LOGAN, Utah ­ Utah State veteran men¹s basketball coach Stew Morrill is one of 10 finalists for the 2009 Henry Iba Award, which is annually given to the nation¹s coach of the year, it was announced on Monday by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).



Morrill has led Utah State to a 26-4 overall record this year and its second straight Western Athletic Conference regular season championship, including its first outright league title, as USU is currently 13-2 in the WAC. Utah State was also ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation for three straight weeks in February and climbed as high as 17th in the country in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll.



During Morrill¹s tenure, Utah State has won at least a share of five regular season league titles to go along with four tournament championships. Utah State also owns the nation¹s fourth-best winning percentage during the last 10 years (.763), and has posted 10 straight 23-win seasons and advanced to nine straight postseasons (5-NCAA, 4-NIT), both of which are school records.



Morrill, who is in his 11th year at Utah State and 23rd season as a collegiate head coach, has a 263-90 (.745) record with the Aggies and a 481-228 (.678) overall mark. Among active Division I coaches, Morrill ranks 22nd in the nation in wins and 27th in winning percentage. He is also one of just 33 active coaches with 400 career victories and one of just 13 active coaches to post 20 or more wins at least 14 times.



As a collegiate head coach, Morrill has been named conference coach of the year three times, winning the award in 1991 while at Montana, and in 2000 and 2002 when Utah State was a member of the Big West Conference.



The award, which is named for the legendary Oklahoma State coach, has been presented since 1959. Other finalists include Mike Anderson (Missouri), John Calipari (Memphis), Jeff Capel (Oklahoma), Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh), Mike Montgomery (California), Matt Painter (Purdue), Oliver Purnell (Clemson), Bill Self (Kansas), and Brad Stevens (Butler).



The presentation of this year¹s award will take place on Friday, April 3 at the USBWA¹s annual awards breakfast at the downtown Detroit Athletic Club in conjunction with the Men¹s Final Four. The Henry Iba Award is voted on by the entire membership of the association, which consists of nearly 800 journalists.

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