn.
McKay led the Flames to their first NCAA Tournament win and first trip to the tournament’s Round of 32. He also helped the Flames shatter many records this year, winning 29 games, their most in school history. They eclipsed 20 wins for the third consecutive season.
The Flames finished 14-2 in the ASUN regular season and 16-1 at the Vines Center.
The record-setting year was highlighted by cutting the nets down in Nashville, Tenn., on March 10 after claiming the ASUN Men’s Basketball Championship in their first season in the conference. Liberty upset host Lipscomb University 74-68. That punched the Flames’ fourth ticket to the NCAA Tournament and gave them their highest seed to date at No. 12. A career-high 30 points from junior guard Caleb Homesley helped Liberty upend No. 5-seeded Mississippi State, 80-76, in the first round in San Jose, Calif., for the team’s first NCAA Tournament triumph. In the second round, the Flames yielded a second-half lead to fourth-seeded Virginia Tech, losing 67-58 and ending their tournament run.
As Liberty continued its rise up the NCAA Division I ranks, McKay improved his record to 124-83 in two stints (2007-09, 2015-19) with the Flames. He was granted a six-year contract extension through the 2024-25 season.
