Kaspar A Finalist For National Award
3/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 24, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin head basketball coach Danny Kaspar has been named one of 10 finalists for the 2008 Hugh Durham mid-major coach of the year award. The award is given annually to the nation's top mid-major coach and will be presented to the winner during the NCAA Final Four in San Antonio.
Kaspar is one of eight finalists whose teams won or shared their respective regular-season conference championships. He guided the Lumberjacks to a 26-6 record that stands as the best campaign in the Division I era of SFA men's basketball. The 26 wins are fourth all-time in single-season victories for a Lumberjack team at any level of competition. Kaspar has already been rewarded for his efforts by being named the SLC Coach of the Year in postseason balloting.
SFA's 26 victories this season were an 11-win improvement over the team's 15-14 final record a year ago. Of the nine other coaches on the list of Hugh Durham finalists, only two enjoyed a one-year turnaround equal to or greater than that achievement. Keno Davis, the head coach at Drake, tied SFA's mark by going 28-5 this season, 11 wins better than last year's 17-15 campaign, and UMBC's Randy Monroe took his team from a 12-19 record in 2006-07 to a 24-9 mark this season, an improvement of 12 wins.
SFA's regular-season co-championship was the first SLC title for the program since joining the league prior to the 1987-88 season. Prior to this season, the Lumberjacks' last conference title of any sort was the Gulf Star Conference crown they won in 1987, their first season at the NCAA Division I level. That season, SFA earned an at-large bid to the National Invitation Tournament. The Lumberjacks also received an NIT bid this season, but were bounced by UMass in the opening round.
The Durham award is sponsored by CollegeInsider.com, a Web site that specializes in the coverage of mid-major basketball. The award -- which is bestowed by a 20-member voting panel -- was named for Durham in 2005, the same year Durham announced his retirement. Durham is one of just twelve coaches to have led two different programs to the NCAA Final Four (Florida State, 1972 & Georgia, 1983).
The previous winners of the award are Gregg Marshall (Winthrop) in 2007, Pat Flannery, (Bucknell) in 2006 and Bob Thomason (Pacific) in 2005.
-- SFA --
