While there are many different categories of awards presented by the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, some years the Committee finds that there are people deserving of recognition who do not necessarily fit into one specific category. For that reason, the Committee presents the
Jimmy Collins Awards to outstanding individuals and organizations.
Collins was a longtime New Orleans sportswriter who is credited with creating the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards and forming the awards committee in 1958.
Blankenship impressed the committee by accomplishing something that may be unprecedented in Louisiana, and perhaps overall college basketball, history – he directed both the men’s and women’s basketball teams at LSU Shreveport to national tournament victories on the same day.
Blankenship, who took over the direction of the men’s basketball team in 2012, had directed the Pilots to the NAIA National Tournament in each of his first 11 seasons and was aiming for another strong year in 2023-24. However, director of athletics Lucas Morgan decided to increase Blankenship’s level of difficulty.
When the LSU Shreveport women’s basketball coach was forced to resign in late October due to a family issue, Morgan was in a challenging position – where can you find a capable basketball coach in a matter of days? Then the director of athletics had an interesting, outside-the-box idea: how about the ultra-successful coach already working down the hall?
“Kyle’s the type of person who is willing to take on any challenge you put in front of him, but I wasn’t sure how he was going to respond to this,” Morgan told Yahoo Sports. “We were asking him to run two practices, to recruit two teams, to coach twice in the same night. It was double the amount of work.”
The Pilot men’s basketball team continued its impressive performance – it posted a 28-5 record and advanced to the NAIA Sweet 16 before falling to top-seeded Langston. And the women’s team notched a 30-3 record, including a school-record 28-game winning streak, and advanced to the Second Round of the NAIA Tournament. While both teams had five all-conference selections, each had only one first-team honoree as they used full teamwork to reach their levels of success.
“I had a lot of people tell me I was crazy when I did this, and I would say they’re probably right,” Blankenship told Yahoo Sports. “But any challenge that is put in front of me, I want to always try to do my best, have fun while I’m doing it and never quit. That’s the mindset I’ve tried to take.”
Photo Courtesy of LSU Shreveport Athletics.
In the opening round of the NAIA Men’s Basketball Tournament on March 15, LSU-S posted a 95-89 overtime win over Kansas Wesleyan in Salina, Kansas. Meanwhile, the women topped Tabor, 69-59, for their first-ever victory in the NAIA National Tournament. Luckily, both teams were assigned to Salina; the women played at 2 p.m. and the men played at 8 p.m.
“Once we finished celebrating the women’s first-ever national tournament win, I hopped in the car with my assistant coach to go pick up the men’s pregame meal and delivered it back to the hotel,” Blankenship said. “We then had to return to the gym to scout the game before us at 6 p.m. It was easily the most chaotic day of the season, but definitely the most rewarding of my 12-year career following the men’s first-round victory later that night!”
Despite the tremendous success on the court with both teams, Morgan is in the midst of his search for a full-time women’s coach. “I’m not sure that recruiting two teams, coaching two teams, practicing two teams, monitoring the academics of two teams, is something that we would be able to sustain long term,” he said.
