Miami Basketball: Coach Larrañaga Named 2024 Gene Bartow Award Recipient
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – University of Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga has been named the 2024 Gene Bartow Award recipient, CollegeInsider.com announced Thursday afternoon.
The Gene Bartow Award is presented annually to a current or former coach for his contributions to the game. It measures a coach’s win-loss record and impact on his players, school, and community.
Larrañaga completed his 40th season as a head coach and 13th at Miami in 2023-24 and holds a 740-500 all-time head coaching record. He currently ranks first among active Division I head coaches in career games coached (1,240) and seventh among the same group in career victories (740).
The winningest coach in program history, Larrañaga has posted five 25-win seasons at UM—the only Miami coach to do so even once—and seven in his career. He also has recorded eight 20-win campaigns at Miami and coached the program to four of its five Sweet 16s, both of its Elite Eight trips, its first Final Four, both of its ACC regular season titles and its first ACC Tournament crown.
Larrañaga has been named the Associated Press, Naismith, USBWA, and Henry Iba National Coach of the Year, twice the ACC and USBWA District Coach of the Year, and the 2013 NABC District Coach of the Year.
In 2023, Larrañaga was inducted into the UM Sports Hall of Fame & Museum and named a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame first-time nominee.
Larrañaga came to Miami in April 2011 after a 14-year stint at George Mason. As the Patriots' head coach, he led George Mason to a 273-164 record, four CAA regular-season titles, three CAA tournament titles, nine postseason appearances, five NCAA Tournament bids, and a spot in the 2006 Final Four.
Before George Mason, Larrañaga was the head coach at Bowling Green for 11 seasons, guiding the Falcons to a 170-144 mark, a MAC regular season crown, and three NIT trips. Larrañaga also served as the head coach at American International.
Past Recipients:
2023: Jerry Wainwright, DePaul
2022: Roy Williams, North Carolina
2021: Anthony Stewart, UT Martin
2020: Tim Cluess, Iona
2019: Fran Dunphy, Temple
2018: Ron Hunter, Georgia State
2017: Pat Skerry, Towson
2016: Phil Martelli, Saint Joseph's
2015: Fran O'Hanlon, Lafayette
2014: Cliff Ellis, Coastal Carolina
2013: Bob Thomason, Pacific
More About the Gene Bartow Award
The award is named in honor of a legendary coach who compiled a 647-353 record and is one of only 17 coaches in Division I college basketball history to take multiple teams to the Final Four. In four seasons at Memphis State, Gene Bartow averaged over 20 wins per season and led the Tigers to the 1973 national title game. After a one-year stint at Illinois, Bartow was tasked with following the legendary Coach John Wooden at UCLA. In his first season, he guided the Bruins to the Final Four.
After just two seasons in Westwood, Bartow left to literally start a new program at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB). Seemingly unheard of today, Bartow built the program from scratch and built it into a postseason regular. He won four Sun Belt tournaments and three regular season titles during his 17 years at UAB, leading the program to a 350-193 record and seven consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. Coach Bartow passed away in 2012 at age 81, following a two-year battle with stomach cancer.
The recipient of the annual award is determined by a 10-member voting committee consisting of current and former head coaches and two senior staff members of collegeinsider.com.
Courtesy of Miami Athletics
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