March 30, 2011
LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas A&M head coach Mark Turgeon has been named one of three finalists for the prestigious Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award, to be presented by Chip Hilton Sports and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) at the Final Four in Houston on April 3.
Chip Hilton Sports began presenting the award in 1997 as a way to honor outstanding excellence and character in college basketball during the season.
The selection committee is composed of Dan Beebe, Jay Bilas, Dave Gavitt, Bob Hammel, Bob Knight, Pat Knight, Billy Packer, Dean Smith, and Dick Vitale.
The Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award honors a Division I men's basketball coach who through his actions on and off the court makes an outstanding contribution to the sport of college basketball. The criteria for this award include a coach's ability to inspire, motivate, coach, and educate his team to achieve its fullest potential awhile insisting upon and demonstrating outstanding character and academic success.
After the loss of the top three scorers from last season and the tragic death of incoming freshman Tobi Oyedeji in a May car accident, Turgeon guided a team that was picked no better than sixth in the rugged Big 12 to a 24-win season and a third-place finish in one of the country's toughest leagues. With the program's school-record sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament berth last month, Turgeon became the only coach in school history to guide the Aggies to four straight NCAA berths and is the only one to record three consecutive winning seasons in Big 12 play.
Coach Clair F. Bee, the late Long Island University coach and Hall of Famer, compiled a .826 lifetime winning percentage, still the best in major-college coaching history. Known as the "Innovator," Clair Bee's influence on the game also extended to strategies (the 1-3-1 zone defense and the 3-second rule) and the development of sports camps (Camp All-America and Kutsher's Sports Academy). Coach Bee authored technical coaching books and conducted coaching clinics around the world.
By the time he left coaching in the 1950s, Clair Bee had already begun writing the Chip Hilton Sports Series, which is considered the top sports fiction series ever written.
The list of coaching finalists for the Clair Bee Award are:
Rick Byrd, Belmont
Brad Stevens, Butler
Mark Turgeon, Texas A&M
Steve Donahue of Cornell University was the 2010 Coach Clair Bee Award winner.