Full College Insider Release
BOSTON, Mass. – Oral Roberts men’s basketball head coach Paul Mills was named one of 25 finalists for the Hugh Durham Award, which is presented annually to the top NCAA Division I mid-major coach in college basketball.

Mills and the Golden Eagles are heading to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship for the first time since 2008 after a 75-72 win over North Dakota State in The first Summit League title game Tuesday. It will be ORU’s sixth NCAA appearance in program history.

ORU currently boasts the highest-scoring duo in all of Division I basketball as Max Abmas (606) and Kevin Obanor (454) have combined for 1,060 total points leading the team to a 16-10 record, the second-consecutive winning season since Coach Mills took over in 2017-18. The Golden Eagles make more 3-pointers than any other team in the nation connecting on 11.3 per game and rank second hitting 82.4 percent of free-throw attempts.

The award is named after a coach who built winning programs at three different universities. In eight seasons as the head coach at Jacksonville University, Durham became the Dolphins’ all-time winningest Division I coach (106 wins), making him the only coach in NCAA history to be the winningest coach (pct. or wins) at three different Division I schools.

He built national programs at Florida State where he holds the record for best winning percentage with a 230-95 (.708) record in 12 years. And at Georgia where he is also the all-time winningest coach in the 99-year history of the Bulldog program, having won 297 games in 17 seasons.

Coaches of teams in the following conferences are eligible for the award: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Horizon, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast.

The recipient of the 2021 award will be announced on April 1.

HUGH DURHAM AWARD FINALISTS
Casey Alexander / Belmont
Mike Byington / James Madison
Scott Davenport / Bellarmine
Ed DeChellis / Navy
Darian DeVries / Drake
Dennis Gates / Cleveland State
Joe Golding / Abilene Christian
Jared Grasso / Bryant
A.W. Hamilton / Eastern Kentucky
Terrence Johnson / Texas State
Robert Jones / Norfolk State
Pat Kelsey / Winthrop
Tod Kowalczyk / Toledo
Matt Langel / Colgate
Carmen Maciariello / Siena
Mike Magpayo / UC Riverside
Bashir Mason / Wagner
Ritchie McKay / Liberty
Porter Moser / Loyola Chicago
Wes Miller / UNCG
Paul Mills / Oral Roberts
Joe Pasternack / UCSB
Todd Simon / Southern Utah
Byron Smith / Prairie View A&M
Preston Spradlin / Morehead State

For the latest information on ORU Men’s Basketball, follow the Golden Eagles on Twitter and Instagram, or go to www.ORUAthletics.com. Fans can also receive updates on the team by downloading the ORU Athletics app from the App Store or Google Play Store

#GoldenStandard

COURTESY COLLEGE INSIDER AND ORAL ROBERTS ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS