[Photo courtesy of Terrill Weil]

How could this possibly happen?

LSU has seemingly become the surprise team in college basketball this year, going from the sport’s purgatory to a legitimate national threat in a span of just one season. But, apparently the job Will Wade has done hasn’t been impressive enough. (LSU is 23-5 overall, 13-2 in SEC play and ranked No. 13 in AP Poll)

His name was inexcusibly left out of 15 candidates for Coach of the Year award, according to a release this afternoon from NCAA.com. There are lots of usual suspects on this list, which makes it seem even more like one big popularity contest. See the full list of 15 names below:

Coach of the Year Candidates:

Rick Barnes

Chris Beard

John Beilein

Tony Bennett

Mark Few

Tom Izzo

Mike Krzyzewski (Really?)

Chris Mack

Eric Musselman

Nate Oats

Matt Painter

Kelvin Sampson

Roy Williams

Steve Wojciechowski

Mike Young