Roos named MAC coach of year

BG boss calls honor a ‘team award’ after 27-3 season

BGSU coach Jennifer Roos.

BOWLING GREEN — The Mid-American Conference women’s basketball awards announced Tuesday had a northwest Ohio flavor.

Bowling Green State University coach Jennifer Roos was named MAC coach of the year, while Eastern Michigan’s Cha Sweeney, a Rogers High School product, was voted freshman of the year.

The awards were chosen in a vote of the league’s coaches and media.

Roos won the award after leading the Falcons to a 27-3 record as well as a 17-1 MAC mark that gave BG the regular-season title. The Falcons are ranked No. 25 in the most-recent Associated Press poll.

“I was very appreciative, but I am not so naïve to think that this isn’t a team award,” Roos said. “This program is so much bigger than one person — it always has been — so this is an award for our team, for our staff, for our alums and our fans.

“It will help with recruiting for sure, but it’s a team award.”

While the award is a first for Roos, it marked the tenth time a BG coach has won the award. Fran Voll was honored in 1987 and ’89; Jaci Clark earned the award in 1993; and Curt Miller, for whom Ross served as an associate coach, won the honor six times from 2005-09 and 2012.

Sweeney ranks fourth in the MAC in scoring this year at 16.8 points per game while standing 11th in both steals (1.7 steals) and 3-pointers made (1.7 per game) and ranking 13th in assists (2.8 assists).

Sweeney was named to the All-MAC second team.

Central Michigan’s Crystal Bradford was named MAC player of the year after averaging 20.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game.

On the men’s side, the MAC announced that Ball State’s Zavier Turner was named the league’s freshman of the year, Eastern Michigan’s Da’Shonte Riley was voted defensive player of the year, and Jake Kretzer of Akron was named the league’s top sixth man.

Contact John Wagner at: jwagner@theblade.com, 419-724-6481 or on Twitter @jwagnerblade.