Radford University men’s basketball head coach Mike Jones has been named a finalist for the 2019 Skip Prosser Man of the Year award, which is presented annually to those who not only achieve success on the basketball court, but who also display moral integrity off of it as well.
Jones led the Highlanders to their first Big South regular season title since the 2008-09 season with a record of 22-11 overall and 12-4 in conference play. Radford advanced to the Big South Championship Game for the second consecutive year as well.
Under his guidance, Ed Polite Jr. was named the 2018-19 Big South Defensive Player of the Year while joining Carlik Jones on the All-Big South First Team. Travis Fields Jr. earned Big South Honorable Mention honors and Caleb Tanner reprised his spot on the Big South All-Academic Team for the second straight year.
As everyone involved in the Radford men’s basketball program knows, Coach Jones is a man of high character and is someone who will always put his family, his friends and his faith before himself. He has urged the student-athletes, coaches and support staff involved in his program to be as active as possible in the community from his first day on campus eight years ago.
Skip Prosser embodied the concept of this award in his six years as head coach at Wake Forest before passing away suddenly in 2007. He posted a 126-68 record with the Demon Deacons and went 291-146 in 14 seasons in his career which included stops at Xavier and Loyola (Md.).
He won 100 games at an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) school quicker than all but two coaches in the 55-year history of the league. He coached NBA stars Chris Paul and Josh Howard, led the Demon Deacons to the first No. 1 national ranking in school history and earned ACC Coach of the Year honors in 2003.
The recipient of the 2019 Skip Prosser award will be announced on April 5 at the College Insider Awards Event in Minneapolis, the site of the 2019 Division I basketball championship. 2019 SKIP PROSSER AWARD FINALISTS
Casey Alexander, Lipscomb
Tommy Amaker, Harvard
Rick Byrd, Belmont
Johnny Dawkins, UCF
Fran Dunphy, Temple
Steve Forbes, ETSY
Joe Golding, Abilene Christian
Earl Grant, Charleston
Jason Hooten, Sam Houston State
Michael Huger, Bowling Green
Donte’ Jackson, Grambling
James Jones, Yale
Mike Jones, Radford
Robert Jones, Norfolk State
Jay Joyner, N.C. A&T
Danny Kaspar, Texas State
Rob Krimmel, Saint Francis (Pa.)
Matt McMahon, Murray State
Joe Mihalich, Hofstra
Nate Oats, Buffalo
Ryan Odom, UMBC
Matt Painer, Purdue
Doc Sadler, Southern Miss
Bruce Weber, Kansas State
Mike Young, Wofford
–RU Athletics