BATON ROUGE – McNeese Cowboys basketball head coach Bill Armstrong and freshman guard Larry Johnson have been selected as the state's top award winners by the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches (LABC), the organization has announced.
 
Armstrong was named the Tommy Joe Eagles Award winner as the Louisiana Major College Coach of the Year after he guided the Cowboys to a 28-6 overall record and a third straight Southland Conference Tournament championship and NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
Johnson was named the Pete Maravich Memorial Award winner as the Louisiana Major College Player of the Year for his record-breaking freshman season.
 
The winners are selected annually by the men's college basketball coaches in Louisiana. The two will be presented their awards at the LABC's 52^nd Annual Awards Banquet which will be held on Saturday, May 2, at 6 p.m. at the Baton Rouge Marriott.
 
It's the second straight year McNeese has had its coach earn the award and third straight for a player. Last season Will Wade and Javohn Garcia were awarded the honors while in 2023-24, Shahada Wells was named player of the year.
 
In his first year as a head coach, Armstrong guided the Cowboys to the highest final NET ranking (No. 56) in the history of the Southland Conference and a record third-consecutive No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
 
McNeese received a vote in the final AP Top 25 poll for the second time in school history and was one of 15 teams in Division I basketball to record 28 or more wins.
 
The Cowboys' 26 regular season victories ere the second-most in school history while the 28 overall wins ranked as the second-most as a Division I school and third-most overall in the history of the program.
 
McNeese tied a school record with 19 conference wins which are also the second-most in league history.
 
Armstrong was named a finalist for the Joe B. Hall Award which is presented annually to the nation's top first-year head coach.
 
As a first-year Cowboy, Johnson led the team with 17.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. He scored 592 total points to blow past Joe Dumars' 44-year-old record of 527 points set in 1982. His point total ranked as the 12^th-most among freshman in Division I basketball in 2025-26.
 
Johnson's points are the 14^th-most overall in a season in school history and the most scored since Demond Mallet scored 660 and Tierre Brown with 623 in the 2000-01 season.
 
A first-team All-Southland Conference selection, second-team NABC All-District honoree, and a finalist for the Kyle Macy Award as the nation's top freshman in Division I basketball, Johnson led the team with 30 double-digit scoring games, 12 of those going for 20 points or more.
  
Johnson made his collegiate debut by scoring 30 points in 18 minutes in the season opener against Champion Christian and scored 20 or more in two of the next three games following the opener. He scored 18 against Santa Clara, a NCAA Tournament participant, netted 14 at No. 1 Michigan, and 15 points against Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament First Round.
 
McNeese LABC Award Recipients:
2025-26 – Bill Armstrong (Coach), Larry Johnson (Player)
2024-25 – Will Wade (Coach), Javohn Garcia (Player)
2023-24 – Shahada Wells (Player)
2011-12 – Dave Simmons (Coach)
2010-11 – Dave Simmons (Coach), Patrick Richard (Player)
2001-02 – Tic Price (Coach)
1984-85 – Joe Dumars (Player)