Award season is in full swing here at the Rush.  I could easily make a "Miner Rush All- CUSA" team but I personally think this is more fun and we'll have 8-10 of those lists which will largely be the same coming out in the coming days from the various papers and the league office.  

This Rushie goes to the C-USA coach that did the best job this season in the eyes of Miner fans.  You can vote for the guy you think does less with more or the guy who you simply think is the best gameplannner out there. Who do you think did the best coaching job this season in the C-USA?  And the nominees are.....

1.  Ruffin McNeill (East Carolina)

Despite his uncanny resemblance to Carl Winslow, the father on the old TV show Family Matters, McNeill had one heck of a coaching debut at ECU.  

Arguments For:  East Carolina lost more seniors than any other team in the nation yet the Pirates were still very competitive in the top heavy C-USA East.  The Pirates beat Southern Miss., N.C. State, and Tulsa in the seasons opening week.  Perhaps Ruffin's best move was bringing in Lincoln Riley to become the OC.  Riley was formerly the OC under Mike Leach at Texas Tech.  He transformed ECU into an elite spread offense.

Arguments Against:  Easy.  ECU lost four of their last five games including a baffling loss to Rice where they allowed the Owls hapless offense to score a ridiculous 62 points.  McNeill was supposed to be a defensive minded coach yet the Pirates finished a disappointing 118th in the nation in scoring defense. 

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It's time to being our wrap-up of the 2010 C-USA regular season by handing out some post season awards.  We kick it off with our "Most Hated Opposing Player Award."  This award goes to the opposing player that Miner fans simply hope they never have to play again because an ability to shred the Miners on offense or defense.  "Hate" is a strong word but this award really is a sign of respect when it comes down to it.  On to the nominees....

1.  Donald Brown (Marshall DB)

We can thank Brown for perhaps the biggest backbreaker of a play against UTEP this season:  Trevor Vittatoe's infamous 'Pick 2.'  UTEP had a full nelson around their first C-USA road win in over two years when Trevor hit Kris Adams on a 28 yard touchdown with five minutes to play.  The Miners were about to go up 14-7 with Marshall completely exhausted.   Instead, Brown jumped the pattern and raced from end zone to end zone.  The play ignited the Marshall bench and the Herd escaped with a 16-12 win.  

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Football season is winding down and that can only mean one thing:  The Rushies.  For those of you who weren't around when basketball season ended last season, we took a week to vote on one  award per day.  These aren't traditional awards, in fact I want them to be unique to this site.  For example, we gave out the "Danny Ainge Most Hated Rival Player Award" in basketball (congrats Houston's Kelvin Lewis).

So, starting next Monday (after the C-USA Title game), the Rushies will kick off.  What I need is your help coming up with the categories.  I'd like to have one a day but there's no real limit- we make the rules- so if there are six funny ones we can make them all get a vote.  The categories can be Miner specific (say best UTEP defender) or conference wide.  

Here are some ideas I'm kicking around so far:

1.  Most Hated Opposing Player- Someone we just don't like.

2.  The David Lee Award for Worst C-USA Coach

3.  The Best C-USA Coach- any idea for a name for this one?  

4.  Story of the Year

5.  Best/Worst C-USA Game of the Year

6.  The C-USA Most Valuable Player Award- The Guy I hope we never see again award

7.  The Most Disappointing Season Award

8.  The Mystery Guest Award (Best player that gets no recognition in the C-USA)

9.  Best/Worst C-USA Fanbase & Gameday Experience

10.   ??????

Any suggestions?  Let me know if any of these aren't any good or which ones you really want to vote on.  If you'd rather not comment, feel free to email me at Minerrush@gmail.com or via twitter.  Also if you instantly know a player or coach that should be nominated for any of these categories or your own category, let me know about it.  

On Monday, I'll post the schedule for the week and the first category.  

The Final Rushie fittingly comes just after Tony Barbee decided to leave UTEP for Auburn.  It's time to close the book on last season and start looking forward...

Sadly, since so few C-USA games are televised nationally, it's incredibly difficult to find quality video's of the league's best dunks.  Randy Culpepper should have a shrine on YouTube, but when you're on tv once or twice a year it makes it very hard for fans to grab videos of the best dunks of the year.  Nonetheless, I've found three impressive dunks for your consideration.  If you have video of some of Culpepper's dunks, please FanShot it so it can be preserved here in the archives.

