NEW ORLEANS -- David West thought about leaving Xavier last year for the NBA draft. When he changed his mind and stayed, coach Thad Matta knew he needed to provide inspiration for his star player.

"I had to create a challenge,'' Matta said. "So I would whisper to him at practice, 'player of the year, player of the year.'''

On Friday, West won that award, sharing honors with Kentucky's Tubby Smith, who was voted The Associated Press coach of the year.

West received 30 votes from the 72-member national panel that selects the weekly AP Top 25. Texas sophomore guard T.J. Ford was second with 19 votes, followed by senior forward Josh Howard of Wake Forest (10).

Smith was a runaway winner with 58 votes, and Skip Prosser of Wake Forest was second with seven. Smith's 32-4 record this season included a 26-game winning streak that ended Sunday in a 83-69 loss to Marquette in the Midwest Regional final.

"This team played as a great group,'' he said. "They functioned as one. That's the ultimate in coaching, getting everybody on the same page. They did that as well as any team I've ever been around.''

West, also the leading vote-getter on the AP All-America team, is the first Xavier player to receive the Adolph Rupp Trophy. He led the Musketeers with 20.3 points, 12 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 1.3 steals a game this season.

West's most remarkable performance came against Dayton on Feb. 8, when he scored 47 points and had 18 rebounds, just missing a double-double in each half. By returning to college, he also was able to get his degree in communication arts.

"The No. 1 reason I came back was to get my degree,'' West said. "I'm grateful to my coach for pushing me.

"There's nothing like the college game. There is a love companionship you build there that's not anywhere else. I'll take that away more than anything else.''

Smith won the national championship with Kentucky in 1998, his first season in Lexington, following stints with Tulsa and Georgia. Smith is the second Kentucky coach to win the AP award, joining Eddie Sutton (1986).

"This award is something you receive because of other people,'' Smith said. "Our team really believed in the blue-collar defensive part of the game that you don't get a lot of credit for.''