MONTGOMERY – Alabama State University Interim Athletic Director Melvin Hines will present the CollegeInsider.com Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year Award Friday at the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four.
The Ben Jobe Award is presented annually to the top minority coach in Division I men’s basketball. Jobe, who among his coaching career stops was head coach at Alabama State for one season (1967-68), is an icon in HBCU basketball.
While best known as the head coach at Southern, Jobe was also head coach at Alabama A&M, Talladega, Tuskegee and South Carolina State, winning more than 500 games in his career. He also served as an assistant coach in college and professional basketball. Jobe recorded one of the greatest wins in SWAC Basketball history, leading Southern to a 93-78 win over Georgia Tech in the 1993 NCAA Tournament.
The finalists for this year’s Ben Jobe Award include Tommy Amaker (Harvard), Roman Banks (Southern), Johnny Dawkins (Stanford), Ron Hunter (Georgia State), James Jones (Yale), Mike Jones (Radford), Joe Jones (Boston University), Danny Manning (Tulsa), Cuonzo Martin (Tennessee), Rob Murphy (Eastern Michigan), LeVelle Moton (North Carolina Central), Kevin Ollie (Connecticut), Monte Ross (Delaware), Gary Waters (Cleveland State), and Willis Wilson (Texas A&M Corpus Christi).