The Candidates (In No Particular Order)

1.  Memphis' Elliot Williams 360 vs. Oakland.

2.  Randy Culpepper's Dunk Against Marshall.

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This season, we were treated to tons of excellent games.  Which one was the best?  Let's take a look at the candidates.

The Candidates (In no particular order)

1.  UCF 115 - Marshall 121 (3 OT)  (February 27, 2010) 

This was one of those surreal C-USA battles.  There were no real stakes in this contest.  Marshall was trying to stay in the top four of the C-USA standings.   It was raining three's, UCF nearly ran out of players, and in the end Marshall outlasted UCF in a game full of video-game stats.

The statistics were pure lunacy:

• 11 players in double digits
• 24 combined made three pointers
• 99 attempted free throws
• 7 players fouled out (6 for UCF); The Knights were down to 6 players in the last overtime; UCF committed 43 personal fouls to Marshall's 26

2.  UTEP 80 -  Marshall 76 (March 2, 2010)

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Hate is a strong word.  I want to emphasize that we don't really "hate" an opposing team's player who is probably a well mannered, hard working 19-20 year old kid.  But, in athletics there is always going to be a player who finds a way to tick off the fans at the Don.  Usually, it's exceptional play that rattles us.  So, in a way this award really is an honor.

Why Danny Ainge?  He was the best player on a team that time and time again gave UTEP fits.  The UTEP-BYU rivalry in the 1980's defined the Western Athletic Conference's basketball glory days.  The series was filled with great coaching, great battles, and great games just about every time.  Need a refresher?  Watch this.

The Candidates (In No Particular Order)

1.  Jahmar Young (G) New Mexico State

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Who did the least with the most?  Whose team never lived up to its potential?  There are three clear front-runners for the inaugural worst coach award.  Sure, it would be easy for me to lay this award on the team that is lowest in the standings (Rice), but Rice doesn't have Elijah Millsap, Elliot Williams or Jerome Jordan.  The coaches, this season, that are up for this award all had the talent to make the NCAA Tournament but allowed their squads to lose games they shouldn't have and tripped up along the way.  Let's get to it.

The Candidates (In no particular order)

1.  Doug Wojcik (Tulsa)

Arguments For:

• Tulsa was the preseason favorite to win the league.  Yet, the Golden Hurricane finished in 5th place.  Against the other league favorites (UTEP, Memphis, and UAB), Wojcik's squad was an awful 0-5 including three losses to league champion UTEP.  Tulsa had home-crowd advantage in the C-USA Tournament but they were not competitive in their loss to UTEP in the C-USA Semi-Finals. 
• Talent:  Wojcik's squad was anchored by two senior stars:  Jerome Jordan and Ben Uzoh.  Jordan is a possible first round NBA draft pick and Uzoh, an accomplished scorer, should get paid to play ball somewhere.  Despite having good, veteran leaders, Tulsa's squad didn't have the depth to compete with the conferences other elite teams.

Arguments Against:

• Wojcik's squad did beat Big 12 Teams Colorado and Oklahoma State.  They also beat Ohio, the one-time Cinderella squad.  The Hurricane also made the the NIT tournament (but they lost to Kent State in the opening round.  Let's face it, this team was expected to, and had the talent, make the NCAA Tournament.
  

2.  Josh Pastner (Memphis)

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As a way to pay homage to a terrific C-USA season, I thought it would be a great way to wrap up the season by handing out some awards.  Today, we kick it off with the Don Haskins Award for the C-USA Coach of the Year. 

The Candidates (in no particular order)

1.  Donnie Jones (Marshall)

Arguments For:  In his third season as the head coach of the Thundering Herd, Jones' squad finally broke out of the C-USA cellar and improved from 8th in the league to 4th.  The Herd finished 24-10 and qualified for the CIT.  Jones also earns points for finding Hassan Whiteside.  Whiteside, a virtual unknown a year ago, is now a lock to be a top 10 player in the NBA Draft should he declare in the coming weeks.  If Jones finds a way to keep Whiteside in town another season, he might be the front-runner going into next season.

Arguments Against:  Just when the heard looked to be peaking late in the season, they lost two very winnable games.  The first, against Tulsa, came in the C-USA Quarterfinal Round after Marshall led much of the way.  Tulsa dominated the games final 10 minutes.  Then, after edging West Carolina in the CIT's opening round, Marshall fell to Appalachian State in the CIT Quarterfinals.  The final score of 80-72 doesn't tell the story.  Appalachian State dominated nearly the entire game and led by as many as 16 points with under 8 to play.

2.  Tony Barbee (UTEP)

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