The first two seasons at Chattanooga were a little rough for head coach Lamont Paris as he finished 10-23 in 2017-2018 and then 12-20 in 2018-2019. However, over the previous two seasons, he’s really turned things around winning 20 games in 2019-2020, and in a pandemic-adjusted season full of adversity he won another 18 games which was super impressive the way he had this team buying in and playing.
On Thursday it was announced via a press release from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga that coach Paris was a finalist for not one but two national coaching awards.
The first award he was named a finalist for is the Skip Prosser Man of the Year in which he’s one of 25 coaches to be named. The Skip Posser honors those coaches who achieve success on the basketball court as well as display moral integrity away from the basketball court as well.
The others on this list were: Casey Alexander (Belmont), Chris Beard (Texas Tech), Mike Boynton (Oklahoma State), Wayne Brent (Jackson State), John Dunne (Marist), Dana Ford (Missouri State), Leonard Hamilton (Florida State), Lew Hill (UTRGV), Chris Holtmann (Ohio State), Michael Huger (Bowling Green), Donte’ Jackson (Grambling), Mike Jones (Radford), Robert Jones (Norfolk State), Pat Kelsey (Winthrop), Tod Kowalczyk (Toledo), Greg Lansing (Indiana State), Shantay Legans (Eastern Washington), Carmen Maciariello (Siena), Bob Marlin (Louisiana), Ryan Odom (UMBC), Mark Schmidt (St. Bonaventure), Rob Senderoff (Kent State), Todd Simon (Southern Utah) & Byron Smith (Prairie View A&M).
The second award he’s a finalist for is the Ben Jobe Award which highlights the nation’s top minority head coach’s across the country.
The others on this list were: Mike Boynton (Oklahoma State), Wayne Brent (Jackson State), Kevin Broadus (Morgan State), Isaac Brown (Wichita State), Dana Ford (Missouri State), Dennis Gates (Cleveland State), Leonard Hamilton (Florida State), Lew Hill (UTRGV). Shaheen Holloway (Saint Peter’s), Juwan Howard (Michigan), Stan Johnson (Loyola Marymount), Terrence Johnson (Texas State), Mike Jones (Radford), Robert Jones (Norfolk State), Will Jones (North Carolina A&T), Rob Lanier (Georgia State), Shantay Legans (Eastern Washington), Mike Magpayo (UC Riverside), Bashir Mason (Wagner), Ritchie McKay (Liberty), Richie Riley (South Alabama), Kelvin Sampson (Houston), Shaka Smart (Texas), Byron Smith (Prairie View A&M).
These are both great honors for Lamont Paris and we wish him all the luck in bringing at least one of these awards home to Chattanooga.
For all of my inner sports thoughts and to keep up with everything I’m doing around the Chattanooga area follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.