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
| Rod Barnes | CSU Bakersfield |
| John Becker | Vermont |
| John Brannen | Northern Kentucky |
| Rick Byrd | Belmont |
| Scott Cross | UT Arlington |
| Nathan Davis | Bucknell |
| Joe Dooley | FGCU |
| John Dunne | Saint Peter's |
| Steve Forbes | ETSU |
| Mitch Henderson | Princeton |
| Brian Jones | North Dakota |
| Kevin Keatts | UNCW |
| Jim Les | UC Davis |
| LeVelle Moton | North Carolina Central |
| Wes Miller | UNC Greensboro |
| Dan Muller | Illinois State |
| Ryan Odom | UMBC |
| Mark Slessinger | New Orleans |
| Craig Smith | South Dakota |
| Anthony Stewart | UT Martin |
2023: Amir Abdur-Rahim, Kennesaw State
2022: Robert Jones, Norfolk State
2021: Byron Smith, Prairie View A&M
2020: Steve Forbes, ETSU
2019: Darian DeVries, Drake
2018: Ryan Odom, UMBC
2017: Rod Barnes, CSU Bakersfield
2016: James Jones, Yale
2015: Brian Katz, Sacramento State
2014: Tony Jasick, IPFW
2013: Danny Kaspar, Stephen F. Austin
2012: Eddie Payne, USC Upstate
2011: Rick Byrd, Belmont
2010: Mike Young, Wofford
2009: Todd Bozeman, Morgan State
2008: Keno Davis, Drake
2007: Greg Marshall, Winthrop
2006: Pat Flannery, Bucknell
2005: Bob Thomason, Pacific
