Larrañaga, Kruger, Dunphy and Nolan to be honored with Joe Lapchick Character Award

NEW YORK (AP) — Jim Larrañaga, Lon Kruger, Fran Dunphy and Dianne Nolan are this year's recipients of the Joe Lapchick Character Award.

Larrañaga has spent the last 53 years coaching in college since he got his start as an assistant at Davidson College in 1971. Larrañaga had stops at American International and Bowling Green before coming to George Mason in 1997. It's at that school he burst onto the national scene as he guided the Patriots to the Final Four in 2006. The school upset top-seeded and defending champion Connecticut, rallying from a 12-point deficit in the first half. Their run ended with a loss to eventual champion Florida in the national semifinals.

From George Mason, Larrañaga went to Miami where he has coached from 2011 until now. He has won 740 games in his career.

Kruger built the reputation for fixing struggling programs as he had success wherever he coached. He became the first Division I coach to lead five different programs to the NCAA Tournament, doing so with Kansas State, Florida, Illinois, UNLV and Oklahoma.

He took four of them to the Sweet 16 and Florida and Oklahoma each reached the Final Four. He won 674 games in his career before retiring after the 2021 season.

“His track record of successfully rebuilding programs everywhere he coached is made even more impressive when considering how he did it,” Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said at the time of Kruger's retirement. “He won with integrity, humility, class and grace. He did it with superior leadership skills and a genuine kindness that included his constant encouragement of everyone around him.”

Dunphy is the all-time winningest coach in Philadelphia Big 5 history. He has won over 600 games in his 31 years as a head coach. He has coached at Penn, Temple and his alma mater La Salle.

At Penn, Dunphy shined coaching from 1989-2006 where he won 10 Ivy League titles and a record 48 straight conference games from 1992-96. His 1993-94 team went 25-3 and was ranked 24th in the nation. The Quakers defeated Nebraska in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

Dunphy’s career continued at Temple, when he took over for Naismith Hall of Famer John Chaney in 2006. The Owls advanced to the NCAA Tournament eight times in his 13 years, including a run of seven consecutive seasons from 2007-13.

He then came home to La Salle in 2022 as its coach for the past two seasons.

Nolan spent four decades in athletics, including leading Fairfield as its women's head coach for 28 years. She helped lead the Stags in their transition into a Division I program in 1981. She won a program-record 456 games at the school and led the Stags to four NCAA Tournament appearances, including one as an at-large team in 2001.

After coaching at Fairfield, she spent some time at Yale and finished out her coaching career in charge of Lafayette. In her 38 years of coaching, every senior player graduated with a degree.

This is the 16th year the award will be presented to those who have shown the character traits of Lapchick, who coached at St. John’s and with the New York Knicks. The quartet will be honored at a luncheon on Sept. 24 in New York.

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FILE - Then-Lafayette's coach Dianne Nolan reacts to her team in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Maryland Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011, in College Park, Md. Nolan, Jim Larranaga, Lon Kruger and Fran Dunphy are this year's recipients of the Joe Lapchick Character Award. (AP Photo/Gail Burton, File)

FILE - Then-Temple head coach Fran Dunphy speaks during a press conference in Philadelphia, Sunday, March 13, 2016. Dunphy, Jim Larranaga, Lon Kruger and Dianne Nolan are this year’s recipients of the Joe Lapchick Character Award. (Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, File)

FILE - Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger answers questions at a news conference for the NCAA Final Four college basketball tournament Thursday, March 31, 2016, in Houston. Kruger, Jim Larranaga, Fran Dunphy and Dianne Nolan are this year's recipients of the Joe Lapchick Character Award. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

FILE - Miami coach Jim Larranaga directs players during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against LIU Brooklyn in Coral Gables, Fla., Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. Larranaga, Lon Kruger, Fran Dunphy and Dianne Nolan are this year’s recipients of the Joe Lapchick Character Award. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

MIAMI (AP) — Edwin Díaz is open to a change to help ignite the slumping New York Mets — even if that means losing his job as closer.

Amid a terrible start to the season in which he's blown two consecutive save chances and three of his last four, the star reliever with a $102 million contract said he would be willing to accept a different role if the team thinks that's best.

“I’m open to everything,” Díaz said Saturday after squandering a four-run lead in the ninth inning against one of the league's worst hitting teams in the Miami Marlins.

Díaz has a 10.80 ERA over his last eight appearances after serving up four homers in 8 1/3 innings.

"I want to help my team to win," he said. "That’s my main thing. If they want to talk to me about that and I feel good about it, I agree on it. I just want to win games in any position they put me."

The struggling Mets (20-25) led the Marlins 9-5 when Díaz entered in the ninth.

He allowed an RBI single by Jazz Chisholm Jr. that drove in Vidal Bruján, who led off with a double. Bryan De La Cruz reached on an infield single with one out, and Josh Bell hammered Díaz’s first-pitch slider 428 feet to straightaway center field for a three-run shot that tied it.

That was it for Díaz, who wasn’t charged with a blown save because he came in with a four-run lead. But in his past three outings he's given up seven earned runs, seven hits, three walks and two homers over 2 1/3 innings.

New York lost 10-9 when Otto Lopez singled home the winning run off Jorge López in the 10th.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he's concerned about his closer's confidence. The 30-year-old Díaz, a two-time All-Star, thinks the reasons for his struggles this season are mostly mental.

“I won’t lie, my confidence I feel is down right now,” he said. "I’m making pitches. I’m throwing strikes. I’m trying to do my best to help the team to win. Right now I’m not in that capacity.

“Physically, I feel 100 percent right now. My body is not an issue. I think right now I’ve got to think about what I’m doing, trust myself a little bit more when I’m on the mound. I think I’m thinking too much.”

Mendoza indicated the team would consider moving Díaz out of the closer role to help him rebuild his confidence.

“It’s one of those things, I have to talk to the coaching staff and to Edwin,” Mendoza said, "whether we want to find him some softer spots to get him going. He’s still our closer and he will get through it.”

Saturday was Díaz’s first outing at Miami’s home ballpark since he tore the patellar tendon in his right knee there while celebrating a win for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic in March 2023.

The injury required surgery and cost him the entire 2023 season. He was baseball's most dominant closer in 2022, striking out 118 batters in 62 innings while saving 32 games and compiling a 1.31 ERA.

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Miami Marlins' Josh Bell, left, celebrates with Bryan De La Cruz (14) after Bell hit a home run scoring De La Cruz and Jazz Chisholm Jr., during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

New York Mets pitcher Edwin Díaz (39) reacts after giving up runs to the Philadelphia Phillies during the ninth inning of a baseball game, Monday, May 13, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)