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Jim Crews served as the interim coach for the SLU Billikens men's basketball team.

Crews led the team to their first A-10 title in decades and a number 4 seed in the NCAA tournament.

The deal is reportedly long-term, but specifics have not been released.

ATLANTA (AP) - Jim Larranaga, who led Miami to the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and tournament titles and a No. 2 ranking, has been selected The Associated Press' coach of the year.

 

Larranaga received 29 votes Thursday from the same 65-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. Jim Crews of Saint Louis got 19 votes and Mark Few of Gonzaga had 11. The voting ended on Selection Sunday.

 

The 63-year-old, two-time-hip-replacement patient had a 29-7 record in his second season with the Hurricanes and they were made a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.

 

He is the first Miami coach to win the award and is the first Atlantic Coast Conference coach to get it since Roy Williams of North Carolina in 2006.

 

The New York native led George Mason to the Final Four in 2006.

The Missouri Tigers roller coaster ride of a season is over. It came to a crashing halt Thursday night in Lexington, Kentucky in the opening of the NCAA Tournament. Mizzou fell to Colorado State 84-to-72 . The 9th seeded Tigers season has ended with a record of 23-and-11. It was the third straight year that Missouri has lost it’s opening game of the NCAA Tournament.

Meanwhile, The Saint Louis University Billikens easily handled their first round matchup against New Mexico State Thursday afternoon, winning 64-to-44. They move on to play Oregon on March 23rd.

After winning the A-10 tournament 62-56 over VCU Sunday, the Saint Louis University Billikens are the #4 seed in the Midwest for the NCAA tournament. They'll take on #13 New Mexico State on Thursday.

The Missouri Tigers also got a ticket to the big dance. Mizzou is the ninth seed in the Midwest. They'll face the No. 8 seed Colorado State on Thursday.

If Mizzou and SLU make it through the first two rounds of the tournament, they would face each other in the Elite 8.

After an up and down season, the Fighting Illini made it into the tournament with a No. 7 seed and will face No. 10 seed Colorado in the Eastern Region on Friday.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — No matter how flawless a win appears, coaches always seem to have something to quibble about. Not so much this time.

"It's never perfect, but that was fun to watch," interim Coach Jim Crews said after No. 16 Saint Louis trounced La Salle in the second half and clinched a share of the Atlantic 10 title with a 78-54 victory Saturday. "Really, they kept getting better and better, and that's unusual. That's very unusual."

Dwayne Evans had 16 points and 17 rebounds for Saint Louis, which led by just two points at halftime and then made 17 of 20 shots. Kwamain Mitchell had 19 points and six assists on senior day to help the Billikens (24-6, 13-3) win their first conference title since 1970-71 in the Missouri Valley and clinch the top seed in the A-10 Tournament next week in Brooklyn, N.Y.

"Everyone made plays," Mitchell said. "We kept pushing it and pushing it, and we came up with some great shots."

Rob Loe matched his career best with 20 points, hitting all seven shots. The Billikens shot 58 percent overall, one game after shooting a season-worst 30 percent in an overtime loss at Xavier.

"I couldn't be more pleased or proud or tickled for these guys to win a championship," Crews said. "It's hard to win a game, much less a championship."

Saint Louis has won 12 of its last 13 under Crews, who made it a smooth transition after taking over for the late Rick Majerus with no assurances past the end of the season. The Billikens can take the title outright if VCU loses at Temple today.

Seniors Cory Remeken, Cody Ellis and Mitchell were among the first to snip the nets.

"I'm sure he's proud right now," Ellis, an Australian import whose parents made the trip for the last two games, said in reference to Majerus. "He's watching this from somewhere. "

Tyrone Garland had 15 points off the bench for La Salle (21-8, 11-5). The Explorers entered the day in second place after winning seven of eight and had been 2-0 in the Chaifetz Arena before absorbing a 24-point loss that was the school's worst of the season.

"That was about as bad a beating as you could take in the second half," La Salle Coach John Giannini said. "I'm really disappointed with the way we played. They took it to us. They won a lot of individual battles — maybe all of them in the second half."

Ramon Galloway, who leads the Explorers with a 17.8-point average, was just 3 for 12 and had eight points.

CINCINNATI (AP) - Travis Taylor had 19 points and a career-high 19 rebounds on Wednesday night, and Xavier never trailed in the overtime, beating No. 16 Saint Louis 77-66, ending the Billikens' 11-game winning streak and leaving the Atlantic 10 title up for grabs.

Xavier (17-12, 9-6 A-10) ended a long winning streak for the second time in eight days. The Musketeers snapped Memphis' 18-game streak at the Cintas Center last week.

The Billikens (23-6, 12-3) haven't won a share of a conference title since 1970-71 in the Missouri Valley. Their last outright title came in 1956-57. They could have clinched the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament with a win on Wednesday.

Instead, they fell into a first-place tie with No. 21 VCU, which beat Richmond on Wednesday. Saint Louis beat VCU during its 11-game winning streak for the head-to-head advantage.

Saint Louis finishes the season at home against third-place La Salle on Saturday. VCU is at Temple on Sunday.

On the same day that St. Louis University's embattled president issued a letter offering a conciliatory tone, some university alumni expressed their disapproval of Father Lawrence Biondi at the Billiken's basketball game.

At the start of the game, a group raised a banner that read "Alums for No Confidence," a reference to the no confidence votes issued by the university faculty and student government late last year.

In Biondi's 20 page report to campus yesterday, he acknowledged the criticism against him. He said that although he didn't agree with all of it, he's "committed to being part of the solution; to working more closely with those...who say that their voices are not being heard.”