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SMART, HILL, JR. WIN FIRST GAINES AWARD


Salisbury, NC - April 29, 2011:  The National Sportscasters and Sportscasters Association & Hall of Fame announced today that Virginia Commonwealth University's Shaka Smart (Division One) and Shaw University's Cleo Hill, Jr. (Division Two) are the winners of the inaugural Clarence E. 'Big House' Gaines College Basketball Coach of the Year Awards.  The Awards will be presented at the NSSA's 52nd Annual Awards Banquet on Monday, May 14 at Catawba College's Goodman Gym.

Smart's first two seasons, at age 34, at VCU are hard to match.  After taking the Rams to the CBI Championship in 2009-10, Smart's 2010-11 VCU team won five NCAA Tournament games and made it all the way to the Final Four in Houston.  Smart served as an assistant coach at Florida, Clemson and Akron before taking over at VCU.

He is a magna cum laude graduate of Kenyon College, with a master's degree from California University (PA), and is married to the former Maya Payne.


Hill, Jr. was named the Head Men's Basketball Coach at Shaw University on April 10, 2008 and just finished the most successful of his three seasons there, winning the CIAA Tournament Championship and earning an NCAA Tournament berth - his third Tournament appearance as a head coach.  Before Shaw, Hill served as head coach at Cheyney University in Pennsylvania and was an assistant at Shaw and Nebraska.  The North Carolina Central University graduate and his wife, the former Regina Boone are the parents of one daughter, Sage Ellana.

The Award is named for Gaines (1923-2005), who was best known for the 47 seasons he spent as head basketball coach at Winston-Salem State University.  Over that time, his teams won 823 games, including the NCAA Division Two National Championship in 1967.  Gaines's historical ties to Salisbury run deep -- he won his 800th game at Livingstone College in 1990.                                                                  

Among the hundreds of players Gaines coached:  Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Earl 'The Pearl' Monroe; Cleo Hill, Sr., the first NBA first-round draft choice from an HBCU (and father of Cleo Hill, Jr.); sports media personality Stephen A. Smith.

Gaines also served as president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and was a member of several Halls of Fame.  He died in 2005 at the age of 81.



Posted by Dave Goren at Apr 29, 2011 2:22:46 PM
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