BOSTON, Mass. – Head coach Lamont Paris was named a finalist for a pair of prestigious national coach of the year awards on Tuesday. He was named one of 20 finalists for 2023-24 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year award and one of 25 finalists for the 2023-24 Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year award.
The Jim Phelan Award is named in honor of a legendary bow-tied coach who spent his entire head coaching career at Mount Saint Mary’s University. He led the Mountaineers to 16 Division II NCAA tournaments. Five times they advanced to the Final Four and he led them to the DII National Championship in 1962. When he retired in 2003, after coaching for 49 years, he had amassed 830 wins (overall record of 830-524) in all divisions. In those 49 years, 19 of his teams amassed 20 or more wins in a season. In 2008 he was inducted into National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Phelan passed away on June 15, 2021 at the age of 92 at his home in Emmitsburg, MD.
The recipient of the annual award is determined by a 10-member voting committee, which consists of current and former head coaches, as well as two senior staff members of collegeinsider.com.
The Ben Jobe award is named in honor of one the most iconic coaches in the history of basketball at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He is best known as the head coach of Southern University, a position he held for 12 seasons. He was also head coach at Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Talladega, Tuskegee, and South Carolina State. His record at Southern was 209-141 and included four NCAA Tournament appearances. He also coached the Jaguars to one NIT appearance, five SIAC championships, 11 SWAC titles and two NAIA Tournament Championships
Coach Jobe passed away on March 10, 2017.
The recipient of the annual award is determined by a 10-member voting committee, which consists of current and former head coaches, as well as two senior staff members of collegeinsider.com.
Both winners will be announced at the Final Four in Phoenix the first week of April.
Paris, who was named the SEC’s Coach of the Year by the league’s coaches and the AP, has helped lead the team back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017 this season. He and has staff have helped engineer the greatest single-season turnaround in program history, improving the team’s win total by 15 games from last season to this season.
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