March 30, 2023

HOUSTON, TX -- Kennesaw State’s Amir Abdur-Rahim is the recipient of the 2023 Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year award, which is presented annually to the top Division I mid-major coach in college basketball.

Abdur-Rahim guided the program to an historic season. Picked to finish eighth in the in the preseason coach's poll, the Owls finished 15-3 in the ASUN and won both the regular-season and conference tournament championships.

Kennesaw State (26-9) earned its’ first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament setting a record as the fastest team to ever reach the tournament after a one-win season, taking just three seasons.

2022-23 also marked the first time that Kennesaw had ever posted a winning record as division I member.

“Amir Abur-Rahim has built a program that will compete for a long time,” said Angela Lento, Vice President of CollegeInsider.com. “Not only has he done it with a little old school flavor of discipline and high accountability, but he also has relevance with his players. They will tell you that their head coach is cool. Kennesaw State has gone from off the map to an attractive destination for players. What a season.”

This season the Owls completely shattered almost every season win and achievement mark in the Division I era (since 2005-06). The 26 wins were 12 over the previous school record for victories in a season.

KSU's 15 league wins were five more than the previous record of 10, while the Owls were tied for fourth in the nation with 10 road wins (10-6), four more than the 2016-17 team's road mark of 6-13.

In his fourth season, Amir Abdur-Rahim is also the first-ever coach at KSU to be named ASUN Coach of the Year.

The Hugh Durham award is named in honor of the former Florida State, Georgia and Jacksonville head coach. In eight seasons as 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.

Durham coached Florida State and Georgia to a combined 8 NCAA Tournament appearances, and 2 Final Fours. He is one of 17 coaches to take multiple teams to the Final Four.

Coaches of teams in the following conferences are eligible for the award: America East, ASUN, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Horizon, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, MEAC, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, SWAC, Summit, Sun Belt, WAC, West Coast.

The recipient of the annual award is determined by a 10-member voting committee, which consists of current and former head coaches, as well as two senior staff members of collegeinsider.com.

2022-23 HUGH DURHAM AWARD FINALISTS