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March 12, 2008

BOSTON (MA) -- The ten finalists for the 2008 Jim Phelan national coach of the year award were announced on Wednesday.

Nine finalists won or were regular season co-champions in their respective leagues, including Rick Barnes (Texas), John Calipari (Memphis), Keno Davis (Drake), Bob McKillop (Davidson), Sean Miller (Xavier), Bruce Pearl (Tennessee), Bo Ryan (Wisconsin), Brad Stevens (Butler) and John Thompson III (Georgetown).

Purdue’s Matt Painter was the lone finalist to not claim a regular season title, but in his third season at the helm, Painter guided a young team (starting three freshmen and two sophomores) to within one game of the Big Ten title, behind Wisconsin.

The Jim Phelan Award is given annually to the nation’s top coach, as voted on by the 20-member panel. The winner will be presented with the award at the Final Four in San Antonio.

Prior to 2003 the award was known simply as the CollegeInsider.com national coach of the year. It was renamed to honor longtime Mount St. Mary’s head coach Jim Phelan who retired following the 2002-03 season.

The previous winners of the award are Tony Bennett (Washington State) in 2007, Ben Howland (UCLA) in 2006, Tubby Smith (Kentucky) in 2005, Phil Martelli (St. Joseph’s) in 2004 and Mark Slonaker (Mercer) in 2003.

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