BOSTON – Western Carolina head men's basketball coach Mark Prosser received 2020 Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award, CollegeInsider.com announced on Monday.
The award, which is named after Mark’s father, Skip, 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. ETSU's Steve Forbes was also a finalist for the award.
“Our student-athletes made this such a special season and we have so much to be excited about in the future of Catamount basketball,” Mark Prosser said. “Thank you so much to all of those that voted and to my good friends at College Insider. I am obviously so humbled to receive this award, mainly because of what it represents. I will continue to work to make my father proud and earn this award each day.”
In his second season at Western Carolina, Prosser guided the Catamounts to a 19-12 record as WCU finished with the second-most improved mark across NCAA Division I men’s basketball. The Catamounts reached the semifinals of the Ingles SoCon Baksetball Championship presented by General Shale for the first time since the 2015-16 season and had a pair of first-team All-Southern Conference and NABC All-District players in senior forward Carlos Dotson and redshirt junior guard Mason Faulkner.
Skip Prosser, who died suddenly in 2007 while the head coach at Wake Forest, posted a career record of 291-146 in 14 seasons as a head coach at Loyola, Xavier and Wake Forest.
2020 SKIP PROSSER AWARD FINALISTS
Casey Alexander, Belmont
Steve Alford, Nevada
Chris Beard, Texas Tech
Tony Bennett, Virginia
Jerrod Calhoun, Youngstown State
Tim Craft, Gardner-Webb
Rick Croy, California Baptist
Steve Forbes, ETSU
John Gallagher, Hartford
Greg Gard, Wisconsin
Joe Golding, Abilene Christian
Anthony Grant, Dayton
Chris Holtmann, Ohio State
James Jones, Yale
Greg Lansing, Indiana State
Frank Martin, South Carolina
Ritchie McKay, Liberty
Matt McMahon, Murray State
Joe Mihalich, Hofstra
Steve Pikiell, Rutgers
Mark Prosser, Western Carolina
Pat Skerry, Towson
Damon Stoudamire, Pacific
Andy Toole, Robert Morris
Russell Turner, UC Irvine