UConn graduate Mark Daigneault, who served as a student manager for the men’s basketball team under Jim Calhoun from 2003-07, won the National Basketball Coaches Association’s NBA Coach of the Year award on Monday.
The 39-year-old led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 57-25 record and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. With an average age of 24 years old, the team became the youngest in modern league history to finish with a top seed in the West.
Daigneault, who’s originally from Leominster, Mass., earned his bachelor’s degree at UConn and went on to serve as an assistant at Holy Cross and Florida before becoming head coach of the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder’s G League affiliate, in 2014. He took over the Thunder job in 2020.
The NBCA award is voted on by the league’s 30 head coaches.
“It is humbling to be chosen for this honor by my peers, for whom I have a great deal of respect and admiration,” Daigneault said in a statement. “Our team’s success this season has been driven by a group of talented players, whose commitment and competitiveness has been uncommon. Coaching them is a privilege.”
The Thunder must wait until the end of the league’s Play-In Tournament to find out who they will face in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The Lakers, Pelicans, Warriors and Kings could all wind up as the No. 8 seed. The NBA playoffs begin Saturday, April 20.
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