THE JIM PHELAN AWARD

Nebraska head coach Tim Miles poses with the 2014 Jim Phelan award with presenter Dana Altman (Oregon) at the CollegeInsider.com Awards Banquet on April 4 in Dallas, site of the men's NCAA Basketball Championship.

April 4, 2014


MILES WINS 2014 JIM PHELAN AWARD

DALLAS, TX  -- Nebraska's Tim Miles is the recipient of the 2014 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year award. 

Miles becomes the first Nebraska men’s basketball coach to earn a national coach-of-the-year award. 

Miles turned around the fortunes of the Husker basketball program, as he guided Nebraska to a 19-13 record and the school’s first NCAA appearance since 1998. The Big Ten Coach of the Year by the conference coaches, Miles led the Huskers to an 11-7 Big Ten mark after the Huskers were picked 12th in the preseason poll. 

Nebraska’s fourth-place finish was its best finish since 1998, while the 11 conference wins were the program’s highest conference win total since the 1965-66 season. After a 1-5 start in conference action, Nebraska won 10 of its final 12 Big Ten games, including wins at No. 9 Michigan State and No. 9 Wisconsin, the first time since 1994 that NU knocked off a pair of top-10 teams in the same season.

He is the second Big Ten coach to receive the honor, joining Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan in 2008. The Jim Phelan Award is presented annually to the nation's top Division I coach.

The award is named in honor of Jim Phelan who coached 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 amassed 830 wins (overall record of 830-524) in over 1,300 games in all divisions. In those 49 years, 19 of his teams amassed 20 or more wins in a season.

2014 JIM PHELAN AWARD FINALISTS