Wednesday, March 30, 2011

LUBBOCK, Texas - - Belmont University men's basketball head coach Rick Byrd is a finalist for the 2011 Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award, Chip Hilton Sports announced Wednesday.

This is latest in a series of honors for Byrd, who directed the Bruins to a 30-5 record and the program's fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last six years.

Earlier this month, the 30-year veteran head coach was named Atlantic Sun Conference Coach of the Year by the league office and CollegeInsider.com, NABC District 3 Coach of the Year, and finalist for the 2011 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year award, the 2011 Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year award, and the 2011 Skip Prosser Man of the Year award.

The Clair Bee Coach of the Year award honors an NCAA 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.

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.

Butler head coach Brad Stevens and Wichita State head coach Mark Turgeon are the other finalists for the award.

To go along with being nominated for the Clair Bee Coach of the Year award, Byrd earned distinction from CollegeInsider.com as the 2011 Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year. ETSU's Mike Smith claimed Player of the Year honors from the college basketball website, while Belmont's Ian Clark picked up the Most Valuable Player distinction.

Smith finished the season in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament Semifinals on Saturday by averaging 17.9 PPG, 6.8 RPG and 1.9 APG. Clark, a sophomore guard, averaged 12.2 PPG for the Bruins, tops on the team.

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