ST. LOUIS - Jim Crews has been named National Coach of the Year by The Sporting News, the publication announced today.

Crews, who earlier today was named the Atlantic 10 Conference Coach of the Year, took over the program in August 2012 after it was announced that Rick Majerus would not coach this year. Crews has guided the Billikens to a 24-6 record and SLU's first outright regular season conference title since 1957. Saint Louis is the No. 1 seed in this week's A-10 tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Sporting News' national coach of the year award is one of six recognized in the official NCAA record book, the others being Basketball Times, The Associated Press, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Naismith Award. Former SLU coach Charlie Spoonhour is the only other Billiken head coach to win National Coach of the Year when he received the honor from the USBWA in 1994.

The complete article on can be found here on The Sporting News website: http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2013-03-12/sporting-news-coach-of-the-year-jim-crews-saint-louis-2012-13