Ragland recognized as top minority Division I coach midway through season

 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Evansville head men’s basketball coach David Ragland has been recognized with Ben Jobe Mid-Season Honors.  At the completion of the season, the award is presented to the top minority head coach at the Division I level.  The 2024 award will be announced in April in Phoenix, Ariz., the site of the Men’s Basketball Division I NCAA National Championship.

While the Purple Aces season is less than two months in, it has already provided numerous highlights as the program continues to make enormous strides.  For the first time in five seasons, the Aces have won double digit games, earning win #10 of 2023 with an 82-51 victory over Tennessee Tech on Dec. 20.  With the win, UE clinched its first 10-win season since earning 11 victories in 2018-19; the 10th win also doubled the win total from the entirety of last season.

“This is completely a team award. A person is only as good as the people around them,” Ragland exclaimed.  “I am thankful to have a talented, hard-working, connected and available staff. We mentor a group of self-starters that show up and work extremely hard to be the best version of themselves daily.”

Evansville has won its first six home games for the first time since 2017; UE opened each season between 2015 and 2018 with wins in their opening six home contests.  Victories over Chattanooga and Southeast Missouri State in the Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Classic saw the Purple Aces improve to 6-0 on the season, marking the first time UE has won its first six games since the 1964-65 undefeated national championship team.

Ragland and his staff have directed their student-athletes to a total of six Missouri Valley Conference weekly awards this season.  Off the court, the team has performed just as well in the classroom.  In the fall of 2023, the men’s basketball program finished with a 3.22 GPA.

“Evansville basketball needed a culture change and David Ragland is delivering,” said Angela Lento, Vice President of College Insider.” Coach Ragland laid the foundation during a tough 2022-23 season and now it’s producing results. Picked to finish near the bottom of the Missouri Valley Conference, Ragland has Evansville positioned to contend in one of the toughest mid-major leagues in college basketball.”

The Ben Jobe Award is named in honor of one the most iconic coaches in the history of basketball at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He is best known as the head coach of the Southern University, a position he held for 12 seasons. He was also head coach at Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Talladega, Tuskegee and South Carolina State.

His record at Southern was 209-141 and included four NCAA Tournament appearances. He also coached the Jaguars to one NIT appearance, five SIAC championships, 11 SWAC titles and two NAIA Tournament Championships. Perhaps his most memorable moment as a coach was leading No. 15 seed Southern to a 93-78 win over No. 2 Georgia Tech in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament. It stands as one of the great upsets in the history of the event.

Coach Jobe passed away on March 10, 2017.

The recipient of the annual award is determined by a 10-member voting committee, which consists of current and former head coaches, as well as two senior staff members of collegeinsider.com.