MSU's Rick Stansbury Named Finalist For Clair Bee Coach Of The Year Award
With the award set to be presented this week at the NCAA Final Four in San Antonio, Texas, this year’s other coaching finalists for the Clair Bee Award are Mark Few of Gonzaga, Stanford’s Trent Johnson, Oregon’s Ernie Kent, and Bob McKillop from Davidson College.
Instituted in 1997 as a way to honor outstanding excellence and character in college basketball, 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 involves actions that inspire, motivate, coach and educate their teams to achieve their fullest potential and demonstrate outstanding character. The selection committee is comprised of Dan Beebe, Jay Bilas, Dave Gavitt, Bob Hammel, Bob Knight, Pete Newell, Billy Packer, Dean Smith, and Dick Vitale.
Having just completed his 10th season at the Mississippi State basketball helm, Stansbury guided this year’s 23-11 Bulldogs to their fourth SEC Western Division championship in the last six seasons, as well as directing MSU to the team’s eighth postseason tournament appearance (5 NCAA & 3 NIT) over the past decade. Stansbury has now more than doubled the school’s all-time postseason tournament appearances from seven to 15 with this year’s fifth NCAA Tournament berth in the last seven seasons.
A native of
Previous Clair Bee Award winners have included notable coaches Tom Izzo, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Clem Haskins, Jim O’Brien, Lute Olson, Bob Knight, Jim Phelan, Tom Crean, Jim Larranaga, and Bo Ryan.