PRAIRIE VIEW – In a season full of accolades for Prairie View A&M basketball, head coach Byron Smith has another one to add to the mantle.

Smith received the Hugh Durham Award from CollegeInsider.com. The honor is awarded annually to the nation's top mid-major coach in Division I basketball.

Not long removed from a third-straight Southwestern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year award, Smith has established himself among the country's elite coaches. This past season, he led the Panthers to a third-straight SWAC regular-season title and an undefeated record in league play. The 2020-21 Panthers posted a 16-5 record and were ranked No. 25 in the final regular-season Mid-Major Top 25®.

"This season is just the latest example of Byron Smith's coaching excellence," said Angela Lento Vice President of CollegeInsider.com. "Byron Smith isn't a really good coach at a small school, he's just a really good coach. If he was at a Power 5 program, he would be a household name." 

The architect of the most successful run in program history, Smith was a finalist for four national awards and coached a pair of all-conference players in Cam Mack and Jawaun Daniels this past season while guiding the Panthers to the 2021 SWAC Tournament Championship game. Prairie View A&M ranks third nationally in steals per game and fifth nationally in turnovers forced per game.

Since assuming the reins of the program in January 2016, Smith has compiled a 92-75 overall record, including a sparkling 72-24 record in conference play. With four consecutive winning seasons, PVAMU has asserted itself as a rising power in basketball ranks. The Panthers have also authored a 35-game winning streak at home, which is the nation's third-longest active streak of its kind.
 

About the Award:
The award is named after Hugh Durham, 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 as well as Georgia, where he is 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. 

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