Kelsey Named Finalist For Jim Phelan Coach Of The Year Award
Rock Hill, S.C. – Winthrop head coach Pat Kelsey has been named a 2020-21 Jim Phelan Award Finalist as the list was announced Wednesday.
Kelsey was named the 2021 Big South Conference Coach of the Year after guiding the Eagles to a second consecutive Big South title. Winthrop heads to the NCAA Tournament with a 23-1 record and will finish with the best winning percentage for a season in program history.
The Eagles put together a 16-0 start to the season and a 21-game winning streak overall, which are both program records. Kelsey moved into second all-time at Winthrop in career wins with 186 and fourth all-time in Big South history. After leading the team to a 17-1 league mark the Eagles set a program record for regular season league wins. Kelsey also moved into second all-time in Big South history with 110 league victories.
Winthrop has won three of the last five Big South Conference titles and have 20 or more wins for the fifth time in Kelsey’s nine seasons. Earlier in the week Kelsey was named a finalist for the 2021 Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award.
Eagles enter the NCAA Tournament ranked 3rd in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 and have spent the majority of the season in the Top 5. Winthrop has also received votes in the AP Top 25 and 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.
The recipient of the 2021 award will be announced on April 1.
JIM PHELAN AWARD FINALISTS
Casey Alexander, Belmont
Tony Bennett, Virginia
Mike Boynton, Oklahoma State
Isaac Brown, Wichita State
Scott Davenport, Bellarmine
Darian DeVries, Drake
Scott Drew, Baylor
Andy Enfield, USC
Mark Few, Gonzaga
Dennis Gates, Cleveland State
Leonard Hamilton, Florida State
Chris Holtmann, Ohio State
Juwan Howard, Michigan
Bob Huggins, West Virginia
Pat Kelsey, Winthrop
Eric Konkol, Louisiana Tech
Ritchie McKay, Liberty
Porter Moser, Loyola Chicago
Eric Mussleman, Arkansas
Nate Oats, Alabama
Kelvin Sampson, Houston
Todd Simon, Southern Utah
Byron Smith, Prairie View A&M
Preston Spradlin, Morehead State
Brad Underwood, Illinois
