March 1, 2006

FINALISTS FOR 2006 HUGH DURHAM AWARD ANNOUNCED

The fifteen finalists for the 2006 Hugh Durham mid-major coach of the year were announced on Wednesday. Included among the finalists are Bucknell’s Pat Flannery, who received the mid-season coaching honors, and Pacific’s Bob Thomason who was the first-ever recipient of the award last season.

The other thirteen finalists are Mike Adras (Northern Arizona), Ronnie Arrow (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi), Brad Brownell (UNC-Wilmington), Bobby Gonzalez (Manhattan), Jim Larranaga (George Mason), Jim Les (Bradley), Bob Marlin (Sam Houston State), Mike McConathy (Northwestern State), Tim Miles (North Dakota State), Jimmy Patsos (Loyola-MD), Steve Payne (Tennessee Tech), Buzz Peterson (Coastal Carolina) and Mark Turgeon (Wichita State).

Previously known as simply the CollegeInsider.com mid-major coach of the year, the award was renamed in 2005 to recognize Hugh Durham who built national programs at Florida State and Georgia where he is the school’s all-time winningest coach.

“It’s an honor that Joe (Dwyer) and Angela (Lento) have decided to do this,” said Durham. “There are a lot of more deserving coaches that they could have honored so this is very humbling. I have always considered myself as ‘coach’s coach so this is a very nice honor.”

The 20-member panel, which is chaired by Durham, is headlined by division I head coaches Mike Brey (Notre Dame), Barry Collier (Nebraska), Seth Greenberg (Virginia Tech), Dan Monson (Minnesota), Lute Olson (Arizona) and Kelvin Sampson. All final ballots will be cast by March 12 and the winner will be announced at the 2006 Final Four in Indianapolis, IN.

2006 HUGH DURHAM AWARD FINALISTS

>>> Bucknell's Pat Flannery earns mid-season honors          >>>Pacific's Bob Thomason first recipient of Durham award