Westover takes NBL Coach of the Year Award

Butler wins second consecutive Referee Honour

Melbourne Tigers head coach Al Westover has been named as the National Basketball League (NBL) Coach of the Year for the 2005/06 Philips Championship season after a stunning debut at the helm of the Melbourne franchise, while Queensland official Scott Butler has also been named as Referee of the Year.

Westover polled 67 votes to finish comfortably clear of Sydney Kings mentor Brian Goorjian (57 votes) in second place. Cairns coach Alan Black finished third with 26 votes.

Westover, who took over from Lindsay Gaze after serving as an assistant coach under the coaching legend for 13 years, inherited a Tigers team that had lost all members of its ‘Big Three’ – Andrew Gaze, Mark Bradtke and Lanard Copeland.

Despite inheriting a vastly different Tigers team, in his first campaign as an NBL head coach Westover still managed to lead Melbourne to an impressive 25-7 regular season, finishing second on the Philips Championship ladder.

The Tigers leader won three of the five Coach of the Month honours throughout 2005/06 the regular season.

The NBL Coach of the Year award takes into account regular season performances only, and is voted on by head coaches, assistant coaches (one per club) and team captains (one per club) on a 3-2-1 basis. Balloters are unable to vote for members of their own club.

In another NBL award announced today, Queensland referee Scott Butler has won back-to-back honours as the top Philips Championship official.

Although only in his early thirties, Butler has been refereeing competitive basketball for more than 15 years, including 13 seasons in the NBL. Butler was the first indigenous Australian to have ever refereed in the NBL and has officiated in the past eight NBL Finals series.

Originally from Rockhampton, Butler began his career in basketball as a player before moving through the ranks as a referee in divisional championship games. He progressed to Australia’s national development league, the Australian Basketball Association (ABA), and then finally on to the NBL.

The NBL Referee of the Year is the official who finished highest on the NBL Finals Panel based on voting by all NBL team coaches and NBL referee coaches, along with averaged scores from referee coach reports as submitted during the season.

Butler and Westover will receive their awards at the NBL’s annual Awards Dinner in Sydney on Friday 10 March.

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