BOSTON, Mass. – Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball head coach A.W. Hamilton has been named a finalist for the CollegeInsider.com Hugh Durham Award.
The Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year Award is presented annually to the top Division-I mid-major coach in college basketball.
Hamilton led EKU to a 22-7 (15-5 OVC) record in his third season in Richmond. The Colonels’ 15 Ohio Valley Conference wins were a program record. Their eight conference road wins also marked a program best.
The 22 victories are tied for the third most in EKU history. EKU’s .759 winning percentage is the Colonels’ best since the 1964-65 season (19-6 / .760)
Eastern opened the season with a 14-2 record, the program’s best start in 74 years.
The Colonels were ranked as high as No. 12 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid Major Top-25® this season.
Behind their high-octane offense and pressure defense, Hamilton’s Colonels led the OVC in scoring (81.8 points-per-game), steals-per-game (10.3), three-pointers-per-game (9.6), turnover margin (+6.3) and turnovers forced (19.1-per-game).
EKU ranked in the top-25 nationally in 10 categories this season, including scoring (13th), steals-per-game (1st), three-pointers-per-game (21st), total assists (5th / 461), turnover margin (2nd), and turnovers forced (2nd).
The recipient of the 2021 Hugh Durham Award will be announced on April 1.
The Hugh Durham Award is named after a coach who built winning programs at three different universities.
In eight seasons as the head coach at Jacksonville University, Durham became the Dolphins’ all-time winningest Division-I coach (106 wins), making him the only coach in NCAA history to be the winningest coach (pct. or wins) at three different Division-I schools.
He built national programs at Florida State, where he holds the record for best winning percentage with a 230- 95 (.708) record in 12 years, and Georgia, where he is the all-time winningest coach in the 99-year history of the Bulldog program, having won 297 games in 17 seasons.
