Men's Basketball 3/5/2019 12:24:00 PM

Patel of OCU takes HoopDirt.com coach of week

Stars boss collects third weekly award from HoopDirt.com

OKLAHOMA CITY – Vinay Patel of Oklahoma City University garnered the HoopDirt.com NAIA men's basketball coach of the week for Feb. 25-March 3.
Patel took the third weekly award from HoopDirt.com of his career. He previously collected the honor for Feb. 22-28, 2016 and Dec. 4-10, 2017.
The Stars captured their 10th Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament championship 74-73 over 18th-ranked John Brown (Ark.) on Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena. Trae Bryant converted a layup with 4.6 seconds remaining for the decisive basket. OCU secured its first SAC Tournament title since March 2, 2013, when the Stars upended John Brown 77-72 in Shawnee, Okla.
Oklahoma City fought its way to the championship with an 84-73 road win over Langston on Tuesday, Feb. 26 and a 73-69 victory over Panhandle State on Friday. Langston had swept the Stars during the regular season, while Elijah Christman's 3-pointer with 28.7 seconds left boosted OCU past Panhandle State.
The Stars secured the conference's postseason tournament bid into the NAIA Division I Tournament on March 20-26 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. OCU will learn its first-round opponent when the NAIA unveils the bracket 5 p.m. CST March 13.
"In four years here, I feel like almost every game is down to the last minute," Patel said. "You might as well fast forward to the end. When we had a chance to do it there at the end, Trae is such a good individual one-on-one guy, I think he's one of the hardest guys on our team to defend. So we kind of went and sent Chris Williams off a few screens on the baseline and figured everyone was going to be so worried about him. We sent Elijah the other way because he's been shooting the ball so well, which just opened everything up for Trae to drive to the rim. That's what the play was, it was just a straight up, go get you a bucket, Trae."
Patel has directed OCU to the 2019 SAC Tournament title and the 2017-18 SAC regular-season title. Patel has an 81-41 record in his fourth season with three consecutive 20-win seasons and four national-tournament appearances guiding the Stars. He became the John Hudson SAC coach of the year in 2017-18. He owns an 87-55 mark in his fifth year overall as a head coach.
Four Stars snared all-conference honors. Williams took SAC newcomer of the year, first-team all-SAC and SAC Tournament most valuable player. Patel has mentored four all-Americans, 15 all-SAC selections, the SAC player of the year, SAC newcomer of the year, two conference defensive player of the year award winners, four academic all-conference recipients and a Dark Horse Dunker finalist.
OCU owns a 3-3 record against ranked teams this season. The Stars have made four appearances in the NAIA Top 25 this season, starting the season at No. 5 in the ratings.

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Players Mentioned

#10 Elijah Christman: F; 6' 5"; Senior

#2 Chris Williams: G; 6' 2"; Senior

#3 Trae Bryant: G; 6' 1"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#10 Elijah Christman
: 6' 5"; Senior
: F

#2 Chris Williams
: 6' 2"; Senior
: G

#3 Trae Bryant
: 6' 1"; Junior
: G

Players Mentioned

#10 Elijah Christman

#2 Chris Williams

#3 Trae Bryant

Players Mentioned

#10 Elijah Christman

#2 Chris Williams

#3 Trae Bryant