The Sports Inquirer

Release from Georgia State Athletics:

Georgia State head coach Ron Hunter, who led the Panthers to the third round of the NCAA tournament and second-straight Sun Belt Conference title, has been named the winner of the fifth annual Clarence ‘Big House’ Gaines College Basketball Coach of the Year. The awards are presented annually to the top under-recognized college basketball coach at the NCAA Division I and II level as voted on by a select NSSA panel.

The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association membership consists of more than 1,100 leading sportscasters and sportswriters from throughout the country. More than 90 sports media legends have been enshrined in the organization’s Hall of Fame, which began in 1962, with the induction of Grantland Rice.

The Gaines Awards are named for legendary Winston-Salem State University head men’s basketball coach Clarence ‘Big House’ Gaines. During 47 seasons as WSSU’s head coach, Gaines’s teams won 828 games, including the 1967 NCAA Division II national championship (the first team from a historically black college or university to do so).

Hunter just completed his fourth season at the helm of Georgia State, leading the Panthers to their second-straight 25-win season. Georgia State is one of just 20 programs in the country to win 25 or more games in each of the last two years.

He has led the Panthers to an 87-47 record in his first four years, the most wins in any four-year stretch in program history. Georgia State has made three postseason appearances during that time, including the NCAA tournament this past March where the Panthers became ‘America’s Team’. Trailing No.3-seed Baylor by 12 with 2:53 to play in the second round, Georgia State rolled off 13-straight points, capped by an R.J. Hunter 3-pointer with 2.6 seconds remaining to send the program into the third round for just the second time in program history.

Hunter was also a finalist for the Ben Jobe Award as of the top coaches in the country for the second-straight year and will serve the next two seasons at the NABC President. Last year, Hunter was named both the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year and NABC Region 24 Coach of the Year.

Previous NCAA Division I winners of the Clarence ‘Big House’ Gaines College Basketball Coach of the Year include Shaka Smart, Anthony Evans, Tommy Amaker and Monte Ross.

The Gaines Awards will be presented as part of the 56^th annual NSSA Awards Banquet on June 8 in Salisbury, N.C.