ITHACA, N.Y. -- After lifting Cornell men's basketball to unprecedented heights, head coach Steve Donahue has been named one of four finalists for the Clair Bee Award.
The Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award honors a Division I men's basketball coach who through his actions on and off the court makes an outstanding contribution to the sport of college basketball. The criteria for this award include a coach's ability to inspire, motivate, coach, and educate his team to achieve its fullest potential awhile insisting upon and demonstrating outstanding character and academic success. Missouri's Mike Anderson was the 2009 recipient of the award.
Donahue has already been named the NABC District Coach of the Year, the midseason Hugh Durham Coach of the Year by collegeinsider.com as the top mid-major coach in the country, and a finalist for both the Hugh Durham Award and the Jim Phelan Award for national coach of the year. His leadership pushed Cornell to the first Sweet 16 appearance by an Ivy League tournament in the 64/65 team field and an Ivy League record 29 victories.
The 2009-10 team won the program's third straight Ivy League title and its first two NCAA wins. Cornell climbed as high as No. 22 nationally in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll, the program's first national ranking in 59 years, and set an Ivy record for 3-pointers in a season (326). The team also set single-season school records in points (2,545), field goals (913), assists (543) and blocked shots (127). The Big Red won the MSG Holiday Festival with a victory over St. John's, Cornell's first win over a Big East school since 1969 and captured a season-opening win at Alabama, the team's first win over a school from the Southeastern Conference since 1972. Cornell went 11-1 at home and won 18 games away from home, the most among any Division I school. The most attention was given to Cornell's noble effort in a 71-66 loss at No. 1 Kansas, a game the Big Red led with under a minute to play. The Big Red then shocked the world as a No. 12 seed, knocking out both fifth-seeded Temple and fourth-seeded Wisconsin by double figures to advance before falling to East No. 1 seed Kentucky.
Coach Clair F. Bee, the late Long Island University coach and Hall of Famer, compiled a .826 lifetime winning percentage, still the best in major-college coaching history. Known as the "Innovator," Clair Bee's influence on the game also extended to strategies (the 1-3-1 zone defense and the 3-second rule) and the development of sports camps (Camp All-America and Kutsher's Sports Academy). Coach Bee authored technical coaching books and conducted coaching clinics around the world.
Donahue joins Ben Jacobson of Northern Iowa, Dave Rose of Brigham Young and Mark Turgeon of Texas A&M as finalists for the award.
