CEDAR CITY, Utah - Southern Utah men's basketball head coach Todd Simon has been named a finalist for both the 2020-21 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award and the 2020-21 Hugh Durham Award.
The Hugh Durham Award, which is presented annually to the top Division I mid-major coach in college basketball, is named after a coach who built winning programs at three different universities.
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.
The Jim Phelan Award, which is presented annually to the nation's top Division I coach, is named in honor of a legendary bow-tied coach who spent his entire career at Mount Saint Mary's University.
He led the Mountaineers to the 1962 NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Championship. When he retired in 2003, after coaching for 49 years, he had amassed 830 wins (overall record of 830-524) in all divisions. In those 49 years, 19 of his teams amassed 20 or more wins in a season.
Simon just wrapped up his fifth year coaching at Southern Utah University, leading his Thunderbirds to their first-ever Big Sky Conference Regular Season Title and a 20-4 record this season. He was named Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year after directing SUU to the No. 1 overall seed in the Big Sky Conference Tournament and coached four players to the various Big Sky All-Conference teams.
The Thunderbirds finished the regular season with a .864 winning percentage, which was the best in the program's Division I history. They also finished their Big Sky Conference schedule with a .857 winning percentage, with the previous high for the program in the league being .450.
Southern Utah finished the regular season with the fourth-best scoring offense in the nation at 84.2 points per game. They were also eighth in the NCAA in scoring margin with a +14.7.
His teams have not only excelled on the court, but also in the classroom as well. Southern Utah finished the Fall semester with a 3.09 GPA, and had nine student-athletes finish with over 3.0 GPA.
The winners of both awards will be announced on April 1.
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