PEORIA, Ill. -- Having led Bradley to nine wins in its last 11 games and onto the NCAA Tournament “Bubble,” fourth-year Braves head coach Jim Les today was named one of 15 finalists for the Hugh Durham Award, the second-year honor for the nation's top mid-major coach.
Les has directed the Braves to an improved record in three of his four years as the head coach at Bradley. The team's 18-9 record so far this season marks the program's best win total since 2000-01 (19-12) and the .667 winning percentage is the best since the 1995-96 Braves finished 22-8 (.733).
The turning point in Bradley's 2005-06 season occurred Jan. 11 after the Braves dropped an 86-76 decision to Wichita State at Carver Arena. What turned out to be Bradley's only loss in 14 home games was the team's third straight overall and dropped the Braves to 8-6 and 2-4 in the Missouri Valley Conference race. In his postgame press conference, Les announced that only senior guard Tony Bennett was guaranteed to start the next game Jan. 14 versus Evansville and the other four starting assignments would be determined by the next two practices.
When Bradley took the floor versus Evansville, junior guard J.J. Tauai and junior forward Zach Andrews replaced Lawrence Wright and Marcellus Sommerville in the starting five. While Andrews had seen considerable action throughout the first half of the season, including five starts in place of the suspended Patrick O'Bryant, Tauai had played a total of nine minutes in the previous six games and he did not see any action in Bradley's first four Valley contests.
Andrews turned in 10 points and nine rebounds and Tauai responded with eight points, four rebounds, four assists and a steal as the Braves cruised to a 90-62 victory versus Evansville. While Sommerville has returned to the starting lineup and Wright has resumed his 2004-05 role as one of the top sixth men in the Valley, Les has kept the defensive-minded Tauai in the starting five. Bradley has won 10 of its last 13 games since the lineup shuffle, including five straight by an average of 16.2 points heading into this weekend's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
As the tournament's No. 5 seed, Bradley (18-9, 11-7) will play fourth-seeded Creighton (19-8, 12-6) in Friday's 2:30 p.m. quarterfinal at Savvis Center in St. Louis. The teams split the regular-season series by defending their home courts: Bradley won 86-69 Jan. 2 at Carver Arena, while Creighton took the jan. 18 rematch at Qwest Center OMAHA, 80-76.
The other 14 finalists for the Hugh Durham award are Mike Adras (Northern Arizona), Ronnie Arrow (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi), Brad Brownell (UNC-Wilmington), Pat Flannery (Bucknell), Bobby Gonzalez (Manhattan), Jim Larranaga (George Mason), 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) Bob Thomason (Pacific) and Mark Turgeon (Wichita State).
Previously known as 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.
Complete Biography: http://www.hughdurhamaward.com/biography.html
“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 a coach's coach, so this is a very nice honor.”
The 20-member panel, which is chaired by Durham, is headlined by NCAA 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.
Award Committee: http://www.hughdurhamaward.com/committee.html
The Hugh Durham Award was created by and is the property of CollegeInsider.com.
