Westmont men’s basketball coach John Moore made program history on Thursday after the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics announced that the 27-year Warriors coach earned National Coach of the Year honors.
Moore is the first coach in program history to win the award, and becomes only the sixth ever Westmont head coach, across all sports, to receive an NAIA Coach of the Year Award.
“It’s not just me receiving this honor, it’s Jeff Azain, Rob Goodrow, Landon Boucher and our players,” Moore, who won his 550th career game earlier this season, said in a press release. “Those three guys have added so much to my life. What a blessing they’ve been, as have the players.
“This award comes with a lot of satisfaction and a daunting level of humility.”
Entering the season, Westmont was outside of the NAIA preseason coaches poll and was selected to finish in sixth place in the Golden State Athletic Conference.
The Warriors defied those odds and won the GSAC regular season title, its first since 2013, in a conference that qualified five teams for the NAIA National Tournament.
Additionally, Westmont started the season 14-0, not dropping a single contest in 2019.
The team finished with a 26-5 overall record and ranked seventh in the final NAIA Coaches’ Poll earning a top-eight seed in the NAIA Tournament that was eventually canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a team, Westmont finished the season ranked in the top-10 in the NAIA in four categories: third in 3-point shooting (41.0%), sixth in 3-point field goals made (333), sixth in assist/turnover ratio (1.36) and seventh in 3-pointers made per game (10.7).
Junior guard Abram Carrasco, who also won the conference’s Player of the Year award, was also named to the NAIA First Team.
Carrasco averaged 20.8 points per game during GSAC play to top the conference, while his 5.1 assists per game ranked second. For the season, Carrasco averaged 18.8 points per contest.
Senior forward Justin Bessard also earned recognition, earning an honorable mention spot on the All-NAIA Team. Bessard finished second on the team in scoring, averaging 14.7 points per game and led the team with 6.7 rebounds per contest.
email: jmercado@newspress.com
