BOSTON—NJIT men's basketball coach Jim Engles is a finalist for two more national Coach of the Year awards sponsored by the website CollegeInsiders.com.
 
Engles is one of 16 finalists for the 2015 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year, presented annually to the top coach in Division I men's basketball. And he is also one of 16 finalists for the 2015 Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year award, given to the top Division I Mid-Major coach.
 
Earlier, CollegeInsider.com announced that Engles is one of 16 finalists for the 2015 Skip Prosser Man of the Year award, presented annually to those who not only achieve success on the basketball court but who also display moral integrity off of it as well.
 
This season, Engles' Highlanders earned unprecedented attention when they upset powerful Michigan, ranked #17 and #16 in the two national polls, 72-70, on December 6, 2014 in Ann Arbor. The media coverage in the aftermath of the stunning victory raised public awareness that extended beyond men's basketball to the entire athletics program and the institution as a whole.
 
The success continued with victories over St. Francis Brooklyn and Yale, which both went on to be regular season champions of their respective conferences and a win over Hampton, which won its conference tournament, earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament, where it won a First Four game. In all, NJIT won 18 regular season games, the most for the men's basketball program since it began Division I competition in 2006-07.
 
This regular season's success was rewarded with NJIT's first national Division I postseason tournament berth, a spot in the 2015 CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT).
 
The Highlanders are the last men's team still playing from all those in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, having defeated New Hampshire and then Cleveland State in the CIT's first two rounds. The win over Cleveland State was NJIT's 20th of 2014-15, marking the first time the Highlanders have scaled that height at the Division I level.
 
Even before the national attention in this history-making season, Engles has earned widespread respect for his work in building the Highlander program from the depths of a winless season the year before he took over to one that captured the 2012-13 regular season championship of the old Great West Conference and has averaged better than 15 wins per season the last four years.
 
Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year
The award is named in honor of Jim Phelan who coached his entire career at Mount Saint Mary's. He led the Mountaineers to the 1962 NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Championship. When he retired in 2003 after coaching for 49 years, he had amassed 830 wins (overall record of 830-524) in over 1,300 games in all divisions. In those 49 years, 19 of his teams reached 20 or more wins in a season.
 
The list of finalists is a Who's Who of successful Division I coaches, including John Calipari of undefeated and top-ranked Kentucky. Of the 16, Jim Engles is one of five coaches (with Mark Few of Gonzaga, Gregg Marshall of Wichita State, Bob McKillop of Davidson, and Archie Miller of Dayton) who do not coach a program in one of the six universally-recognized "power" conferences (Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, and Southeastern)  
 
The 16 finalists are:
Dana Altman (Oregon)
Tony Bennett (Virginia)
Mike Brey (Notre Dame)
John Calipari (Kentucky)
Jim Engles (NJIT)
Mark Few (Gonzaga)
Chris Holtmann (Butler)
Bob Huggins (West Virginia)
Larry Krystowiak (Utah)
Gregg Marshall (Wichita State)
Bob McKillop (Davidson)
Archie Miller (Dayton)
Sean Miller (Arizona)
Bo Ryan (Wisconsin)
Mark Turgeon (Maryland)
Jay Wright (Villanova).
 
Nebraska coach Tim Miles won the Phelan award in 2014.
 
Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year
Engles of NJIT is also one of 16 finalists for the 2015 Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year award, presented annually to the nation's top mid-major coach.
 
The award is named in honor of Hugh Durham who retired at the end of the 2004-05 season. Durham is one of just twelve coaches to have led two different programs to the NCAA Final Four (Florida State in 1972 and Georgia in 1983). He is the only coach among that group to have led both schools to their lone Final Four appearance.
 
The "mid-majors" as defined by the award sponsor, CollegeInsider.com, are the Division I programs from 22 conferences, plus Independent NJIT. The conferences not included as "mid-majors" are the six power conferences, the American ("football schools" from the split of the old Big East), Atlantic 10, and Conference USA.
 
The 16 finalists are:
 
Tommy Amaker (Harvard)
Will Brown (UAlbany)
Bobby Collins (Maryland Eastern Shore)
Keno Davis (Central Michigan)
Bryce Drew (Valparaiso)
Jim Engles (NJIT)
Bill Herrion (New Hampshire)
Bobby Hurley (Buffalo)
Ben Jacobson (Northern Iowa)
James Jones (Yale)
Brian Katz (Sacramento State)
Jim Les (UC Davis)
LeVelle Morton (North Carolina Central)
Steve Prohm (Murray State)
Heath Schroyer (UT-Martin)
Brad Underwood (Stephen F Austin).
 
Tony Jasick, then of IPFW, won the 2014 Durham award
 
 
Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award
Jim Engles was previously announced as a finalist for the Skip Prosser Award, presented annually to those who not only achieve success on the basketball court but who also display moral integrity off of it as well. This is his third time in the last five years as a finalist for the Prosser Award.
 
The award is named in memory of the late Skip Prosser, who died suddenly in 2007 while the head coach at Wake Forest.
 
Prosser posted a career record of 291-146 in 14 seasons as a head coach at Loyola (MD), Xavier and Wake Forest. Among his many accomplishments, Prosser holds the distinction of having reached the NCAA Tournament in his first season at each of his three head coaching stops. During his time at Wake, Prosser's teams averaged 21 wins per season while playing in the challenging Atlantic Coast Conference.
 
The 16 finalists are:
Dana Altman (Oregon)
Tony Bennett (Virginia)
Glenn Braica (St. Francis Brooklyn)
Mike Brey (Notre Dame)
Tim Cluess (Iona)
Keno Davis (Central Michigan)
Fran Dunphy (Temple)
Jim Engles (NJIT)
Steve Fisher (San Diego State)
Bill Herrion (New Hampshire)
Ben Jacobson (Northern Iowa)
James Jones (Yale)
Scott Nagy (South Dakota State)
Jeff Neubauer (Eastern Kentucky)
Dave Paulsen (Bucknell)
Tony Shaver (William & Mary).
 
Brian Wardle of Green Bay won the 2014 Prosser Award.
 
The winner of all three awards, along with other CollegeInsider.com-sponsored honors will be announced at the CollegeInsider.com Awards Banquet on April 3 in Indianapolis, site of the 2015 men's Division I basketball championship.