THE HUGH DURHAM AWARD

CSU Bakersfield's Rod Barnes is the recipient of the 2017 Hugh Durham Mid-Major Coach of the Year award. Barnes led the Roadrunners to the most wins (25) in school history.

April 3, 2017

2017 HUGH DURHAM AWARD

PHOENIX, AZ -- CSU Bakersfield’s Rod Barnes is the recipient of the 2017 Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year award.

Barnes led the Roadrunners to their first-ever WAC regular season title and the most wins (25) in school history. He capped off the season by leading Bakersfield to the semifinals of the NIT, becoming the first-ever No. 8 seed to advance to the semis.

“Rod Barnes has done a phenomenal job of building CSU Bakersfield into a perennial contender in the WAC,” said CollegeInsider.com’s Angela Lento. “What he has done over the past two seasons is as good of two-year run as any mid-major program in college basketball.”

CSU Bakersfield posted a 12-2 mark in Western Athletic Conference play, their best-ever record in the WAC, and the ‘Runners were also 6-1 on the road.

The Hugh Durham Award is presented annually to the nation's top mid-major coach.  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 at Georgia where he is also the all-time winningest coach in the 99-year history of the Bulldog program, having won 297 games in 17 seasons.

2017 HUGH DURHAM AWARD FINALISTS